Choice opponents have been known to throw contradictory arguments out against private choice programs. One moment they will claim that the majority of kids using universal choice programs were already going to private schools. A few moments later they will claim such programs are draining district schools of students and money. The irony of these mutually exclusive claims will often escape the person making them, and you can see hints of both in this New York Times podcast titled Why So Many Parents are Opting Out of Public Schools.

Sigh

Choice opponents make all kinds of claims, but not many can withstand even a modicum of scrutiny. Let’s take for instance a widely repeated fable- that Arizona’s universal ESA program has “busted” the state budget.

If you actually examine state reports like this one for district and charter funding and also this one for ESA funding, you wind up with:

Arizona districts have exclusive access to local funding among other things and are by far the most generously funded K-12 system in the state. Districts, charters and ESAs all use the state’s weighted student funding formula, and ESAs get the lowest average funding despite having a higher percentage of students with disabilities participating than either the district or charter sector.

If you track the percentage of students served by the district, charter and ESA sectors respectively, and the funding used by each as a percentage of the total, you get:

So, there you have it; supposedly the sector educating 6% of Arizona students for 4% of the total K-12 funding is “bankrupting” the state of Arizona. Meanwhile the system, which generated an average of $321,700 for a classroom of 20 ($16,085*20), is “underfunded.”

A group of 20 ESA students receiving the average scholarship amount receive $123,780 less funding, but they are (somehow) “busting the budget.” The fact that a growing number of Arizona students opt for a below $10k ESA rather than an above $16k district education tells us something about how poorly districts utilize their resources. So does the NAEP.

There is a school sector weighing heavily upon Arizona taxpayers, but it is not the ESA program.

 

John E. Coons was ahead of his time.  

Decades before the term “education savings account” became an integral part of the education choice movement, the law professor at the

University of California, Berkeley, and his former student, Stephen Sugarman, were talking about the concept. In their 1978 book, “Education by Choice: The Case for Family Control,” the two civil rights icons envisioned a model drastically different from the traditional one-size-fits-all, ZIP code-based school system inspired by the industrial revolution: 

“To us, a more attractive idea is matching up a child and a series of individual instructors who operate independently from one another. Studying reading in the morning at Ms. Kay’s house, spending two afternoons a week learning a foreign language in Mr. Buxbaum’s electronic laboratory, and going on nature walks and playing tennis the other afternoons under the direction of Mr. Phillips could be a rich package for a ten-year-old. Aside from the educational broker or clearing house which, for a small fee (payable out of the grant to the family), would link these teachers and children, Kay, Buxbaum, and Phillips need have no organizational ties with one another. Nor would all children studying with Kay need to spend time with Buxbaum and Phillips; instead, some would do math with Mr. Feller or animal care with Mr. Vetter.” 

Coons and Sugarman also predicted charter schools, microschools, learning pods and education navigators, although they called them by different names. 

Fast forward to Florida today, where the Personalized Education Program, or PEP, allows parents to direct education savings accounts of about $8,000 per student to customize their children’s learning. Parents can use the funds for part-time public or private school tuition, curriculum, a la carte providers, and other approved educational expenses. PEP, which the legislature passed in 2023 as part of House Bill 1, is the state’s second education savings account program; the first was the Gardiner Scholarship, now called the Florida Family Empowerment Scholarship for students with Unique Abilities, which was passed in 2014. 

Coons, who turned 96 on Aug. 23, has been a regular contributor to Step Up For Students' policy blogs over the years. Shortly after the release of his 2021 book, “School Choice and Human Good,” he was featured in a podcastED interview hosted by Doug Tuthill, chief vision officer and past president of Step Up For Students. 

“It is wrong to fight against (choice) on the grounds that it is a right-wing conspiracy,” said Coons, a lifelong Catholic whom some education observers describe as “voucher left.”  “It’s a conspiracy to help ordinary poor people to live their lives with respect.” 

In 2018, Coons marked the 40th anniversary of “Education by Choice” by reflecting on it and his other writings for NextSteps blog. 

 He said he hopes his work will “broaden the conversation” about the nature and meaning of the authority of all parents to direct their children’s education, regardless of income. 

“Steve (Sugarman) and I recognized all parents – not just the rich – as manifestly the most humane and efficient locus of power,” he wrote. “The state has long chosen to respect that reality for those who can afford to choose for their child. ‘Education by Choice’ provided practical models for recognizing that hallowed principle in practice for the education of all children. It has, I think, been a useful instrument for widening and informing the audience and the gladiators in the coming seasons of political combat.”

Arizonans have a pet peeve involving people from “back East” who judge us before they understand us. The Washington Post jumped into this with both feet by publishing a story with the headline Public schools are closing as Arizona’s school voucher program soars.

The story, which prominently features the long-troubled Roosevelt Elementary School District’s decision to close five schools, has multiple problems. The paragraphs below will document one of the main problems. Before moving to that, the reader should note that multiple people made efforts by both email and phone to alert the Post reporter to these data during the research process, including the sharing of many of the links to the same state data sources that will be used below.

Arizona K-12 choice is complex with multiple types of choice operating simultaneously and interacting with each other: the nation’s largest state charter school sector, multiple private choice programs, and (the granddaddy of them all) district open enrollment. No one should fault anyone for failing to appreciate the complexity of a situation from afar, but ignoring data to formulate a fundamentally misleading narrative is another matter.

Just to set the stage, under the Arizona education formula, spending follows the child. From the perspective of a school district, it makes little financial difference as to whether a child transfers to another district, enrolls in a charter, takes an ESA, or moves to California -- you either have enrollment to get funded, or you do not. Because districts also generate local funding with enrollment, they are (by a wide margin) the best-funded K-12 system in the state on a per-pupil basis on average.

The Arizona Department of Education tracks public school students by district of residence and by public district or charter school of attendance. The 2025 report includes a tab called “District by Attendance,” and it reveals that of the total public-school students residing with the boundary of Roosevelt Elementary and attending a Roosevelt Elementary district school amounts to 6,551 students. The same report reveals that 5,764 students live within the boundaries of Roosevelt but attend charter schools. Finally, the open enrollment report documents that 2,741 students live within the boundaries of Roosevelt but attend other district schools through open enrollment.

Separate reports from the Arizona Department of Education document ESA use by school district. The most recent quarterly report currently available finds that 803 students reside within the borders of Roosevelt Elementary and are enrolled in the ESA program (see page 22). If we stopped the story there, the conclusion that the fiscal impact on Roosevelt Elementary from other school districts was more than three times larger than that of the ESA program would appear unavoidable. “Public schools are closing as a majority of families choose other public schools” does not seem quite as exciting but would be far more accurate.

But we should not stop the story there. Another report from the Arizona Department of Education tracks not only which districts ESA students reside in, but also what school they previously attended. Page 17 of this report reveals that the number of students residing in Roosevelt Elementary district and which previously attended a Roosevelt Elementary school stood at 129. Put it all together, and the picture looks like this:

School boards don’t close five schools in a 6,551-student district because of the loss of 129 students. Enrollment in Roosevelt Elementary began to decline years before the ESA program existed. “Public schools are closing as Arizona voucher enrollment soars” is akin to “Sun rises as rooster crows” as it pertains to Roosevelt Elementary. If the ESA program did not exist, we have every reason to believe that a large majority of ESA students would employ other choice programs.

The fault lies not in Roosevelt’s stars, but in itself -- a large majority of the community it serves prefers schools other than the ones they are operating. Statewide Arizona school districts spend an estimated billion dollars annually on underutilized and vacant school buildings -- funds they could be spending on teacher salaries and academic recovery, and which also happens to approximately equal the budget of the ESA program, which 90,000 Arizona students use for K-12 education.

The Roosevelt school board has decided to focus their efforts, and good luck to them. The unstated thesis of the Washington Post’s narrative, however, is that readers should sympathize with the interests of Roosevelt employees rather than with those of the Roosevelt families exercising agency in the education of their children. This is the greatest misdirection of all. We fund schools first for the benefit of children, not the adults working in the schools.

This is all an all-too-common sort of thing in K-12 journalism these days, and it is hardly unique to Arizona. Florida, for example, has no shortage of hugely exaggerated claims regarding the impact of choice on school districts. Author Amanda Ripley, interviewed for a book she wrote on deep problems of journalism, noted the “strange and insular world of journalism prizes,” which encourage simplistic “us versus them” stories. “This adversarial model that we’ve got going in education, journalism, and politics no longer serves us. There’s a good guy and a bad guy, and everything’s super clear; it just breaks down. And we keep awarding prizes in that model. But 99 percent of stories are not that clear-cut,” Ripley noted.

What is clear-cut: Roosevelt Elementary may have 99 problems, but losing 129 kids to the ESA program ranks far from being one.

 

By John Kirtley

The Rev. H.K. Matthews passed away Monday at the age of 97. As I urge you to read in this obituary, he was one of the towering figures in the Florida civil rights movement.

He was arrested over 30 times fighting for equal rights in Northwest Florida. He was beaten, along with John Lewis and other brave activists, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in their first attempt to march from Selma to Montgomery. There is now a park named in his honor in Pensacola. You can also read his autobiography, “Victory After The Fall.”.

On a 2010 visit to Pensacola to recruit schools for the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship program, former Step Up For Students grassroots organizer Michael Benjamin and I met the operator of a faith-based school in town. He urged us to meet with Rev. Matthews, who he thought might respond well to the social justice message of the scholarship program. At the time, the average household income of our students was less than $30,000, and 75% were minorities. Michael and I said we would love to meet him.

Rev. Matthews didn’t say much during our initial visit; Michael and I explained how the scholarship program empowered low-income families to choose a different school if the one they were assigned to wasn’t working for them. He seemed to just take it all in but offered neither affirmation nor disagreement.

Almost as an afterthought, I invited him to a march and rally we were having the next month in Tallahassee. We needed the legislature to pass a bill to expand the scholarship program to relieve our waitlist, and we asked scholarship families to come to the Capitol to show their support. To my surprise, he agreed to attend.

On that day, over 6,000 people marched from the convention center to the Capitol. I invited Rev. Matthews to walk in front of the crowd with other faith leaders. Normally I would never walk in the front row, but I wanted to make sure everything went smoothly for him. He was very quiet as the huge crowd marched.

When we had gathered for the rally in the Capitol, I placed him in a prominent seat on the stage. A few minutes into the event, he motioned me over and asked if he could speak to the crowd. I had no idea what he was going to say, but I wasn’t going to say no. I went to the minister running our show and asked him to introduce Rev. Matthews.

What would he say? Was he with us?

I soon had my answer.

“This reminds me of the old movement,” he said. “Seeing thousands walking in the streets, fighting for the right to determine their own future, to fight for what is best for their children. When I worked with Dr. King back in the day …”

When he said those words, there was a murmur in the crowd, both students and adults. These kids had read about Dr. King in their history books. Some of them knew that there were not one but two marches across the Pettus Bridge, and here was someone who was there at the first attempt, someone who took the blows.

He was indeed with us.

Immediately after the rally, Rev. Matthews was swarmed by students young and old, some asking questions about his time with Dr. King, some young ones who just wanted to touch him — I suppose just to make sure this hero was real. They did not let him go for at least 20 minutes.

I could tell at the time this moved him. He told me so later. After that day he would call me to ask if there was anything he could do to help the movement. We had him appear at events with donors, governors, and legislators.

He would lead another march for us in 2016, when over 10,000 people came to protest the lawsuit filed by the Florida teachers union demanding that the courts shut down the Tax Credit Scholarship, which would evict 80,000 poor kids from their schools. That day Rev. Matthews was joined at the front of the procession by Martin Luther King III, the son of the man Matthews marched with 50 years prior. You can watch a 60-second video of that march here.

I had the pleasure of joining him at his church in Brewton, Alabama, where he moved in later years. He was being honored for his years of service to that church. I was honored, though very surprised, when he called me up to speak that day. Luckily, the words to praise him came easily.

They come again easily today, but not without a few tears.

How fortunate I was to have my life intersect with his, however unlikely that would have been to me before this movement changed the course of my life.

How fortunate the education freedom movement was to have his blessing and his involvement.

How fortunate the state of Florida was to have his tireless efforts fighting for civil rights.

How fortunate, all.

Rest in peace, Rev. Matthews.

John Kirtley is founder and chairman of Step Up For Students.

Florida gives parents the ability to direct the education of their children. Today about half of all K-12 students in the state attend a school of choice, and 500,000 students participate in state educational choice scholarship programs.  

Gov. Ron DeSantis accelerated these trends in 2023, when he signed HB 1 and made every student eligible for a scholarship. No school can take any student for granted, and state funding follows students to the learning options they choose.  

Unfortunately, misleading claims amplified in the media have blamed this expansion of parental choice for school districts’ budget challenges. 

Sarasota County Schools, for example, recently estimated that scholarships “siphoned” $45 million from its budget, a figure cited in a WUSF article. In reality, most of the $45 million represents funding for students that Sarasota was never responsible for educating, such as those already in private schools, homeschooling or charter schools.  It also does not account for students who return to district schools after using a scholarship. Once those factors are considered, the actual impact is considerably smaller than the headline number suggests. 

For the 2024-25 school year, Sarasota County lost just 330 public school students to scholarship programs, but only 245 of those students came from district-run public schools. If those students had stayed, they would have brought the district about $2 million, not $45 million. That figure still does not account for the students who returned to district schools after using a scholarship the prior year, so the real impact would be smaller. 

Other districts have been vocal about their budget difficulties, often attributing them solely to growing scholarship demand, such as Leon County Public Schools, which in 2024-25 lost 240 students from district-run schools (0.8% of enrollment), and Duval County Public Schools, which lost 1,237 students (1.2% of enrollment). 

Statewide, 32,284 students left public schools in 2024-25 to use a scholarship. That is only 1.1% of all public-school students in Florida, and even that total includes those who previously attended charter schools, university-affiliated lab schools, virtual schools, and other public-school options. 

Looking at district-run schools alone, just 24,874 new scholarship students left for scholarship programs in 2024-25. Another 5,507 came from charters, and 1,897 came from virtual schools. In fact, as a percentage of their total enrollment, charter schools lost more students to scholarship programs (1.4%) than district-run schools did (1%). 

This means that the expanded scholarship program may be having a bigger impact on charter schools than districts. Charter schools, however, haven’t been as vocal about vouchers, and that is likely because charters continue to grow enrollment while district schools have started to shrink.  

Enrollment declines in some districts have been real, even if the blame on scholarships is misplaced.  

Declining enrollment is being driven by parent preferences – but also by shifting demographics and the ebb of the post-Covid population boom. Florida is one of the few states where overall K-12 population is expected to continue growing, but the growth will be uneven, and every school will have to compete for students. 

Even as they face intense competition and demographic headwinds, Florida’s charter schools have kept growing. Some innovative district leaders have signaled a willingness to hear the demand signals from parents and create new solutions to meet their needs. 

Understanding what parents seek in private and charter schools, and how new public-school models can better meet those demands, would be a good place for districts to start. 

Pre-K and Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten (VPK) have also been major feeders for Florida’s scholarship programs. In 2024-25, 53,825 new scholarship students came from pre-K — somewhere between one-third and nearly half of all VPK students statewide.  

Public schools have limited Pre-K offerings. Statewide, there are less than one-third as many Pre-K students as kindergartners enrolled in public schools. Private schools, by contrast, have used it as a key pipeline to recruit future students. 

Districts have other avenues to respond to changing parent demands. Since 2014, when the Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA) was introduced as the Personal Learning Scholarship Accounts, districts have been allowed to offer classes and services to scholarship students.  

The passage of HB1 in 2023 transformed every state scholarship into an education savings account.  K-12 families now have more flexibility to use scholarships for “a la carte learning,” in which they pick and choose from a variety of educational options. By offering part-time instruction, tutoring, therapy, and other services, districts can win back students and the associated funding.  So far, 21 of Florida’s 67 districts have taken advantage of this opportunity, with 10 more in the pipeline. 

Florida’s enrollment shifts are real, but data shows the “voucher drain” narrative overstates the impact. The real challenge for districts is not money being “siphoned;” it is families choosing other options. Districts that adapt and compete for students will keep both enrollment and funding – leaving students, families and taxpayers better off.  

Nothing can stop Denise Lever. Not a raging wildfire and certainly not a state fire marshal’s effort to shut down her tutoring center by trying to impose regulations that could have forced her to spend $70,000 on building upgrades.

As one of the nation’s few female wildland firefighters in the late 1980s, Lever survived the hazing that came with being a woman in a male-dominated profession by proving herself and never backing down.

For example, take this story: Lever’s team had been dispatched to a California fire. Roads were closed, and the crew had to climb up a cliff to get into position. Loaded down with their gear, they pulled together and worked through the night.

“It was absolutely brutal,” Lever recalled. “It was hot. It was windy. Our hands were cut up from moving brush, and we lost gloves in the middle of the night, and we couldn’t find them on the fire line because of the debris.

As morning broke and a cold Pacific Ocean breeze stung their faces, the team huddled together in space blankets and reflected on their victory.

“The camaraderie and the sense of accomplishment, they’re irreplaceable,” Lever said.

Lever’s days of battling blazes ended when she got married and became a homeschool mom to three kids, but her trailblazing spirit stayed with her when she became an education entrepreneur.

In 2020, she opened Baker Creek Academy, a tutoring center/microschool to support homeschool families in Eagar, Arizona, just west of the New Mexico state line. The center operates four days a week for five hours per day and serves about 50 students, who attend on different days at various times. Baker Creek provides a host of supplemental services, primarily to homeschooled students, from one-on-one tutoring to limited classroom instruction and group projects to field trips. Students and parents can customize the services that best fit their needs. Baker Creek doesn’t keep attendance records because, Lever said, parents are the ones in charge.

After completing her city’s approval process, Baker Creek began operating in a historic commercial building once occupied by a church, shared with three other independent microschools.

One day, out of the blue, an official at the Arizona Office of the State Fire Marshal left Lever a voice mail message. He wanted to inspect her “school.”

“And I said, ‘No, not really, because we're not a school,’” she said.

As an experienced firefighter, Lever recognized a school designation for what it was: the potential kiss of death for her tutoring center.

Being labeled a school triggers a list of code restrictions intended for campuses that serve hundreds or sometimes thousands of students and often include sports fields, playgrounds, auditoriums, cafeterias, gymnasiums, classrooms, and offices.

On the line are often tens of thousands of dollars in mandated building changes, which are not required for other commercial buildings, such as dance studios and karate dojos.

Levers wasted no time. She contacted the Stand Together Edupreneur Resource Center, which offers guidance, but not legal advice, about regulatory issues. The representative encouraged Lever to contact the Institute for Justice, a national public interest law firm that specializes in education choice litigation and zoning issues.

IJ Senior Attorney Erica Smith Ewing sent a letter to the state’s fire inspector questioning the basis for the inspection.

“Ms. Lever successfully completed a local fire safety inspection in 2023 and has been operating successfully with no problems,” the letter said. “Your request to inspect her property was unexpected. Could you please explain why you wish to inspect her property? We do not currently represent Ms. Lever, and we hope that formal representation will be unnecessary.”

Lever said she faced the possibility of having to spend tens of thousands of dollars upgrading doors and electrical systems. Because the building was smaller than 10,000 square feet, she avoided the order to install a sprinkler system, which can cost $100,000.

However, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

“If the state was going to require some of these upgrades, that was just not going to be possible for (our landlord) to renew our lease,” she said, adding that she used the building to host summer programs and annual meetings for other microschool leaders who use her consulting services.

Lever also wondered why similar businesses weren’t targeted -- for example, a dance studio across the street that taught school-age students and operated similar hours to Baker Creek.

“Because she offered dance instead of math tutoring, her program was considered a trade, and our program was going to be shut down and treated like an education facility simply because we offered more of an academic program,” Lever said.

State officials performed the inspection, but finally backed down, offering only that the situation was a result of “confusion” and the Lever’s business wasn’t under their jurisdiction.

“Forcing Denise to follow regulations designed for sprawling, traditional schools would be both arbitrary and unconstitutional,” Ewing said. “More and more, we are seeing state and local governments hampering small, innovative microschools by forcing them into fire, zoning, and building regulations that never anticipated microschools and that make no sense being applied to what microschools do.”

In Georgia, local officials tried to force a microschool to comply with unnecessary inspections and building upgrades, in violation of state law protecting microschools. They backed down after a letter from IJ. And in Sarasota, Florida, Alison Rini, founder of Star Lab, nearly closed her doors this spring when the city interpreted the fire code to require she install a $100,000 fire sprinkler system, despite operating from a one-room building with multiple exits. Only after a donor provided a generous gift was she able to stay open.

“Teachers shouldn’t need lawyers to teach,” said IJ Attorney Mike Greenberg. “Bureaucrats shouldn’t use outdated and ill-fitting regulations to stifle parents and students from choosing the innovative education options that best suit their needs.”

Lever said the state’s decision to back off sets a precedent that will help other microschools across Arizona.

“I was definitely willing to go forth with the lawsuit,” she said. “At this point, though, we’re going to take our win. We’re going to publicize it so the other microschools will know what their options are.”

CLEARWATER, Fla. – Gedontae “Duke” Rich never considered himself Ivy League material until, as a high school junior, he was approached by a football coach from Princeton University who offered a scholarship.

Not long after, he received a similar offer from a football coach at Cornell University.

“The college scholarship part, I could probably see myself doing that,” Duke said. “But an Ivy League school? That wasn't even a thought. I didn't know I was capable of that until I got the offers.”

What to do? Princeton or Cornell?

“I told him there was no wrong decision,” said Chris Harvey, the football coach at Clearwater Central Catholic High School (CCC).

Duke, a standout safety who played four years of varsity football at CCC, picked Cornell, an Ivy League school in Ithaca, New York.

“It’s a chill atmosphere,” he said. “It’s an Ivy League degree, but everyone is not there to be a rocket scientist.”

Duke graduated in May from CCC, having attended the college-preparatory high school with the help of a Family Empowerment Scholarship for Educational Options, managed by Step Up For Students.

“You don't really see too many young Black men from where I'm from and where we grew up that are able to keep focused, keep their grades up, and go to an Ivy League school,” said Duke’s father, Gedontae Rich. “That speaks volumes.”

***

Duke grew up in St. Petersburg, about 30 minutes south of CCC. He’s been called Duke his whole life – “I was always calling him ‘Duke’ since he was little, crawling around, and it just stuck,” Gedontae said – and he attended CCC for what seems like that long.

Duke and his cousin, Jershaun Newton, have been fixtures at CCC football practices and games since they were 8. That’s when the first two of the five Newton brothers, who played football at CCC, began attending the school. Duke and Jershaun were everywhere, acting as ballboys and waterboys. As they grew older, they found their way into the weight room and the practice field.

So, there was never a question in Duke’s mind about where he would attend high school. He was going to CCC to play football and earn a college football scholarship just like his cousins. Jershaun, who also graduated this spring, will continue his career at the University of Illinois.

The education choice scholarship made that possible.

“The scholarship was a great help to us. It helped us out tremendously,” Gedontae said. “I believe if you apply yourself, CCC, it can definitely get you somewhere where you want to be. If you're a hard worker and want to do something in life, CCC will definitely help you get there.”

Coach Harvey has a saying: Four will get you 40, meaning four years of hard work and good grades in high school will lead to a college education that will lead to a successful life.

Duke’s hard work on the field helped him become a mainstay on a team that reached the state championship game during each of his last three seasons.

An honors student through elementary and middle school, Duke put forth the same effort in the classroom.

“I worked super hard, I was super strict my freshman year, and I started with a 4.3 GPA,” he said. “I already set a precedent and a standard, so why not keep going?”

Dr. Roshni Verghese teaches English at CCC and had Duke in her class during three of his four years.

“He was the first one to finish class work. If I assigned homework, he did it to the best of his ability; he didn’t just phone it in,” she said. “He truly enjoys having goals and fulfilling them. He doesn't like doing things halfheartedly. So, all these qualities, the fact that he is hard working, the fact that he knows he can challenge himself, and he enjoys the thrill of seeing that to the end, I think all those things make him a great student.”

It takes all of those qualities to reach an Ivy League school. And it takes great support from home.

“We pushed hard every day. I pushed him. My mom pushed him,” said Gedontae, who supervises asphalt and concrete crews for the City of St. Petersburg. “From day one, when he was little, we always said, ‘You've got to work hard.’ He sees me get up and go to work every day, working hard. I let him know every time, life ain't easy. There won’t be any handouts. So, you've got to get up and work for whatever you want.”

***

Dr. Verghese said Duke moved easily between his two worlds of athletics and academics.

“Being in this position of someone who is both great on the field and in class, he ended up being a role model for a lot of his classmates who may not have been able to balance both the same way, and they do look up to him,” she said. “They do respect him.

“I don't think there's a single student at our school who doesn't know who Duke Rich is. He’s done it all, the trifecta. He's popular, he's great at sports, great at academics.”

“Duke's a chameleon. He can fit in in a bunch of different places,” Coach Harvey said. “He's a great football player. He plays the game the way it was intended to be played, very physical and fast, and at the same time, he has the ability to flip that switch and go into a classroom and be as successful as he's been.”

Duke said CCC’s culture played a role in that. No matter where he roamed – the football field, the classroom – he was surrounded by hardworking, motivated classmates.

“Nothing is given. It's all deserved,” he said. “Like everybody here has something they deserve because they put in the work. That’s the CCC community. We’re hard workers.”

Duke chose Cornell because he found the culture there similar to CCC’s. He connected quickly with the coaching staff. He found the students he met on his recruiting trip to be encouraging, not intimidating. Ithaca is a small town that offers very little in terms of distractions.

“I chose that school because I can stay focused,” he said. “It’s an old town. Everyone is calm.”

Duke plans to study environmental sustainability science so he can pursue a career that involves climate and climate change.

“I’m always interested in the health of the world,” he said. “During freshman year, I realized climate change is the main reason why everything is happening, and then when I decided to major in environmental sustainability science, I knew I’d have the route to fix that type of thing.”

A scholarship, an Ivy League degree, and a desire to save the world. That’s Duke’s four for 40.

“I knew that he had what it took, and it’s nice to see him step into the bigger world,” Dr. Verghese said. “He’s ready for the bigger world. As a teacher, it’s exciting to see how his potential will grow.”

 

 

By George Mitchell

The parents of nearly 60,000 Wisconsin children choose to enroll them in one of the state’s private school choice programs.

Giving parents that choice is popular public policy. Polling shows voter support, across party lines, in all Wisconsin media markets.

Opposition is strong from the public education establishment and elected officials they support.

Exhibit A: Jill Underly, superintendent of the Department of Public Instruction (DPI). The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this year that “[S]he’d like to see the 35-year voucher program ultimately eliminated.”

Her position is directly at odds with the DPI’s ranking of schools. Official DPI Report Cards give the private schools higher marks despite funding at a fraction of public school levels,

A new analysis from School Choice Wisconsin (SCW) documents the striking productivity edge of private choice schools.

The SCW report relies solely on DPI data and uses conservative assumptions that negate possible school choice bias. For example, the report compares students from families with income eligibility limits with students from families of all incomes. Further, it understates a significant revenue advantage of traditional public schools by excluding federal aid.

The pioneering Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) shows the greatest productivity advantage. While per pupil revenue in the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is 38% higher than in MPCP schools, DPI’s Report Card ranking of MPS is 21% lower.  See below.

	DPI Report Card Score (Scale 0-100)	Per Pupil Revenue
MPCP*	70.8	$11,905
MPS**	55.7	$16,442

*  Eligibility limited to families at or below 300% of Federal Poverty Limit.

** MPS families of all income levels.

The following compares per pupil revenue and DPI Report Card scores for the Racine Parental Choice Program and the Racine Unified School District.

	DPI Report Card Score (Scale 0-100)	Per Pupil Revenue
RPCP*	72.7	$11,905
RUSD**	61.3	$14,629

*  Eligibility limited to families at or below 300% of Federal Poverty Limit.

** RUSD families of all income levels.

Lastly, the following compares scores and revenue for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (students outside Milwaukee and Racine) with schools outside of Milwaukee and Racine.

	DPI Report Card Score (Scale 0-100)	Per Pupil Revenue
WPCP*	71.8	$11,905
Statewide Public**	69.8	$15,340

*  Eligibility limited to families at or below 220% of Federal Poverty Limit.

** Families of all income levels. Excludes MPS and RUSD.

The SCW findings reinforce a 2019 study by Corey DeAngelis, Ph.D., a scholar whose research has appeared in: Social Science Quarterly; School Effectiveness and School Improvement; Educational Review; Peabody Journal of Education; Journal of School Choice; and Journal of Private Enterprise.

Separate scholarship, by Patrick Wolf, Ph.D., and DeAngelis, examined the effects of Milwaukee’s parental choice program on adult criminal activity and paternity suits.  They found that “exposure to the program … is associated with a reduction of around 53 percent in drug convictions, 86 percent in property damage convictions, and 38 percent in paternity suits. The program effects tend to be largest for males and students with lower levels of academic achievement at baseline.”

A study for the Annenberg Institute at Brown University found: “As of 2018, [Milwaukee choice] students have spent more total years in a four-year college than their MPS peers. The MPCP students in the grade three through eight sample attained college degrees at rates that are statistically significantly higher than those of their matched MPS peers.”

 George Mitchell is a School Choice Wisconsin volunteer.

References

DeAngelis, C.A. (2019, May 14). A wise investment: The productivity of public and private schools of choice in Wisconsin. School Choice Wisconsin. https://schoolchoicewi.org/news/research/return-on-investment/

DeAngelis, C.A., & Wolf, P.J. (2019, February 26). Private school choice and character: More evidence from Milwaukee. School Choice Wisconsin. https://schoolchoicewi.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Private-School-Choice-and-Character-More-Evidence-from-Milwaukee.pdf

Meyerhofer, K. (2025, March 28). Wisconsin superintendent calls for cutting school choice. Her opponent is mum on program expansion. Journal Sentinel.https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/education/2025/03/28/wisconsin-superintendent-jill-underly-calls-for-cutting-school-choice/82652247007/

School Choice Wisconsin. (2023, August 30). The cost-effectiveness of Wisconsin’s private school choice programs. https://schoolchoicewi.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/The-Cost-Effectiveness-of-Wisconsins-Private-School-Choice-Programs.pdf

School Choice Wisconsin. (2025, August 12). Wisconsin’s Most Cost-Effective K-12 Platform. https://schoolchoicewi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Wisconsins-Most-Cost-Effective-K-12-Program.pdf

Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. (2024, November 19). School & district report cards. https://apps2.dpi.wi.gov/reportcards/

Wolf, P.J., Witte, J.F., & Kisida, B. (2019, August 12). Do Vouchers Students Attain Higher Levels of Education? Extended Evidence from the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program. https://edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai19-115.pdf

TAMPA, Fla. – It was July 2024, and Jack Canterbury celebrated a birthday. His 14^th. That led to a question he had been waiting a while to ask his mother.

“Can I get a job?”

Maria Canterbury had promised her son he could start working when he reached that age, and Jack had some employment opportunities in mind. Making subs at a sandwich shop. Busing tables at a restaurant. Playing in the NBA, but he knew he was too young for that.

Well …, said Maria.

Jack, who has Down syndrome, was about to enter the seventh grade at Morning Star School. He attended the K-8 Catholic school in Tampa for students with learning disabilities on a Family Empowerment Scholarship for Students with Unique Abilities (FES-UA), managed by Step Up For Students.

Morning Star does not have a cafeteria, so the only food available to students and staff during the day is whatever they bring for lunch.

After some thought, mom and son had what Maria described as a “bright idea.”

How about a vending machine at the school that sells healthy snacks and drinks? They have a close family friend who is in the vending machine business. Surely, he could help them out.

“Jack loved it,” Maria said.

But would anyone else? Would Morning Star Principal Eileen Odom go for the idea? Would parents, ever mindful of what their children eat, allow them to buy a snack out of a machine?

The answer to both questions was a resounding yes.

Odom knew of an empty space in a mid-campus hallway that was just the right size for a vending machine. Her maintenance staff agreed, saying they would do whatever it took to make it work.

“The spot couldn’t have been more perfect,” Maria said. “It was just waiting for a vending machine. It was meant to be.”

The family friend gave them a deal on a used vending machine, and SNacks by jACK 321 opened for business early in the 2024-25 school year.

“It’s been a nice treat for our students,” Odom said. “We started small, because we didn’t know how parents would react to snacks at school, but it just took off.”

Maria said the whole family came up with the name of Jack’s business – She and her husband Jason, Jack and his sister, Kate.

The capital letters spell “snack,” and 321 is for Trisomy 21, which is the medical term for Down syndrome. Also, March 21 (3/21) is World Down Syndrome Day.

SNacks by jACK 321 is stocked with Funyuns and Sun Chips. Skinny Pop and Barnum’s Animal Crackers. Gatorade, iced tea, sparkling water, and lemonade. And Diet Coke, but that’s only for the teachers.

The snacks and drinks cost between 50 cents and $1.25, and customers can pay with coins, credit cards, and Apple Pay. Jack donated 10% of the proceeds to Morning Star.

Jack is learning about running a business one box of animal crackers at a time. He has to track inventory and handle money. On weekends, he and his parents head to Sam’s Club for supplies. Jack and Maria restock the machine at least once a week.

“I think this is an amazing thing for Jack,” Odom said. “He has a real entrepreneurial spirit.”

Vanessa Florance, who taught Jack last year at Morning Star, said Jack’s side hustle turned into a learning experience for his schoolmates. She watched students learn to count change before making a selection and learn which number on the number pad corresponds with which snack. There was also a writing pad on the wall opposite the machine where students could leave suggestions for additional snacks, which they did.

“It was all these little lessons for everybody,” Florance said.

Jack said his first year as an entrepreneur was fun.

“And I like spending time with my mother,” he added.

Jack is one of the more personable students at the school. Also, one with deep faith. He carries a copy of the Ten Commandments in the small satchel he wears at all times, and while not Catholic, he participates in school-wide mass and is very inquisitive about the Bible verses he learned in religion class.

“He always made sure to greet me in the hallway, saying ‘Good morning,’ or ‘Good afternoon,’” said Morning Star teacher Jennifer Almedia. “And if I didn’t see him for some reason, he would make it a point to come and find me and make sure I saw him. He never misses an opportunity to greet his teachers.”

Maria and Jason have not treated Jack differently because he has Down syndrome. He’s expected to do his share of chores around the house and is allowed to dream as big as he wants. One of Jack’s dreams is to be an NBA superstar.

“We anticipate him going through high school, going to college of his choice, with specific programs,” Maria said.

They have already looked into ClemsonLIFE, a program at Clemson University for students with intellectual disabilities.

“He knows expectations are for him to further his education outside of high school,” Maria said. “Now, if you ask him, he wants to drive, join the military, get married, and have kids. Not sure he'll be able to do all of those things in that order, but that's what he envisions himself doing, and we don't tell him any differently.”

One thing Jack won’t do, though, is graduate from Morning Star, the school he attended in the sixth and seventh grades.

Because the school only goes through grade eight, Maria and Jason would have to look for a high school that can accommodate Jack’s needs. In the spring, they entered a lottery for a charter school near their Wesley Chapel home, and, to their surprise, Jack was accepted. The school is grades 3-12 and has a post-high school transition program.

“We absolutely love Morning Star,” Maria said. “We wish they went through high school, but unfortunately, they do not at this moment in time.”

Jack will remain on the FES-UA scholarship, using the education savings account to pay for his therapies.

While Jack will no longer attend Morning Star, his vending machine will remain. Jack and his mom will stop by every week to check the inventory, keep it stocked, and check the notepad for any suggestions.

“Jack’s not technically leaving,” Odom said.

“SNacks by jACK lives on.”

 

Recently, someone representing a state official responded to an Arizona media outlet inquiry about the Empowerment Scholarship Accounts program and referred to “tutoring and babysitting.” Consequently, Arizona’s school district industrial lobbying complex went predictably bananas, even though babysitting is not now, nor ever has been an allowable expense under the program. Even though the official has since clarified their statement to note that babysitting is not an allowable expense. Blah blah blah no age requirements for tutoring yadda yadda yadda (move on to the next manufactured outrage).

This is all to do about nothing, but it is worthwhile to pause a moment to note that tutoring centers with strong reputations do routinely hire high school students for tutoring positions. I am aware of this because two of my children tutored math as high school students, and one became an assistant center director as a high school student. The companies establish the mathematical abilities of tutors before hiring them by testing them and then give them established protocols to follow. If they prove ineffective, they lose customers. A great many Arizona high school students are not only completely capable of math tutoring, but I am also willing to wager that neither me nor m(any) of Arizona’s journalism community would fare well against them in a mathematics contest.

Now…about this babysitting business. The Arizona school district industrial lobbying complex and their oh-so-willing media dupes grousing about “babysitting” is too rich for words.

In the 2024 NAEP, 49% of Arizona fourth grade students attending district schools scored “below basic” in reading. I’m not sure what those students were doing over the past five years, but it did not seem to involve much, well, learning. If we break out Arizona district scores apart from the students attending charter schools, eighth grade reading looked like this in 2024:

Usual caveats apply (sampling, raw scores imperfect proxy for school quality etc.) but —cough — if anyone is engaged in babysitting, you don’t want to go searching for it in tutoring centers: Arizona school district reading scores seem to indicate that they have jumped into babysitting with both feet.

Speaking of tutoring math, NAEP also tests math. Perhaps things won’t look so bad for Arizona school districts if we examine the math scores. Or then again, maybe not:

So, there is a brisk trade in tutoring in Arizona, and we are in no position to turn up our noses at bright and capable high school tutors for younger students. As for babysitting, it seems to be in mass production in Arizona’s district schools.