What We Propose

We propose a federal law that does two things:

• Requires states to fund parents, not school districts. We don’t want to dictate how the states implement this. Just that they do it.
• Sets a floor of at least 95% of the average total per-pupil spending by district or state that would be controlled by parents.

Most parents aren’t classroom experts. But they do know what’s good for their kids. By giving parents control over the money spent to educate their children, we will:

• Turn parents into consumers in a competitive marketplace, giving them real choice when it comes to choosing the schools their children attend.
• Force K-12 schools to compete for students, just as colleges and universities compete for students today. Poor-performing schools will improve or go out of business. And, with millions of families to serve, there will be huge incentives for educators to create new schools that will do a good job.
• Force schools to treat parents and their kids as customers. Successful schools will be the ones that do the best job of serving the needs of their customers.

We want to fund parents, not schools. Under our proposal, parents could use the money for educating their children to send them to any state-approved school. The 95% floor for the amount of money that would be controlled by parents ensures that states adequately fund the parents so any parent — regardless of where they live, how much money they have or the color or their skin — can afford to send their kids to a school offering them a quality education. We want this average to include EVERYTHING. This is the floor, not the ceiling. States could increase the percentage controlled by parents, but not fall below it. There will have to be some type of state regulatory structure. That’s what the remaining portion will fund.

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