The GOP platform calls for ‘universal school choice.’ What would that mean for students?

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — National Republicans are poised to support “universal school choice” as part of the policy platform they adopt at next week’s convention in Milwaukee, a goal supporters see as the culmination of decades advocating for parents’ autonomy to pick their children’s schools. To opponents, it’s a thinly veiled blueprint for gutting public education.

The term can mean different things to different people — from erasing school boundaries, to open enrollment, to being able to curate your child’s individual curriculum, to parental control over K-12 course content.

But education experts across the political spectrum interpret the GOP platform’s wording as favoring the type of approach adopted in states like West Virginia and Ohio, which make available taxpayer-funded vouchers, or scholarships, that can follow a child regardless of income to any public or private school.

“In our way of thinking, this is kind of your money, your children and your choice for where they want to go to school,” said Lisa B. Nelson, CEO of the American Legislative Exchange Council, which launched an Education Freedom Alliance in January to fight for just that. About a dozen states now have such programs, and proposals are in play in another 16, according to the alliance.