At the height of school closures due to the coronavirus pandemic last year, many parents did what most of us do now when confronted with a topic that we need to learn about quickly: they got busy Googling.
Over my 15 years of working in education, I have grown to appreciate that parents are far more savvy, knowledgeable, and resourceful than policy wonks and pundits give them credit for. Because parents care so much about their children, they will go out of their way to find out aboutquality education options that will help them to succeed.
School choice — long an issue of hot debate among education entities and policy wonks, with loyalties frequently divided along party lines. But public support for it may be growing, according to a report from the Manhattan Institute.
In the midst of sudden school closures and a wild election season, many families heard about school choice for the first time this past year, though it’s been around for decades. I ardently wish the circumstances had been different, but I do believe that heightened national awareness about educational choice is good news.