American Greatness | by Larry Sand | January 13, 2026 (Photo Credit: Getty Images)
The concept of parental freedom in education is not the exclusive domain of any particular political persuasion, yet contentiousness still abounds.
s someone who served on the original planning board for National School Choice Week, which began in 2010, I am thrilled that the movement is thriving. The latest numbers show that 34 states, D.C., and Puerto Rico now have at least one private school choice program. Of those, 19 states have at least one program that is universally accessible to K-12 students or is on track to become so. Twenty states have tax-credit scholarships, 18 have educational savings accounts, and 10 states and D.C. have vouchers. In all, there are 75 programs on the books nationwide.
Though frequently tarred by some on the left as a right-wing movement started by and mainly for the rich, nothing could be further from the truth. In reality, school choice’s roots were bipartisan. In 1990, during the Pleistocene Era of educational reform, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program became the country’s first publicly funded school-choice program for low-income children. Born of an interesting political duo—Democratic state legislator Polly Williams and Republican Governor Tommy Thompson—the program was launched to address the city’s troubled education system.
In addition to Polly Williams, Howard Fuller, a civil rights activist, education reform advocate, academic, community organizer, and co-founder of the Malcolm X Liberation University, was a strong proponent. Derrick Bell, often referred to as the father of critical race theory, advocated for choice. Jorge Elorza, a former Democratic mayor of Providence, RI, and currently the head of Democrats for Education Reform, a group that has long pushed for charter school expansion but not the private option, is now on board.
In a recent interview, Elorza stated, “There’s an education crisis that we have throughout the country. The outcomes have declined over the past decade, and kids are struggling. It’s incumbent on all of us to consider every option and every tool that can help us meet the diverse needs of every single child.”
Of course, many left-of-center activists are outraged by the idea of giving parents a private option. Denise Forte, president and CEO of EdTrust, a diversity-focused organization, writes that choice undermines public education in favor of private and religious schools. She incoherently claims that the new federal tax credit program is “designed as a reverse Robin Hood scheme that will give away billions to wealthy Americans.”
On the other side of the political aisle, there is also disagreement. Most conservatives and libertarians are enthusiastically pro-choice. The American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, Heartland Institute, Cato Institute, California Policy Center, and a host of other think tanks, as well as many religious groups, support parental freedom. In fact, libertarian godfather Milton Friedman was an early pioneer of the school choice movement.
However, a conservative outfit, Public School Exit, which upholds “time-tested biblical principles,” asserts that “vouchers, school choice, and ESAs are a trap.” They maintain that by accepting government money, the state acquires the “right to define standards, assess outcomes, and enforce accountability.”
An ongoing point of contention is the constitutionality of religious charter schools. Charters are tuition-free, publicly funded, and open to all students. They operate with greater autonomy and flexibility from district rules in exchange for meeting specific performance goals outlined in their charters.
In May 2025, the Supreme Court had the opportunity to resolve a significant case involving religious charters. Oklahoma’s Statewide Charter School Board v. Drummond ended in a 4–4 split after Justice Amy Coney Barrett recused herself. That left in place an Oklahoma Supreme Court ruling prohibiting religious charter schools, but no national precedent was set.
However, a 2022 SCOTUS decision, Carson v. Makin, made it clear that once a state chooses to subsidize private education, it cannot exclude religious providers on that basis.
So, in Tennessee, the state funds students attending religious private schools through its Education Freedom Scholarship Program, but religious organizations are barred from participating in the charter sector.
But since charters and vouchers both use tax dollars, why should the private option be legal for religious private schools but not for charters?
Regarding religion, there is a major red flag in the school choice realm involving a charter management organization in Florida.
An October 2025 RAIR Foundation headline ominously read, “Taxpayer-Funded Sharia: Florida’s School Choice Program Is Rapidly Building a Parallel Islamic Power Structure.”
The article goes on to explain that Florida’s school-choice program finances Sharia-run schools that are led by actors “embedded in Muslim Brotherhood–linked networks that enforce a rival legal order, attract and consolidate Muslim migration, and convert public dollars into permanent parallel Islamic infrastructure on American soil.”
Clearly, a Sharia-based curriculum conflicts with core American principles, including individual liberty and equal rights under the law. Instruction is not limited to faith or worship; it teaches a comprehensive system of law, authority, hierarchy, rights, and obligations that directly opposes the American constitutional model, which affirms equal rights for all people, regardless of belief.
So the question becomes, why should I, as an American and a Jew, have my tax dollars go to any institution that seeks to destroy me and everything I stand for?
One remedy would be to designate the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization and sever every financial artery linking its U.S. front groups to taxpayer funds. Until then, well-intentioned Florida families are bankrolling the spread of an ideology fundamentally hostile to American freedom.
An unnamed source involved with the state’s school choice programs told me that the state is currently investigating those schools.
The best way forward is to remove all tax dollars from education. Parents should pay for their child’s education, just as they pay for food, clothing, and medicine. Government involvement in education has always been a terrible idea.
But getting government bureaucrats out of education will never happen. As such, school choice, though not perfect, is something we should all support.
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Larry Sand is a retired 28-year classroom teacher who also served as the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network from 2006 to 2025. He now focuses on raising awareness about our failing education system.