EDITORIAL: School choice gains support

The midterm election has produced additional momentum for providing families with expanded educational options. This is true in Nevada and across the country.

Consider that Illinois just elected a governor who supports school choice. Pennsylvania did as well.

That may be surprising, given that the Democratic candidate in those states emerged victorious. But Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker and Pennsylvania Gov.-elect Josh Shapiro both embraced school choice during the campaign. Many such programs allow students to take a portion of per-pupil state funding and use it for private school tuition, home schooling, tutors or remote learning.

In response to a Chicago Sun-Times survey this fall, Gov. Pritzker said he supported his state’s Invest in Kids Act. That’s a tax-credit scholarship program that helps low-income families afford private schools. This was a shift from his previous campaign position. In 2017, he pledged to “work to do away” with it. Nevada has a similar program called Opportunity Scholarships.

On his campaign website, Gov.-elect Shapiro advocated for “adding choices for parents and educational opportunity for students and funding lifeline scholarships like those approved in other states and introduced in Pennsylvania.” The Pennsylvania Legislature had been considering a “lifeline” bill that would give education savings accounts to students stuck in failing public schools. Nevada has plenty of students who would benefit from an escape hatch, too.

One likely reason for these changes: The academic destruction wrought by overzealous school closures during the pandemic — foisted upon the public by teacher unions — created a new activism among parents seeking alternatives to the entrenched education establishment. The public schools are failing many families. That’s certainly true in the Clark County School District, where fewer than 40 percent of third graders are proficient in reading.

School choice has become increasingly popular in the wake of the pandemic. Parents are desperate for options that can improve the future prospects of their children. Democratic politicians have finally taken notice. Competition can lift all boats. More than 30 studies have found that school choice programs improve student performance in public schools.

What’s happening nationally should be encouraging for Gov.-elect Joe Lombardo. “As your next governor, my administration will expand school choice,” he said Monday. This would provide a necessary jolt to the state’s struggling public schools. For decades, governors have tried to improve academic performance through a combination of higher taxes and lax standards. It hasn’t worked. What’s needed are more options for families and higher expectations as embodied in reforms such as Read by Three and phonics instruction.

Nevada’s legislative Democrats have long been hostile to such changes in an effort to keep the campaign cash flowing from liberal special interest groups that profit off the status quo. But voters remain the most important special interest group. Gov.-elect Lombardo should encourage Nevada Democrats to join him and other Democrats around the country in expanding school choice. If not, he should make their refusal clear to voters.