By Kathryn Hickok
This month, Missouri increased educational opportunity for families by expanding its Education Savings Account program. SB 727 widens eligibility for Missouri’s ESA program to include more students, increases teachers’ salaries, and makes it easier to open charter schools.
Different school environments help students learn in the ways that are most beneficial for them. Approximately 20 million American children are eligible to participate in a school choice program that includes private options. Millions more attend charter schools or benefit from other kinds of public school choice.
Oregon should join the “school choice states” and give parents the power to choose the best options for their children. Education Freedom for Oregon, a school choice advocacy group, is making that its goal through two separate school choice ballot initiatives. If enough voter signatures are received before June 30, Oregonians would be able to vote on those measures this year.
State education policies should value all options that empower students to achieve academic proficiency and reach their personal best. Oregon students would be served well by increasing opportunities to meet their learning needs, goals, and personal circumstances.
Kathryn Hickok is Executive Vice President at Cascade Policy Institute, Oregon’s free market public policy research organization, and Director of Cascade’s Children’s Scholarship Fund-Oregon program.
