School choice

School choice is a term for education options that allow students and families to select alternatives to public schools. It is the subject of fierce debate in various state legislatures across the United States. The most common in the United States, by both the number of programs and by the number of participating students are scholarship tax credit programs, which allow individuals or corporations to receive tax credits toward their state taxes in exchange for donations made to non-profit organizations that grant private school scholarships. A similar subsidy may be provided by a state through a school voucher program. Other school choice options include open enrollment laws (which allow students to attend public schools other than their neighborhood school), charter schools, magnet schools, virtual schools, homeschooling, education savings accounts (ESAs), and individual education tax credits or deductions. In 1955, economist Milton Friedman proposed using free market principles to improve the United States public school system. The typical practice at that time was to assign children to the public school nearest their home. Friedman proposed that parents should be able to receive education funds in the form of school vouchers, which would allow them to choose their children's schools from among public, private, and religious and non-religious options. Virginia's 1956 Stanley Plan used vouchers to finance white-only private schools known as segregation academies. Other states followed until the practice was disallowed by Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County (1964). Milwaukee mayor John Norquist (D) and Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson (R) initiated school vouchers in Milwaukee in 1990. Minnesota was the first state to have a charter school law and the nation's first charter school was City Academy High School, which opened in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1992. California created its District of Choice program in 1993. It allows California public school district to enroll students residing outside district lines.