Recommended Sites Contact Restoring a Free Market in Education Perhaps more than at any time in their nation s history, Americans today are frustrated with the poor performance, increasing expense, and lack of improvement in their government-run public schools. The signs of that frustration are everywhere.
Opinion polls reveal that education is a top voter concern during election seasons.
Surveys show that large majorities of parents, regardless of their political beliefs, support more K-12 alternatives for their children. Thousands of families are on waiting lists to get their children into charter schools. Applicants for even partial private school scholarships number in the millions, and over a million more students are now being taught at home. Yet despite this widespread dissatisfaction, nearly 90 percent of American K-12 students still attend the same government schools that so many parents believe are substandard. The reason for this seeming contradiction lies in the fact that too many families are denied real choices in education - the same kinds of choices they have in nearly every other area of life, from what kind of car they drive to the food they eat to the color and style of their clothing.