School Choice is Expanding Across U.S.All of us can choose from among dozens of brands of automobiles. But when it comes to something more precious, parents generally have little choice in their children's public schools. The educational bureaucracy makes the decision. The outlook is improving, as we're reminded during National School Choice Week, which runs through Saturday, Feb. 2. Programs continue advancing that give parents and students alternatives to remaining in underperforming or unsafe schools. School choice first was advanced in 1955 by one of our favorite economists, the late Milton Friedman, a Nobel laureate who long was associated with the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. His work now is carried forward by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice in Indianapolis. It its purest form, school choice involves providing a "voucher" or "tax credit scholarship" to parents, who then can "spend" it at any school, public or private. "It puts the focus of public education on those who matter most: the students," Jeff Reed told us; he's the communications director at the foundation.
The first school choice experiments began two decades ago, prompted by the often-horrible situation for inner-city children in Milwaukee and Cleveland. The results have been impressive. Of 11 studies that used a random assignment of students, Reed said, 10 showed improvements; one study showed no effect. None found a decline in achievement. He added that traditional public schools also improved their performance as they were forced to do better to avoid losing students to private schools. Friedman's school choice idea remains a beacon of reform. REPRINTED FROM THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM 
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