There is a new report out from the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, “More than Scores: An Analysis of Why and How Parents Choose Private Schools.” The study examines survey responses from 754 parents with students in Georgia’s GOAL Scholarship Program, an organization that awards scholarships under the state’s tax credit scholarship law.
Here are the some of the key findings:
- Surveyed parents were overwhelmingly satisfied with their private school choice, with 98.6 percent of parents being “very satisfied” or “satisfied” with their decision to send their children to a private school using a GOAL scholarship.
- The top five reasons parents chose a private school for their children are all related to school climate and classroom management, including “better student discipline” (50.9 percent), “better learning environment” (50.8 percent), “smaller class sizes” (48.9 percent), “improved student safety” (46.8 percent), and “more individual attention for my child” (39.3 percent).
- Student performance on standardized test scores is one of the least important pieces of information upon which parents base their decision regarding the private school to which they send their children. Only 10.2 percent of the parents who completed the survey listed higher standardized test scores as one of their top five reasons they chose a particular private school for their child.
- Contrary to the assertions of some school choice opponents, low-income parents, single parents, African-American parents, and parents with less than a college education are willing and able to be informed and active education consumers on behalf of their children.
This study is just another example of the benefits that can come from expanding school choice. Moreover, it helps demonstrate that tax credit scholarships can be an effective tool in expanding options for families. As I have written before, tax credit scholarships would be a great option for families in Missouri.
