Listen to the episode below. A full transcript follows.

Michael Horn: Governor, Ryan, welcome to The Future of Education. Thanks for being here.

Governor Bush: Good to be at a Primer school.

Michael Horn: Yes, it is indeed. And the history, Governor, of publicly funded widespread universal school choice, educational choice in Florida really gets its start from your time as Governor. You have laws in 1999, 2001, I鈥檇 say 2003, with funding following the student to Florida Virtual. You have all these milestones. As you look back now, 2026, at the state of educational choice here, how would you describe where we are in Florida? Where in the movement, if you will, are we right now?

Governor Bush: We鈥檙e not completely there, but we certainly got to scale for sure. When we started, I think we had 80 kids in that, parents went to a private school with public money. And that鈥檚 expanded over time. One voucher program, another corporate tax scholar program. Today, over 50% of parents in Florida choose where their kids go to school. It could be we have universal public school choice, we have universal Education Savings Accounts. And so we鈥檙e, we鈥檙e building what I think is the right way to educate our children by empowering parents. It鈥檚 really exciting.

Michael Horn: And as you noted, we鈥檙e sitting in a , literally one of hundreds of microschools, low-cost private schools throughout the state right now. I鈥檓 curious, did you envision this sort of education entrepreneurship that we鈥檝e seen when you were Governor?

Governor Bush: I didn鈥檛 envision anything. I hoped that it would happen. My personal belief is that parents deserve to have this power to choose where their kids go to school and if they do that, that there will be schools like Primer, more tools for homeschool kids. Charter schools will emerge. The religious schools that were in decline in terms of providing education to their students would see growth, all of that. I was hopeful it would happen, and I鈥檓 proud that Florida has been a leader. But it鈥檚 also exciting to see it happen across the country.

Michael Horn: Ryan, you鈥檝e been a direct beneficiary of really the foresight of these policies that I think it鈥檚 fair to say. And you also, as I understand it, have quite an intergenerational connection as well when it comes to microschools, educational choice in Florida. What鈥檚 your family connection to the story that鈥檚 unfolded here that started under Governor Bush?

Ryan Delk: Yeah, it鈥檚 interesting. There鈥檚 a very personal connection, but then there鈥檚 also this sort of interesting macro connection. And the personal connection is my mom was a public school teacher, so she was very pro-public schools. We were zoned for. She took me to kindergarten orientation at the school that we were zoned for. And she quickly realized that it was a failing school. It wasn鈥檛 going to meet, you know, her standards for us. We were living with, in my grandparents house at the time in a low income area outside Orlando.

We didn鈥檛 have, you know, any choice to move. We couldn鈥檛 afford private school. And so she just took matters into her own hands. And so she ended up starting one of the first kinds of homeschool microschools in Florida. She got me and my siblings and then about a dozen other kids together and she just willed this thing into existence. And what鈥檚 interesting, and this is where it kind of connects to the macro. So I, this incredible education that frankly was like, you know, significantly higher quality than, you know, what I would have, you know, deserved, you know, relative to our socioeconomic status or what you would have expected. And what鈥檚 interesting is that she started that right before Governor Bush鈥檚 first term.

Impact of Governor Bush鈥檚 Policies

Ryan Delk: And so, we sort of experienced, you know, what I think of as the before times and it was very contrarian. We got a lot of questions. I think she was frankly judged by a lot of people, you know, for, for doing what she did. And then when Governor Bush took office, he, you know, sort of decided to, to go to the mat for, you know, a lot of these issues and make it a key priority. And so we, we actually sort of experienced the shift where it was, it was you know, not only just normalized but sort of like celebrated and empowered. And so I now feel this frankly like a real weight and responsibility as sort of the first generation to benefit from these policies. And then now, three decades later, you know, getting to spend my life building schools like this that open up those same opportunities to students with the same, you know, structure and work that, that not only, you know, Governor鈥檚 administration, but many, many folks since then have carried the torch to unlock these opportunities for kids. And so the weight of that is not lost on me.

And I think it鈥檚 quite powerful that we鈥檙e sort of seeing the second generation now. The folks that had the, that got these opportunities from, from sort of generation one of these programs now being able to reinvest in the next generation is, is quite exciting.

Michael Horn: Well, and it鈥檚 fascinating, right, that narrative of ostracism almost to norm, to expectation, right, for families. And as I understand it, you all at Primer are thinking a lot about the policy and regulatory landscape and some of the critical questions when it comes to things like microschools and the like, zoning, fire safety codes, things of that nature. I know there have been some big developments over the past couple years in Florida around some of those zoning questions. Can you just update us both on what鈥檚 happened, but also why it matters so much?

Ryan Delk: Yeah, so we are, we鈥檙e one of 鈥� there鈥檚 a lot of people doing great work on this ExcelinEd. There鈥檚 a ton of great, great orgs. And so we are one of many people that are working on this issue. There is one, you know, very narrow and perhaps, I think, very underrated, but maybe, you know, kind of unexciting part of the regulatory landscape that I happen to care a lot about, and that is the regulations around new school supply. So there鈥檚 an enormous amount of energy that鈥檚 gone into what I would articulate as the demand side, unlocking funding for parents, making sure that the funding follows the student. And that鈥檚, you know, as we discussed, many decades in the making. But now that that exists, the reality is that a lot of the regulations around starting new schools, and I learned this firsthand, like the amount of nights and weekends that I spent early on at Primer staring at zoning maps of cities and counties is far more than I ever anticipated.

And the reason for that is that there鈥檚 all these regulations that sort of, you know, take as a sort of starting assumption that every school is still a, you know, 60,000 square foot, $30 million build to serve 2,000 students. And so in that framework where every single school looks like that, of course there鈥檚 traffic studies and school bus parking and very intense building regulations, that all makes sense in that context. But now in this world where you have a great educator who wants to open up a school in a church or a community center or, you know, a facility like this, those regulations are quite arduous. And they鈥檙e arduous, you know, we鈥檙e a fairly sophisticated operation. They鈥檙e arduous at times for us, but, but in many ways they鈥檙e impossible for like a sort of seasoned educator that wants to go serve their community. And so what I care is the sort of common sense, right sizing of these regulations specifically for small schools.

So for the large schools, a lot of what鈥檚 in place is, I think, serving that need really well. It makes a lot of sense. But for small schools, we want to make it much easier for those schools to open up in existing facilities to serve their community. And the reason that I care a lot about this is that I鈥檝e seen firsthand stories of dozens, maybe hundreds of educators who want to start not just primaries, but all sorts of types of schools who reach out to us and say, hey, I got stuck. I have, you know, I鈥檓 trying to get this building permit, I鈥檓 trying to get this code, I can鈥檛 figure out zoning, or I鈥檝e got to do a nine month variance process. All these things that are sort of just, just incredibly arduous for the task at hand. And so we spend a lot of time and a lot of energy from a legislative perspective making sure that we can knock down those barriers.

Michael Horn: Governor, I want to broaden the view now beyond Florida and think about these sorts of questions, supply questions, others, in the context of this sort of nationwide movement right now we鈥檙e seeing toward educational choice. And I鈥檓 curious both of your takes on a couple of items that we can run down. First, it strikes me just thinking about what you said on the zoning side of it. As an onlooker, there鈥檚 a pretty robust demand right now for different options that meet different kids needs. But the supply side that you just described, so you鈥檙e taking some significant steps there, but getting a sustainable supply side that鈥檚 affordable, low cost, private schools like Primer. What鈥檚 holding up the supply side? What else should we be thinking about in terms of that? Or maybe my perspective is wrong on this, but I would love to think about how do we really encourage this robust supply side.

Governor Bush: Ten years ago, the big fight was how do we get charter schools to be able to access, as public schools to access public capital, what we call in Florida pico dollars. And that was a struggle because look, the public schools feel threatened by all these choices. I mean my, my hope and dream is that there鈥檒l be a superintendent in Miami-Dade County or some other place that says every child that goes to school in my county is my responsibility, and I鈥檓 going to create a menu of options for parents, and I鈥檓 going to try to do everything I can to make sure that every child succeeds.

Michael Horn: So really helping them navigate to the right option.

Funding challenges for private schools

Governor Bush: Yeah, but if you had that attitude, you wouldn鈥檛 be, you know, making it impossible for a private school to get a permit or you wouldn鈥檛 have, you wouldn鈥檛 restrict private capital to come in. I mean, there鈥檚 really one institutional source of money for private school capitalists, the Drexel Fund, which is for Catholic schools. The charters have, you know, three or four fundraising operations for their capital growth needs. So that鈥檚 part of it is you need to have more private philanthropy come in. But ultimately this should be a state responsibility as well. I mean, do we, do we do this in Medicaid? Do we have government run doctors and government run nurses and government run clinics? Some, but it鈥檚 not the dominant way that someone that is qualified for Medicaid gets access to healthcare. We should have the same mindset for education. And I think you would have an acceleration of really interesting options both in terms of hybrid learning, you know, where a parent could choose to take care of many much of their healthcare, their education needs, or they could go to Primer and take some of the money maybe and go to do something that accelerates the learning.

This is where we鈥檙e moving and there鈥檚 still, it鈥檚 work in progress. But I鈥檓 really excited that Ryan and others like him, education entrepreneurs, are advancing this at a pace that鈥檚 pretty exciting.

Michael Horn: Ryan, what鈥檚 your take on this in terms of the sustainable supply? What鈥檚 it going to take to get supply to meet the demand that we鈥檙e seeing?

Ryan Delk: I think it鈥檚 all about cost. And we have this core value that acts as the constraint. And so we start from the place of Primer needs to be accessible to every family, regardless of income. We鈥檝e never turned away a student. And so some of the regulatory work that we鈥檝e discussed that to me is all connected to this idea of how do you get these schools open as efficiently as possible and then how do you get the cost to educate down where parents can attend these schools for ideally nothing. Ideally it鈥檚 completely free. They just use their ESA and they can just attend the school. But if there is some out of pocket, it鈥檚 50 bucks a month or 75 bucks a month.

And to me that is the key thing to unlock because then these scholarships are accessible or they鈥檙e unlocking opportunities for the families that need it most. The families that can afford a $15, $20,000 a year school, they don鈥檛 necessarily need these options as desperately as the families that are trapped in schools that are not serving their needs. And so that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e obsessed with. And I think there鈥檚 a kind of growing coalition that鈥檚 really focused on this low cost, high quality private school.

Michael Horn: Second thing I鈥檓 curious about, and we鈥檒l go to my inner wonk here, your inner wonk here, which is there鈥檚 been a big proliferation of Education Savings Accounts across the country right now. But there are subtleties in the policies in different states, and I鈥檒l just name a few of them because I鈥檓 curious what you all think about the impact of these differences. I鈥檓 thinking of the increasing number of states with accreditation requirements for example. Florida, you know, does not. You have some states that require external assessments of students in these low cost private schools. Some don鈥檛. Some states are tuition first ESAs and some are not. Some allow you to roll over dollars even for post secondary education.

So it really creates a savings and value ethos as opposed to others that are not. We in the media often call these all ESA states. Are we sort of masking over these subtleties? Do they matter, the variants? Are we lumping them sort of at expense of understanding what we鈥檙e really trying to create here? What鈥檚 your perspective on these differences?

Importance of State Flexibility

Governor Bush: My perspective is that鈥檚 all good. You know, if we had one size fits all, it鈥檇 probably be driven out of Washington and that would be. It wouldn鈥檛 happen. It would be an unmitigated disaster. So having states have the ability to implement as best they can a version of ESA and then modify it as they go along because someone from another state鈥檚 done something interesting like the Education Savings Account where you can reinvest it if you didn鈥檛 spend the whole amount. I mean that鈥檚 an interesting idea that may catch on for all the states that don鈥檛 have it now. To me, I think the baseline should be there鈥檚 a financial responsibility that if you鈥檙e taking taxpayers money directly or indirectly, you should be a good steward of that money. And there鈥檚 health and safety issues that are really important, particularly for young kids. Beyond that, let鈥檚 let a thousand flowers bloom and come up with the best approach.

The important thing is that we get to scale so that parents demand that no one tries to take it away. That鈥檚 the first mission and that鈥檚 happening. You know, if 50% of all kids in Florida parents choose, it鈥檚 going to be hard to imagine if someone wants to come and try to re regulate this and have it just be traditional schools being the only option. I don鈥檛 think that鈥檚 going to happen. Texas, you know, having a hundred thousand kids to start with and over time that growing is going to create another kind of scalable moment for that state. And so if you try to impose a bunch of rules on top of that, it鈥檚 not going to grow at the speed that I think will make it more effective.

Michael Horn: Ryan, what鈥檚 your take on the variance?

Ryan Delk: I mean, I鈥檓 a personal big fan of federalism so I just have a personal bias towards that. But I think what I鈥檓 encouraged by is the movement is coalescing around the right things. And so when you look at the programs that have launched recently, they have measures to make sure that the providers are delivering for students, they鈥檙e fiscally responsible, the dollars are flowing to low-income, working-class, middle-class families that need them. And so I鈥檓 really encouraged by the way, I think the last four programs that have launched at scale have all had versions of that in place. And I think if that鈥檚 taking the best practices from other states, implementing them into new programs, and if that continues then I鈥檓 quite optimistic.

Improving financial accountability systems

Governor Bush: You know, one of the things that could be done in a federal system, and it鈥檚 happening right now, and ExcelinEd is working on this is to create a coding project because right now the technology isn鈥檛 the same as it would be for a health savings account, for example, or think about your MasterCard or Visa. All this stuff is done, you know, we have no clue how it, at least I don鈥檛 have any clue how it works, but it works really well. Whereas if you think about all the coding that could happen to make sure that there鈥檚 financial accountability and also that parents aren鈥檛 out of pocket making these commitments that they don鈥檛 have the resources to do because of some bureaucratic snafu at the state level. So there are things that could be done, but those are more like private sector enhancements that will make this more effective.

Michael Horn: And I guess it also helps the supply side so that those dollars actually reach the operators. Right. Ryan, you鈥檙e not sitting there waiting for it. Let me ask, Governor Bush, if we zoom out, what do you see as the big flashpoints to come in educational choice? It could be Florida, but also nationwide.

Governor Bush: Well, you can see it happen if there is, I鈥檒l use Florida as an example. We have several hundred thousand, we have half of all the ESA kids are in our state. So you could have 1/10 of 1% of those transactions take place in a way that is inappropriate as they鈥檙e trying to sort out. You know, you鈥檙e dealing with scale, it鈥檚 hard to do all that. And so then you know, Senator Schmidlap will want to say well we need to like regulate this and regulate that. That鈥檚 the biggest danger is Washington getting involved or states trying to re regulate to deal with the tiny fraction of problems that impacts 99.9% of families. So regulate in terms of testing. We should trust parents to make these decisions and then give them the tools to be informed consumers and give them an array of choices.

And we need to protect that. That to me, you can see this happening at the state level. New governor comes in, they feel compelled to do something. And I鈥檓 very fearful of Washington getting involved. I鈥檓 excited about the tax credit program, but I haven鈥檛 seen the rules. And, you know, I鈥檓 paranoid about this stuff because I鈥檝e seen there鈥檚 too many examples of Washington with good intentions getting things wrong.

Michael Horn: Ryan, I鈥檇 love to hear your reflections on the big flashpoints of the moment and both to comment around what the Governor just named, because you鈥檙e operating not just in Florida. So what are you seeing as those big questions or big issues that the field鈥檚 going to really have to think about or protect against in the years to come?

Focus on quality in education

Ryan Delk: I mean, I think a lot of people care a lot about education in this country, and that鈥檚 a good thing overall. And so there鈥檚, you know, people with strong perspectives on both sides. A lot is changing. The world is changing really quickly. And my view on this is there will continue to be flashpoints, there鈥檚 going to continue to be contentious policy debates and accreditation and testing and all these things. But I really believe, I have deep conviction that if we stay focused on delivering high-quality academic outcomes in a way that鈥檚 accessible for every family, that is the winning strategy. And if we can stay laser focused on that and all the inputs to that, from, you know, great rigorous academics to unlocking the regulatory environment for new schools to open, to empowering educators to serve their communities, if we stay just maniacally focused on that, I think everything else falls into place. Because when you unlock those opportunities for those kids, and it鈥檚 not just that family that becomes a huge advocate for this movement, it鈥檚 their city council member, their city commissioner, all these people start to see, wow, this is transforming this community.

And when you do that, I think that is the winning focus. And so I hope that that can be the thing that we all rally around. And obviously these flashpoints will continue to happen. But that鈥檚 what we鈥檙e focused on. We鈥檙e going to stay maniacally focused on that. And I think a lot of other folks will too.

Michael Horn: I was curious about the assessment piece of this.

It seems this is much more of a trust the parents accountability model model that you鈥檇 sign up for as opposed to with traditional public schools. Let鈥檚 test. Is that accurate?

Governor Bush: It鈥檚 accurate, but I think parents 鈥� most states do have norm reference tests as a measurement of how kids are doing. And if you want parents to be empowered to make these choices, they need to be informed about the caliber of the education. So I personally support the idea of norm reference tests, and that鈥檚 the norm across the country. But I鈥檓 respectful of places like Arizona that, you know, want to have a little more libertarian approach. It seems to work well there, and maybe it鈥檚 part of their culture, a little bit more of their culture than it is in another place in the country.

Michael Horn: Final word. Governor, as you reflect over a quarter century of publicly funded choice in Florida, and we sit in a school that probably could not have existed, serving the students, you know, that could not have been in such an environment before if it weren鈥檛 for these policies that you started to put in place. What are your final reflections?

Governor Bush: Look, when you get a chance to serve, it鈥檚 really cool over the long haul to see successive legislatures and Governors embrace this idea and build on it. And I鈥檓 proud that our political leadership over the last 25 years has accelerated this. And my hope is that it stays the course. Look, big ideas take a long time. You could be patient. You got to be stubborn. In some cases you can. You just, you gotta, you know, stick with it.

Parental involvement in education

Governor Bush: And in Florida, that鈥檚 the case, I don鈥檛 think. And I would say there are external issues as well. If we didn鈥檛 have COVID, which allowed parents to really realize that maybe their kids weren鈥檛 getting the education that they thought they were getting because they became the teachers of their kids and they saw the slop that many of them sadly had to deal with, that accelerated it even more. So I鈥檓 excited about this. I think it鈥檚 really important that we stay the course because the world we鈥檙e moving toward at warp speed is exciting, but it鈥檚 also really scary. And you want to make sure that kids can read at the end of third grade in a capable way so that they can learn in a dramatic way, and that parents know what鈥檚 best for their kids to make the right choices. And there鈥檚 an array of them. That鈥檚 the mission, and it seems to be doing quite well right now.

Michael Horn: Governor, Ryan, thank you so much for joining me in this conversation.

In 2019, the Arizona mother of two sent her older daughter off to kindergarten in Scottsdale, Ariz.鈥檚 Cave Creek Unified School District.

But after Mac Ban saw the district鈥檚 tepid response to the pandemic, she started home-schooling her at taxpayer expense. Arizona鈥檚 publicly funded now underwrites her kids鈥� education.聽

Similar scholarship accounts could soon do the same for millions of other students nationwide as a new raft of proposed laws makes its way through state legislative sessions this month, buoyed by parent anger at district policies. 

Mac Ban balked at homeschooling at first, envisioning herself isolated and sitting at home with her kids for most of the week. But the more she learned, the more attractive it seemed. After she disenrolled her daughter from a district school and applied for the ESA, the child began learning lessons from the 鈥渃lassical Christian鈥� . Her total bill comes to about $200 per month. 

School choice advocates see hope in stories like these. As the omicron variant continues to wreak havoc on schools鈥� normal procedures and parents lose patience with lockdowns, quarantines, and mask and vaccine mandates 鈥� as well as curricula that some view as politically charged 鈥� advocates hope that more parents like Mac Ban will insist that taxpayers help pay for their kids鈥� educations outside of neighborhood public schools. 

School choice has always relied on a fragile left-right coalition, mostly between Black and Latino activists and centrist-to-conservative legislators pushing to rebalance the power structure of public schooling. That coalition has weakened over the past few years. But scholars such as Paul Peterson, who directs Harvard University鈥檚 Program on Education Policy and Governance, now see an opening. 

“A couple of years ago, there was a feeling in the country that opposition to school choice was on the rise,鈥� he told attendees at a at Harvard. 鈥淪ome of the coalition and backing for school choice was eroding and the movement, perhaps, was breaking down. But in light of the pandemic, there is a contrary feeling emerging in the country today: We are finding the passage of new school choice legislation in states across the country, new tax credit programs, new education savings accounts programs, expanded charter school programs. There’s a lot of interest in opening up to parents opportunities that haven’t existed in the past.鈥澛�

While culture war issues like critical race theory could upend that coalition once again, the mood at Harvard was one of optimism. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who now chairs the nonprofit reform group , pointed to recent legislative successes in Missouri, West Virginia and Kentucky. 鈥淭he legislatures are on fire right now for these kinds of things, so it’s all good. And I don’t see it going away. I really don’t.鈥� 

Choice advocates got an unexpected boost in November when Republican Glenn Youngkin won the governor鈥檚 race in increasingly purple Virginia, beating establishment Democrat Terry McAuliffe by . Youngkin pulled off the surprisingly solid victory in part by tapping into parents鈥� anger about public education, giving a voice to thousands who felt schools haven鈥檛 risen to the challenge of basic education during the pandemic. McAuliffe, a former advisor to President Bill Clinton, didn鈥檛 help his case during the campaign when, discussing over anti-racist education, said, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.鈥� 

Derrell Bradford, president of the education advocacy group , told attendees at the Harvard conference that McAuliffe鈥檚 mistake was displaying 鈥渏ust a complete and utter tone-deafness鈥� to parents鈥� experiences. 鈥淎fter a year-and-a-half, almost two years, of incredibly disrupted institutional experience that was visited on almost every family in the country, you probably shouldn’t say something like 鈥楶arents don’t matter.鈥� You can make it a school choice lesson, but there’s a lesson there about treating people poorly who’ve been treated poorly.鈥�

Republican strategists such as Christopher Rufo, who last year the raucous campaign to fight critical race theory, now talks of families鈥�  public schools that don鈥檛 sync with their beliefs. 

As the omicron variant dominates and infection rates , vaccine requirements for even the youngest children could anger parents further. And while many parents have fought for a return to , others are clamoring for remote options amid the recent surge: Recent polls find that about six in 10 parents of school-aged children favor virtual learning.

For the past year or more, parents have been voting with their feet: Public schools have shed millions of students, recent data show. In New York City, the nation鈥檚 largest system, 50,000 fewer students attended last fall than two years earlier, The New York Times 鈥� a 4.5 percent decline. 

Chicago Public Schools in October had lost about 10,000 students over the past school year, a 3 percent drop. Overall enrollment was students over two years. 

Across California, the nation鈥檚 most populous state, educators are awaiting updated figures, but estimated enrollment has dropped since 2018-19 by about nearly 184,000 students, or about 3 percent, CalMatters earlier this month.

A Tyton Partners issued in July found that since the beginning of the pandemic, an estimated 17.5 percent of children have switched schools at least once, 75 percent more than in average years. And nearly 80 percent of parents said they鈥檇 be 鈥渕ore active in shaping their child鈥檚 education鈥� in the future. 

At the Harvard conference, Bradford said school closures during the pandemic in 2020 suddenly brought the system鈥檚 failures into 鈥渉igh and broad relief鈥� for 60 million families 鈥� especially families of color and low-income families.

鈥淚f you are a Black kid in New York City, you were the least important person in America for the last two years,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd if you were a teacher in that system, you were the most important person in America during that time. And we made it very clear and explicit that that was the case. We have a system that is built upon that foundation, with those priorities. And it couldn’t get the majority of kids reading proficiently before the pandemic.鈥�

Randi Weingarten, head of the American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation鈥檚 largest teachers unions, said she actually expected 鈥渁 far higher percentage of families鈥� to opt out of their neighborhood schools, given fears about COVID and 鈥渢he volatile debates about safety protocols鈥� over the past two years. 

That a mass exodus didn鈥檛 happen, she added, 鈥渟ays to me that families are valuing public schools and what a good public school is for: academics, of course, but [also] as centers of communities, where kids eat healthy meals, access health care, and find social and emotional supports.鈥�

For her part, Weingarten has pushed to 鈥渉ave a different conversation鈥� about school choice, one focused on what has worked in private settings during the pandemic 鈥� but that also treats public schools less as a commodity that families can buy than as a public good.

鈥淲e’re experiencing a crisis in our democracy in which our public schools have a really important role,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hy not try to figure out how to make this year, regardless of where we are, a year of recovery and revival for our kids and not have a year of winners and losers?鈥�

As 2022 progresses, that seems unlikely.

EdChoice鈥檚 director of national research, Michael McShane, that since the beginning of 2021, more than a dozen states have created or expanded school choice programs. The group now says enacted seven new choice programs and expanded 21 existing ones. Robert Enlow, the group鈥檚 CEO, called 2021 鈥渨ithout a doubt鈥� for school choice since EdChoice has been tracking it. 

In an interview, McShane said that until recently he was expecting upcoming state legislative sessions in 2022 to be 鈥減retty quiet鈥� on topics like school choice. 鈥淚 think now that there is going to be a lot going on.鈥� 

Part of the reason may be the billions in COVID relief funds that school districts have received to keep them afloat, he said: 鈥淚n politics, things happen easier when there’s a bunch of money sloshing around.鈥�

On the one hand, the money softens the blow of all of the student departures 鈥� but it also makes it harder for school districts to complain to state lawmakers about the effects of often small choice programs that draw students out of the public system. 鈥淭his program that鈥檚 spending $25 million across the entire state, how can you possibly have a problem with it when you just got $2 billion from the feds?鈥� he said.

As legislative sessions begin in several states, choice is on lawmakers鈥� minds. In Kentucky last week, lawmakers an expanded school choice bill that would give families tuition assistance for private education.

In Missouri, lawmakers last year approved a tax credit to fund a private-school tuition education savings account, and lawmakers are now pushing to the program before it even takes effect. They鈥檝e proposed lifting a $25 million funding cap and dropping requirements that families who participate live in a city with at least 30,000 residents.

Youngkin, just a few days into his term in Virginia, backed a GOP-led effort in the narrowly divided state legislature that would the number of charter schools from fewer than 10 to about 200. The bill would allow the state Board of Education to create regional charter school 鈥渄ivisions鈥� with the power to approve new charter schools, despite opposition from localities. 

Higher graduation rates 鈥� or winning the culture war?

Concerns about parents鈥� role in their kids鈥� education played a 鈥渉uge role鈥� in Youngkin鈥檚 Virginia election victory, McShane said, but more broadly, parents 鈥渨ant to be back to normal now. And the fact that things aren’t back to normal is leading to a lot of discontent.鈥�

Whether from rolling quarantines, mask or vaccine mandates, he said, 鈥淚 think all of this stuff is just going to continue to roil schools, and you’re going to have people that just want out 鈥� they don’t want their school鈥檚 vaccine policy to be set by 51 percent of their neighbors. They’re going to want to have the option to go to a school where it’s decided at the school level.鈥� 

Whether the current push for school choice plays out in both blue and red states, however, remains an open question. 

Most of the recent legislation has prevailed in reliably Republican-controlled legislatures, even if a few of the with the endorsement of a Democratic governors, as in West Virginia 鈥� or despite a governor鈥檚 veto, as in Kentucky.

In reliably blue Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who was elected in 2018, campaigned on a promise to slash funding for a . But once he was elected, 鈥渉e actually signed a bill to strengthen it modestly,鈥� said Greg Richmond, a longtime school choice advocate who now leads the Archdiocese of Chicago Catholic Schools.

鈥淚t seems to be one these classic cases where it’s easy to say anything when you’re running for office, but when you get into office, you find out voters have an interest in the program you want to eliminate 鈥� you start to change your mind about it a little bit,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o he backed off.鈥� 

But these days, Richmond said, even private Catholic school parents are talking about exercising their right to leave schools over concerns about so-called critical race theory or enforcing mask and vaccine mandates 鈥� the latter two are required by an executive order signed by Pritzker, and also apply to private school students. 

鈥淪ome people got very mad and wrote to me: 鈥榃e should be fighting this [mandate]. This is tyranny. This is against God 鈥� this is Satan. If you don’t change it, I’m going to pull my kids out of your school and send them to public schools,鈥欌�� Richmond recalled. 鈥淚 was like, ‘What? That makes no sense.’鈥�

But the more he thought about it, the more he realized that these parents 鈥渨ere paying tuition in order to avoid that stuff.鈥�

The trend toward ideological reasons for opting out is worrying for the larger school choice community, said Richmond, who from 2005 to 2019 was CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. He was also the founding chairman of the Illinois State Charter School Commission.

A decade ago, he said, 鈥測ou could get bipartisan support for statements like, 鈥楶arents ought to be able to choose from a range of options that best meet the needs of their kids.鈥� Now conservatives aren鈥檛 saying stuff like that anymore. It鈥檚 like, 鈥榃e鈥檝e got to do this to save America from the Satanic clutch of CRT.鈥欌��

The new rhetoric, he said, is 鈥渘ot in pursuit of higher graduation rates and test scores,鈥� he said. It鈥檚 鈥渃hoice in pursuit of winning the culture war.鈥�

That risks alienating politically moderate or left-leaning teachers and parents who would otherwise support choice. If the only politicians who support school choice also happen to be hard-right culture warriors, 鈥�,鈥� or Trump supporters, 鈥渢hat might be an Achilles heel of all this,鈥� he said.

鈥楨very kid is unique鈥�

Mac Ban, the Phoenix mother, said part of her decision to homeschool actually revolved around what she saw as a social justice sensibility creeping into the district 鈥� she has heard examples of math word problems that included references to white subjects stealing from Black subjects. Mac Ban said such ideas are 鈥渘ot appropriate for an elementary school student.鈥�

Young children, she said, 鈥渘eed to learn the basics. They need to learn the fundamental things, and they need to learn to think on their own, to think critically, not be told that they are an oppressor.鈥�

Mac Ban, a first-generation American 鈥� her family came to the U.S. from Communist-controlled Poland in the 1970s 鈥� said she was able to qualify for Arizona鈥檚 ESA because her younger daughter had an individualized education plan due to a diagnosed speech delay. Simply being in the same family qualified her older sister, the kindergartner, for ESA funds as well.

Her initial concern that she and her kids would be isolated quickly passed when they joined the Highlands Latin community. 鈥淏y homeschooling, I don’t mean that I’m just sitting here with my daughters every day and we don’t see anyone 鈥e do all kinds of group lessons, activities. I’m never home. We’re always out and about, doing different things,鈥� she said.

Mac Ban likes having the ability to choose what lessons and subjects her daughter 鈥� now a second-grader 鈥� pursues.

鈥淓very kid is unique, and the parents know what’s best for their child, ultimately,鈥� she said.