FACT BRIEF

Is it true that supporters of school choice never advocate eliminating district boundaries or changing funding models?

Tuesday, October 19, 2021

By Jacob Alabab-Moser

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While school choice is commonly associated with funding charter or private school education, the policies also permit "interdistrict schooling," allowing families to send their children to public schools outside of their district. According to 2017 data, 23 states require public schools to admit students from other districts.

Education expert Corey DeAngelis stated, "One of the central tenets of school choice is that zip code shouldn't determine your school."

Many school choice advocates also recognize that funding education via local property taxes creates educational inequality, with low-income districts unable to invest in enough teachers and supplies to facilitate quality schooling. School choice advocates Aaron Garth Smith and Christian Bernard stated,

"Ideally, local property wealth should play no role in determining school funding levels. Dollars instead should be pooled at the state level and allocated transparently based on enrollment and student needs."

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

New Jersey Principals and Supervisors Association Interdistrict school choice: A win-win

National Center for Education Statistics Table 4.2. Numbers and types of open enrollment policies, by state: 2017

Reason The New York Times' Nikole Hannah-Jones Inadvertently Makes the Case for School Choice

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