A recent survey by the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs found that 61 percent of Texans favor school choice, but only 53 percent support applying such a policy to all Texas families. In short, while a majority of Texans favor school choice, a significant number think such policies should be based on need. They believe that we should limit school choice to low-income families.
This finding isn’t surprising given the dominance of altruism in our culture. Middle- and upper-income families should sacrifice their desires for those who need vouchers and education savings accounts more. According to altruism, some families should be denied choices while other families should be provided additional choices.
If school choice is a good policy—and it is—then it should be offered to all families. If school choice is a bad policy—and it isn’t—then it should not be offered to any family. To base any school choice program on need is to claim that some families and children are more important than others.
Interestingly, 62 percent of those living in rural counties support school choice for all Texans, while only 50 percent of those in urban counties expressed such support. We should keep this in mind each time we are told that rural Texans don’t support school choice. We should also keep this in mind when we hear proposals to exclude rural counties from any school choice program.
The purpose of school choice policies is to provide parents with more choices regarding the school their child attends. No rational reason has been presented why some parents should be free to choose and others shouldn’t. The fact is, there is no rational reason to limit school choice to low-income and urban Texans.