School Choice Is Key to Ensuring Parents' Rights | Opinion

The time for school choice in all 50 states is here.

Arizona, Florida, Iowa, and West Virginia have already enacted legislation that lets parents choose their children's school and ensures that state funding follows the student. Legislators and parents in Tennessee and Texas are working to do the same. As encouraging as that is, it also means there are 44 states lagging behind on the defining educational reform movement of our time. It's time for all parents to speak up.

The reason we need school choice is simple: when it comes to their fundamental purpose—educating our children—many public schools deserve a failing grade.

Last year, a FOX investigation found 23 schools in Baltimore that did not have a single student test proficient in math. Another 20 schools had only one or two students testing at grade level. A full 93 percent of Baltimore public school students—over 70,000 pupils—performed below grade level in math, and 84 percent—more than 65,000—performed below grade level in reading.

It's tempting to think this is just a Baltimore problem, but parents are learning otherwise. In data reviewed by Wirepoints, 30 schools in Illinois did not have a single student reading at grade level. For math, it was even worse, with 53 schools failing to raise a single student to grade level.

Reviewing these disturbing findings, economist Stephen Moore rightly describes the situation as "a case of widespread educational child abuse." Moore notes that, rather than impose consequences, Illinois state officials described some of these failing schools as "commendable." If schools fail to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, what on Earth are they being commended for?

Since there's clearly no effective oversight of our taxpayer-funded schools, it's up to parents to pay attention and demand answers. Abysmal test scores show what our schools are not teaching, but parents also need to monitor what the schools are teaching—which in many cases is even more shocking.

My organization, Moms for America, has developed resources to help parents identify problematic trends in education. Part of the reason students don't have time to learn basic math and reading—aside from the fact that the teachers' unions needlessly kept schools shut down in 2020—is that classroom time is spent pushing ideological curricula that have nothing to do with legitimate instruction.

Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is the most pervasive trend jeopardizing our students' success. Administrators use surveys to gauge students' attitudes and behaviors and then manipulate classroom instruction to emphasize feelings and create openings for revisionist propaganda. It sounds too wild to be true, but whistleblowers are speaking up and parents see it happening before their very eyes.

Another concerning trend is the use of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in curricula. Ironically claiming to be a solution to racism, CRT pushes racism on students and encourages them to see all subjects and personal interactions through the lens of race.

In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis took bold action to ban CRT, a move which other states should follow. But that is not enough. In addition to CRT, radical activists in school administration and teachers' unions are peddling left-wing messages about gender, as well as anti-religious, anti-American, and anti-family bias in the classroom. With young people already suffering through a mental health crisis, the last thing we need is a program that encourages our students to hate themselves and hate their country.

We can no longer rely on public schools to teach basic competency in math and reading. Progressive activism in school administration and the classroom has replaced conventional instruction with left-wing propaganda. This represents a grave threat to our children.

What's the solution? Let parents choose where their children go to school.

Contrary to the anti-choice spin promoted by self-serving teachers' unions, school choice will not cost taxpayers more; in fact, it could easily end up saving money. The same Maryland and Illinois schools recently shown to be failing spend about $16,000 and $18,000 per student, respectively, while the average private school tuition in Maryland is around $14,000, and in Illinois it's just $9,000.

Activist organizations have held students hostage for too long. It's time to cut them off. Our children are the nation's most precious resource. What they learn today determines the country we will have tomorrow. Moms are one of the most powerful influences on the formation of our young patriots. It is time that schools support the work of mothers and partner with them to educate virtuous citizens who can think and reason for themselves.

Moms for America is working with state lawmakers and governors to enact school choice legislation, and our legislative team is also active on Capitol Hill. With an army of moms, we can speak to elected officials across America with a powerful voice.

Our children's education is too important an issue for us to sit on the sidelines. The time has come to demand equal access to quality education for every American child.

Kimberly Fletcher is the founder, president, and CEO of Moms For America, a national, non-profit 501c3 educational corporation rooted in the principles of liberty and virtue our nation was founded on, and focused on promoting these principles, values, and virtues in the home and family, particularly through the women and mothers of America.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.