The Epoch Times | by Timothy S. Goeglein | May 19, 2026
American parents are voting with their feet.
Commentary
The New York Times recently reported on the public school enrollment crisis gripping communities across the nation.
While the Times cited declining birth rates resulting in fewer children attending public schools, and that is a factor, I believe there are other issues at play as well.
In my new book, “What Really Matters: Restoring a Legacy of Faith, Freedom, and Family,” I talk at length about how our failed public school system is not equipping children with the necessary education and tools they need to flourish and thrive, while also keeping them woefully ignorant of our history and system of government—thereby undermining their civil engagement through their ignorance of the most basic concepts of how to be an informed citizen.
In 2022, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) released a report on the state of American education, including civic education, and the news was sobering. The report found the average U.S. history score at the eighth grade level decreased by five points compared to 2018 and by nine points compared to 2014. Forty percent of students were below the most basic level in U.S. history knowledge.
In fact, only 13 percent of eighth graders were deemed proficient in history and 22 percent in civics.
And without an informed citizenry, we all suffer as a result—at home, in the workplace, and in the public square.
George Will wrote about the result of this civic ignorance, “Time was, when the school year ended, parents worried about ‘summer learning loss.’ Nowadays, there is less learning to worry about losing.”
Thankfully, American parents are finally beginning to have a choice when it comes where their children go to school, and they are voting with their feet for options that provide better quality education, and subsequently greater future opportunities, for their children.
And the current public school establishment, like other failing businesses often do, does not like what it sees and is engaging in desperate tactics to limit those options and force families to come back, against their will.
Arizona, for instance, has implemented a thriving Empowerment Scholarship Account program, which enables parents to take the money that would pay for a student’s education in a neighborhood school and have it follow to whichever school the parents choose for their child, including home school.
Parents are happy with the results but naturally the public school establishment is trying to undermine the program through two dueling ballot initiatives that would severely limit their ability to take advantage of the program for their children.
Neither of these initiatives would do anything to help failing public schools but instead would seek to bring the educational progress Arizona children are making to a grinding halt.
And initiatives are not the only attack. Instead of using public money to improve failing schools, the public educational establishment in Arizona purchased advertising to “lure” families back.
This reminds me of how the American auto industry in the early 1970s, after years of producing cars with “planned obsolescence” in order to get Americans to spend money on a new car every four years, tried to block the rise of Toyotas, Hondas, and Nissans that were actually built without an expiration date in mind. Competition eventually led to GM, Ford, and Chrysler trying (and not always succeeding) to build better cars, rather than destroy those who already were.
Rather than improve their product, the education establishment would rather destroy the competition it now faces after years of having a monopoly on our children’s minds and futures.
But as we have seen in the past, other monopolies such as the U.S. auto industry, post office and the nation’s telephone system, when finally forced because of competition to deal with their inefficiencies, lack of attention to detail, and hostility to innovation, had to either improve or die a slow painful death.
Thus it is competition, as parents seek the best educational value for their children, that is resulting in underperforming schools closing their doors—as any business that does not satisfy its customers eventually does.
Yes, birth rates may be falling, but parents are tired of seeing academic standards continue to fall as well and are taking action to reverse that trend. And that is good news for America’s future—as we restore an informed citizenry who are equipped with the knowledge and life skills to succeed.