Big #SchoolChoice news out of Alabama, Texas, and Minnesota!
This week, Alabama became the 14th state to pass Education Savings Accounts (ESAs).
Talk about providing the resources and the freedom for parents of kids stuck in failing, unsafe, or ideologically divisive schools to find a better education!
Straight down I-35, Texas gave us another incredible test of the popularity of #SchoolChoice in the primaries. As you may know, in the last Texas legislative session, it was Republicans who prevented the passage of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). Governor Abbott and pro-#SchoolChoice forces responded by launching primary challenges against each Republican who voted “No.”
The results were decisive with the anti-#SchoolChoice coalition soundly trounced despite all manner of desperation by the teachers’ unions.
Parents around the country have lost trust in the teachers’ unions and a monolithic education system. They don’t want their kids trapped in schools that don’t work for them.
And that goes for Minnesota parents, too! According to February 2024 polling by EdChoice.org, 76% of Minnesota parents want ESAs and the freedom to find the right schools for their kids.
It’s a winning, bipartisan issue and those who take the lead will have the broad support of parents and students who will forever be grateful for the freedom to choose.
The good news is Minnesota Sen. Jason Rarick is taking the lead by sponsoring our legislation to bring ESAs to Minnesota! Sen. Rarick is joined with Sens. Coleman, Howe, Johnson, and Drazkowski as co-sponsors of SF 3435. We couldn’t be more grateful!
Minnesota desperately needs #SchoolChoice and together we’re moving it forward.
In 2023, 50% of Minnesota’s 870,000+ public-school students were not reading at grade level. That’s over 400,000 students. Worse, when evaluating the reading proficiency of Minnesota’s 10th-grade students, the Minnesota Department of Education found 48% were not proficient at reading – again, nearly half of Minnesota’s sophomores are not proficient at reading!
Please see the report card from the Department of Education below:
We don’t expect change in Minnesota to be easy. Unfortunately, the current education system has been built by and for the teachers’ unions who historically have a firm grip on everything that happens in it through their political power.
Despite the challenge, we can no longer ignore the failure of the current education system nor the responsibility of the unions for creating it. As is typical, rather than acknowledge the failures, the unions are simply demanding even more spending on education.
Our research shows that many Minnesota school districts are spending $20,000 or more per student each year. If money could solve the problem, it would be fixed.
No, the system is thoroughly broken and the people who broke it are still in charge.
We need a new approach that empowers parents, students, and teachers through #SchoolChoice and Education Savings Accounts. We cannot keep rewarding failure when 50% of students are not reading at grade level.
If Alabama can progress to a new model of education, surely Minnesota can as well.
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Image Credit: Flickr-Lighttruth, CC BY-NC 2.0
