Should public schools have a monopoly on education or should there be some healthy competition thrown in? This is a question that’s been debated for years!

Competition almost always increases the quality of products. And it’s no different with education. Some see school choice as a nefarious attempt to defund public schools. Others see it as a tool to help academic quality in all schools. Which is it? Today on The State of Education with Melvin Adams, Matt Beienburg shares how states can (and should!) enact policies that give parents the academic freedom and transparency they deserve for their families. 

“[S]chools are there to serve the students and their families, right?…That’s literally the fundamental issue at play. It’s to make sure our education system is serving and meeting the needs of students. And…during COVID we saw that completely inverted. Where students were essentially treated as an afterthought.” — Matt Beienburg

Here are a few of the topics covered in today’s episode:

• Goldwater Institute, including Matt’s role as Director of Education Policy and the organization’s goal of creating educational freedom for American families
• The fundamental principle in education: are schools serving the academic needs of children? Or are they being treated as an afterthought, as we saw during the COVID pandemic?
• The problem with school districts and why charter schools are helping reshape education in a much-needed and positive way
• Why having school choice does not sabotage the public school system and how it actually creates incentives for competitive education, which in turn creates higher-quality education
• Arizona’s education model, how it came to fruition, and the secret ingredient that made it all possible (spoiler: it’s Education Savings Accounts)
• What are ESAs? What does “funds follow the student” really mean?
• Ways Goldwater Institute is leading the way in school choice, such as putting out model policies that legislators in any state can use to implement ideas of educational freedom and academic transparency in their policies and laws
• Equipping parents with information on what schools are teaching before they enroll their kids in a school
• Why has school funding doubled in the past few decades, yet we’re still not seeing academic success?
• Matt answers another question that has been debated for years: Does school choice mean under-funded public schools? 

If you like what you’re hearing, stay tuned for our next episode on The State of Education with Melvin Adams.

RESOURCES MENTIONED ON TODAY’S EPISODE:

• Visit the Goldwater Institute and find a model policy you can use in your state to help get the school choice and academic transparency policies you want! https://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/
  Is your state measuring up on the Education Freedom Report Card? https://www.heritage.org/educationreportcard/