Good news, American parent!
Welcome to this year’s opportunity to choose your child’s school. Depending on where you live, you may now choose neighborhood schools, magnet schools, charter schools, Christian schools, virtual schools, microschools, homeschool and schools that are neither fish nor fowl, which meet in a trampoline park.
This is educational freedom.
Let’s get started. Create an account. No, not the account you use for everything else in the school district. We are a district of many accounts. Add your child using the code issued by the school’s guidance counselor. We’re sorry! That code is invalid. Please review the instructions. Codes are case-sensitive.
You are ready to choose now.
What kind of school would be the best fit for your child: STEAM, STEM, project-based learning, International Baccalaureate, performing arts, college preparatory, early college, career and technical education or a school with a website that just says “INNOVATION”?
You know your child best. Please be sure to research the options carefully.
However, you do not know the schools best. To that end, please attend your preferred school’s Open House. Open House begins at 10 sharp on Tuesday morning. Just that one Tuesday. We understand that you have a job, but our school is a good fit for parents truly committed to their child’s education.
At Open House, please determine whether the school has engaged teachers, a healthy culture, good leadership and a 21st-century bathroom. You will have 47 minutes.
A ninth grader named Madison will be your tour guide. Please ask Madison about the comparative effectiveness of the ninth-grade mathematics teachers. Next, please determine whether your child is choosing the school or the school is choosing your child. Sometimes you choose the school. Sometimes the school chooses you. Sometimes you choose the school, the school chooses you, and then an algorithm chooses whether the two of you were correct.
For some schools, students audition. To be considered for our arts school, please design a fashion outfit inspired by a fantastical sandwich.
Some schools require an exam. Other children started preparing last year. Freedom rewards foresight.
Some schools use a lottery. Please be patient while your one precious child rattles around the metaphorical bingo cage to discover his or her educational destiny. If you must scream, scream in your heart.
Now, rank your schools. Do not rank a school you would not attend. Also, do not fail to rank a school you would attend. You may rank every program in the district. There are more than 700.
And remember, do not rank strategically. Simply include a healthy mix of reach, target and safety schools. We’ve classified the schools you want to attend as reaches. This is not strategy.
You are really getting the hang of school choice!
Are you considering a private school? Exciting news! Your state may fund your Students First Education Savings Account with $8,148. Our school’s tuition is not public, however, so we’ll let you know the balance later. You may also be asked to include a spiritual reference from your pastor and to sign a Biblical Lifestyle Policy. Our expectations extend beyond school grounds and throughout the calendar year. Consider whether inviting Aunt Linda to Thanksgiving is condoning a non-biblical lifestyle.
Remember, YOU are choosing.
After our interview, at which both parents should be present, our school will determine whether we would like to participate in your choice. If so, your choice has chosen you.
If not, please make another choice. In America, you have many school choices. Some may be full, or cost more than the school voucher. Some may have closed their application window last Thursday. Please exercise your freedom more promptly next year. Feeling overwhelmed? You are experiencing parental empowerment.
At some point, say 3:24 a.m., you may wonder why obtaining a decent education requires this much work.
That is a totally different policy question. We are discussing only school choice.
Congratulations! You have exercised your educational freedom.
We will let you know where your child is going to school in the spring.
Jennifer L. Jennings is the director of education research at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the author of “The Scarcity Loop: How School Choice Reshapes the Rationing of Public Education.”
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