For All Many American families already have an extensive choice of public schools for their children. It is lower-income families who are trapped in failing urban schools, while others move to better school systems. Thus, proposals for school choice programs merely extend to all children the opportunities now enjoyed by many, and by creating competition for students, school choice can improve education for every child.
Schools do make a difference in student performance, say researchers.
A National Center for Policy Analysis study found more than 70 percent of African-American and Hispanic first graders in Texas passed a state test of minimum basic skills. But by the time they reached the ninth grade, more than half the minority students in Texas were failing.