Part II of “Does School Choice Work”? Ask Florida

​Today, the Lone Star State is poised to embrace universal school choice. Is that a good idea?
 
With debate in Austin now underway, Texas legislators – who serve the nation’s second most populous state – might look to the third most populous state for answers to that question.
 
In 2023 Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed House Bill HB1, which established universal school choice. Today, Florida has more than 524,000 children participating in Florida’s school choice scholarship program for private school or home schooling. Florida also supports the expansion of charter schools, now enrolling more than 400,000 Florida youth.
 
Protect The 1st supports the school choice movement’s rapid expansion rolling across the states. We do so because we believe this policy gives parents something precious – the ability to choose schools that allow them to express their values across generations. Thus choice enhances the ultimate protection of free expression, as guaranteed by the First Amendment. We also hope it will return American school children to a solid appreciation of American history and civics – lessons lacking today in many public schools – that are essential to a healthy First Amendment society.
 
But none of this matters if – as we’ve asked before – school choice doesn’t work. Does it actually improve educational outcomes?
 
Gov. DeSantis writes in Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal that charter school students, a population that is majority low-income, perform above their peers in traditional school districts. The return of core principles in teaching math, science, history, and reading has allowed the Sunshine State to see marked improvement in test scores, so much so that The U.S. News & World Report ranks Florida first in the nation in education among the states for the past two years.
 
That’s something to emulate as well as celebrate. Tennessee and Wyoming recently joined the universal school choice club. With the addition of Texas, the school choice movement should be well on its way to becoming a nationwide policy.

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