Robert Enloe is the president and CEO of EdChoice, joining us now when it comes to administration, education policies, particularly when it comes to school choice.
Could you talk a little bit about your organization, what it does, and how you're also financially supported?
unidentified
Sure.
So EdChoice is the legacy foundation of Milton and Rose Friedman.
Milton Friedman, as you might know, was the 1976 Nobel Prize winner in economics, and he had the idea back in 1955 that it's fairer, more equitable, more efficient to separate the government financing of education from the government administration of schools.
So we support funds that go to parents.
We do research, data analysis, and polling to make sure the American public understands the importance of school choice.
And like most nonprofits, we're funded by anyone that is willing to support our cause.
And I suppose when it comes to the matter of school choice, when you say that, everybody has a perception of it.
What do you think that perception is?
What's the reality from your perspective and what you do?
unidentified
I mean, the reality is that parents want their children to be in the best option possible.
And that often is by moving to a district and buying a house.
And we think that's patently unfair, right?
The idea of American education, of public education, should we should have an educated public, not an income-segregated system of schooling based on where you live.
And so what we're trying to do here is separate that funding from where you live and allow parents to choose.
And that's what parents want.
They want the ability to get the best option for their kid, regardless of whether that's in a public, private, or charter school.
And I suppose it's not the first time you've heard an argument that if you impose some type of voucher system, it ultimately takes away from public education overall.
What do you think of that argument?
unidentified
That's just patently false, and we know it to be false over time.
Every single study that has ever been done on the impact of school choice on a public school finances has shown that it has not had a negative impact on public schooling finances at all.
Moreover, we've seen dramatic increases in funding to traditional public schools over the last 10 years, a 13% increase.
It's now $17,000 or so per kid, $850 billion.
It's not like we have a spending problem.
We have an outcome problem, and that's why parents are demanding more options.
When you say outcome problem, are you specifically looking strictly at testing and results that way?
Or are there other factors that determine that?
unidentified
Oh, there's tons of other factors.
Look, testing is important, but families care about academic quality.
But what they really are starting to care about is they want their kid in a safe school where the kid's not bullied.
They want the kid in a school where they're not anxious and overworried.
These are the number two, one and two reasons why families are choosing right now.
They're saying, don't have my kid bullied.
I want a safe school.
Don't have them anxious.
And by the way, give me some academic quality as well.
And that's why you're seeing millions of parents moving away from their traditional school options to other school options, including across the district or charter schools or private schools, or now we call them ESAs.
You may have, you said this already, but if those vouchers take place and those options are there, is it the private schools that benefit the most?
unidentified
So I think it's families that benefit the most.
I mean, that's the point.
Families, there's not a single dollar that goes to a private school unless a family chooses that private school or chooses that charter school or chooses to go across a school district or chooses to buy a house in a public school or chooses to customize their education through an ESA.
All of this funding that we believe should go to families, not systems, is used through private school choice and through parents making those choices.
If you have questions about him, about school vouchers and other related matters, 202-748-8000 for Democrats, 202-748-8001 for Republicans and Independents.
202748-8002.
If you are an educator or a student and you want to give perspectives on the conversation, 202748-8003.
Mr. Enlow, in the House version of their budget that was passed, there is something called the Educational Choice for Children Act.
Can you talk a little bit about that and talk about actually the addition of such a thing in this legislation?
unidentified
So efforts to try and create school choice on the federal level have been going on since Ronald Reagan and maybe even before that.
This proposal is a tax credit scholarship proposal that will allow individuals to claim a dollar-for-dollar tax credit to contributions they make to scholarship organizations that give out scholarships or tuition or reimbursement for curricula.
It's a national effort to allow school choice into all 50 states.
You know, it does a great job of balancing that the role of education is truly at the state level and that the role of education should be placed in the hands of parents.
And so it's a truly private choice program that allows private individuals to help private nonprofits to give out to families who choose.