Women win with school choice
Washington Examiner · RC · trust 63/100
As American students head back to school this fall, families in 18 states will do so with unprecedented freedom to choose how and where their children are educated. The remaining 32 states should follow their lead, giving every family the same opportunity to choose the education that works best for their children.
From Arizona’s nation-leading Empowerment Scholarship Accounts to Arkansas’s newly universal Education Freedom Accounts, school choice is quickly becoming a defining feature of American education. And as more families gain access to educational options once reserved for those who could afford them, the case for expanding school choice grows ever-stronger.
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School choice serves as a great equalizer. Rather than have their children’s educational options determined by their ZIP code, families can use a combination of greater freedom and state support to select the school that best serves their sons and daughters — a privilege long enjoyed by the wealthy but largely out of reach for working- and middle-class families.
Beyond alleviating class-based opportunity gaps, educational choice measures offer benefits beyond the classroom, especially for women of all ages.
School choice gives parents greater control over what their children learn and the environment in which they learn it. For families whose daughters are struggling socially or feel unsafe at school, the ability to seek out a different school culture can be especially consequential. In 2023, 22% of female high school students reported being bullied at school, compared with 17% of male students, according to the CDC. Further, federal data show students in public schools are more likely to report being bullied than their private-school peers.
K–12 choice attacks this problem from multiple angles. First, it incentivizes schools to adequately address student safety, or else risk losing students — and the funding that follows them.
Second, school choice empowers families to leave a school that fails to adequately address bullying or harassment. Without open enrollment or the financial means to pay private-school tuition, that option has traditionally been out of reach for many working- and middle-class families. School choice helps level the playing field by putting alternatives within reach regardless of a family’s income.
Moms already play an outsize role in their children’s education, attending parent- teacher conferences, volunteering at school, and participating in school events. In two-parent households, mothers are substantially more likely than fathers to be highly involved in their children’s schools, according to NCES data. When families choose homeschooling, mothers are often the parent taking the lead. Simply put, expanding educational options gives the parents already doing much of the day-to-day work of managing their children’s education more tools to do it well.
Private school choice programs such as Education Savings Accounts can put that decision-making power into practice. Rather than simply choosing between an assigned public school and a private-school tuition bill, mothers can have greater flexibility to piece together the education that best fits their children. Depending on the program, parents can use ESA funds for private-school tuition, tutoring, curriculum, or other educational materials — including resources for families who choose to homeschool. That flexibility may help explain why ESAs have remained the most popular school choice policy among parents, with 84% expressing support in EdChoice’s 2026 survey.
Opponents of universal voucher and ESA programs argue that families who could already afford private school should not receive public funds to help pay for it.
But excluding those families undermines the very principle of universality. Families at every income level pay taxes that support public education, and access to a publicly funded education does not disappear when a family earns more money. If parents determine that a private school, homeschool curriculum, or other educational option better serves their child, their income alone should not disqualify that child from benefiting from the public dollars set aside for his or her education.
For students struggling in an assigned public school, something as simple as open enrollment can make a meaningful difference. Not every problem with a school can be solved through policy, nor will every family want to leave the public school system altogether. Allowing students to attend another public school gives families an immediate alternative when their assigned school is no longer working for them.
Whatever the mechanism — from open enrollment to universal vouchers and ESAs — school choice is a win for women . Greater choice gives girls more opportunities to find a school where they can thrive and gives mothers more power to shape the education their children receive.
Charis Morasch is a senior at the University of Arkansas studying political science and classical studies as well as a programs intern at the Network of enlightened Women.
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