School choice activist Corey A. DeAngelis joined Wednesday’s edition of The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy to discuss the future of school choice in the U.S., specifically in Democrat-run states.
Leahy kicked off the segment by noting how Vermont has the oldest operating school voucher program in the country’s history with its Town Tuitioning Program.
The program, launched in 1869, “provides educational options for students whose towns do not have public schools” as “the sending town pays school tuition directly to the “receiving” school, which can be any public or private, in or outside Vermont,” according to EdChoice.
DeAngelis (pictured above) said Vermont’s model disputes claims by lawmakers who argue school choice vouchers would not benefit students in rural areas.
“This whole argument that if you’re in rural areas, you can’t have school choice – Well, the first voucher programs in the country were specifically designed for kids in rural areas that didn’t even have public schools because they were so rural,” DeAngelis explained. “The state figured out a long time ago, over 100 years ago, that not having a lot of choice was an argument to expand opportunity, not to restrict it.”
“So this argument you’re hearing in red states that you know, it’s really just a way for Republican lawmakers to try to have their cake and eat it to vote with the establishment, the unions, and to vote against their own party platform of school choice,” DeAngelis added. “They try to give themselves an excuse, but it’s not working anymore. There’s a new special interest group in town and they’re called parents and they’re paying more attention than they ever had before. In Tennessee, actually, two years ago, you had in the primaries, ten of the Tennessee Republicans running for House were endorsed or funded by the teachers union out here, and nine of them lost. It has become the political kiss of death, and that’s because parents are paying attention. They want more of a say in their kids’ education.”
Noting how 10 states have adopted school choice programs, DeAngelis said the policy has “become a political winner.”
“Everybody’s doing it and there’s a reason for that. It’s become a political winner, but it’s also the right thing to do. And the fear mongering from the other side, it just hasn’t played out. The burden of proof should be on them to show the doomsday scenarios they predict. It never happens. That’s because giving families more choices is always a good idea,” DeAngelis said.
When asked by Leahy what public school education will look like in 10 years, DeAngelis said, “We’re going to have more choice, obviously,” adding that he believes some Democrat-run states will eventually adopt some type of choice program.
“We’re seeing more momentum than we’ve ever seen before,” DeAngelis said. “Conservative parents are more so to be more likely to be upset with what’s happening in the traditional system, and they’re more likely to hold these politicians accountable at the ballot box. And so I think, though, we’re going to see some blue states start to adopt the policy too, at some point, because it’s such a political winner.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Corey DeAngelis” by Corey DeAngelis.
