With President Donald Trump’s recent appointment of Betsy DeVoss as United States Secretary of Education, the growing issue of School Choice has taken a central place in Education Policy over the last several months. Policymakers, interest groups, teachers’ unions, school administrators, and parents use the term School Choice to refer to the decisions parents have the freedom to make in regards to a variety of schooling options and financial programs for their K-12 children, including public schools, private schools, charter schools, home schools, Montessori schools, online education, school vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, education savings accounts, and many others. A Gallup Poll taken in April 2017 demonstrated that the issue of whether school choice should be implemented in the United States and, if so, which programs should be carried out is one of very few bipartisan concerns in the nation, demonstrating its importance regardless of one’s political ideology.
Proponents of School Choice primarily value the creation of competition between schools to attract students and parents. Supporters point out that this competition pressures schools into implementing innovative programs to encourage student achievement and respond to parental demands,
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They also argue that charter schools, for instance, can prosper financially in an under-regulated environment, and are not held accountable to appropriate public funding properly. In addition, those opposed to voucher programs commonly refer to the Establishment Clause of the US. Constitution as support for the idea that the federal government may not directly aid religiously affiliated entities, such as parochial schools. Opponents also raise other questions, such as whether school choice contributes to racial and socioeconomic