Rep. Burlison: It’s time to expand education freedom and choice in Missouri

America’s failing education system desperately needs reforms to return power to families and away from the government. That’s why Republican lawmakers nationwide have been leading the charge in passing education choice policies.

As President Donald Trump said four years ago, “Each child is a gift from God who has boundless potential and deserves a fair shot at the American Dream.”

But to have that fair shot, Trump explained, “children and their families must be free to pursue an educational environment that matches their individual learning style, develops their unique talents, and prepares them with the knowledge and character needed for fulfilling and productive lives.”

Three years ago, Missouri’s Republican legislature heard this call and implemented the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Accounts policy (MOScholars), which empowers families with the freedom to choose the schools and other learning environments that align with their values and best meet their children’s learning needs. Under MOScholars, low-income families and parents of students with special needs can receive scholarships worth $6,375 to spend on tuition, textbooks, tutoring, curriculum, educational therapy, transportation costs, and more.

Now the legislature recently passed a bill to expand MOScholars to more families.

Sponsored by Sen. Andrew Koenig, SB 727 expands eligibility for MOScholars from 200% to 300% of the federal poverty level, or from $62,400 to $93,600 for a family of four. Under the previous law, the children of a typical firefighter, police officer or registered nurse in Missouri were not eligible, but now that SB 727 has been signed into law, they will be.

The bill doesn’t go as far as I would like — ideally, all students would be eligible — but it’s clearly a step in the right direction for Missouri families.

Why? Because school choice is one of the most important things we can do if we are going to save America and save Missouri. The alternative is to continue on the same path and believe that somehow the current style education — government-run schools indoctrinating our children into anti-American, anti-freedom beliefs — will somehow produce anything but more socialists.

There has been a lot of falsehoods and conspiracy theories targeted at conservatives in an effort to stamp out school choice.

Some critics of school choice have claimed that education choice policies like MOScholars increase regulations on private and home schools. These concerns are understandable but misplaced. If that were true, I certainly wouldn’t support it.

Another false claim being made is that the bill would ban guns in homes used for homeschooling. That is simply untrue, as the Missouri Firearms Coalition has made clear.

Critics have misinterpreted a line in the bill which defines a “home school” as a type of school for purposes of meeting the state’s compulsory education requirement. However, this language is not new — in fact, it is directly imported from the state’s existing homeschool statute, and has never been interpreted to incorporate all the regulations governing public, charter, and private schools.

The reality is that the conservative lawmakers who enacted MOScholars made sure that guardrails against government control are in place. For example, the statute already ensures that a private school which voluntarily accepts MOScholars funds from participating families “shall not be considered an agent of the state or federal government due to its acceptance of the payment” and “shall not be required to alter its creed, practices, admissions policy, or curriculum.”

I greatly respect homeschoolers who want to pay their own way and keep their distance from government interference. My own children do part of their schooling at home. To alleviate their concerns, the bill even explicitly distinguishes between traditional homeschoolers, who do not use MOScholars funds, and “family paced education” (FPE) schools, which do.

However, there are lots of families with children stuck in failing government schools where their children are too often indoctrinated with woke ideology. Our state and our country would be better off if those families had access to MOScholars so they could choose schools that work for their kids and reflect their values.

As Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation of Children and Jason Bedrick of The Heritage Foundation recently wrote at Fox News, “States with more school choice generally have more freedom to homeschool.”

DeAngelis and Bedrick explain that many of the best states for homeschooling according to the Home School Legal Defense Association also have universal or nearly universal school choice policies. Likewise, most of the worst states for homeschooling don’t have any school choice policies at all.

Education choice policies put parents in charge instead of politicians and unelected bureaucrats. Conservatives who support stronger families and less government should support school choice.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Burlison: Time to expand education freedom and choice in Missouri