California parents must be able to choose the education that best suits their child | Opinion

When public school advocates argue against giving parents and their children more educational choices, one is reminded of the Boston Tea Party, a revolt against Britain’s tea monopoly and the taxes levied as a result of it. Now, as then, Americans are not buying the pro-monopoly claims. We are demanding more freedom and more choices.

A favorite claim of defenders of the public education status quo is that parents and their children would not need more educational choices if the government school system received more funding. Yet, education spending has increased over the years, while student performance has sunk.

From 2011 to 2021, real inflation-adjusted K-12 spending in the U.S. increased from $14,022 per pupil to $16,280. Yet, over a similar period, student performance fell.

For 13-year-olds taking the National Assessment for Educational Progress Long-Term Trend Assessments, the average score declined seven points in reading and 14 points in math from 2011 to 2022. By 2022, according to the assessment report, “the average score for 13-year-olds ... is about where it was in 1971.”

So, after half a century, there was no marked improvement in the level of student reading performance, despite increased spending.

Since 2018-19, California’s per-pupil spending has been above the national average. In 2022-23, California’s total education funding from all sources was $128 billion, which is roughly equal to the combined entire state budgets of Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Tennessee.

Part of the reason for California’s higher education spending is due to Proposition 98, which establishes a minimum funding guarantee for public schools and community colleges through a combination of state general fund and local property tax revenues.

In spite of all this spending, more than seven out of 10 California eighth graders fail to perform at the proficient level in math and reading on national exams.

As UCLA Economics Professor Lee Ohanian has pointed out, “only 27% of California eighth graders were able to correctly answer a problem that required them to determine that the halfway point on a line between the values of 0.8 and 1.4 is 1.1.”

In view of California’s high level of education spending and its low test results, Ohanian observed, “the ‘paucity of funding’ argument” to explain poor student performance “has become less compelling.”

In the face of such failure by our public schools, it is no surprise that a January 2025 national survey by the school-choice organization EdChoice and Morning Consult found that a majority of school parents — 51% — believe that K-12 education is on the wrong track.

Responding to the discontent of parents, states have enacted educational-choice programs ranging from tax-credit scholarships to education savings accounts.

For example, 17 states have created education savings accounts, publicly funded savings accounts that parents can use to cover authorized expenses such as school tuition, tutoring, online education, therapies for students with special needs, instructional materials and home school costs.

The same EdChoice survey found that an overwhelming 74% of school parents support education savings accounts, with only 11% opposed. Indeed, California should look next door to Arizona where education savings accounts are funded at 90% of the state’s per-pupil funding.

Under Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed 2025-26 budget, $83 billion from the state’s general fund would go to K-12 education. Using the Arizona 90% calculus — and given California’s 5.8 million students — around $12,800 could be made available for each child whose parents want to access an education savings account.

The most methodologically rigorous studies have found that educational choice programs significantly improve student achievement, and empowering parents with more choices will incentivize public schools to improve their performance.

As support for educational choice increases, support for throwing more tax dollars at public education is dwindling. The EdChoice survey found that when told how much their state spends on schools, only 39% of school parents thought that spending was too low.

Given the failure of too many public schools, parents must be given the ability to choose the education that best suits their child’s needs.

This story was originally published March 18, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California parents must be able to choose the education that best suits their child | Opinion."