Waiting for the ‘Tipping Point’

Why school choice is proving to be so hard.

By Paul T. Hill

The old arguments in support of school choice are still right: Choice can make parents full partners in education and drive innovation. Without it, public education is frozen in place by laws, contracts, and adult entitlements.

But arguing for public school choice in the form of charter schools or voucher programs is not the same thing as claiming that any program offering choice will deliver all of the concept’s potential benefits.

While charter schools are getting mixed results, as are the few public voucher programs now in existence, choice is spreading. But it is doing so slowly. Districts, too, have been slow to improve their own schools in response to the competition from schools of choice. So it is right to ask why everything once envisioned for the choice movement...