January 22 – 28, 2023
This year National School Choice week is
January 22-28.
APESF was founded 25 years ago out of a passion to help families afford the educational environment that is right for them. To date, we have helped over 17,700 Arizona students with tax credit tuition scholarships.
School choice refers to the idea that families should have the ability to choose where their children go to school, rather than being limited to the school that is assigned to them based on their home address. There are a variety of ways that school choice can be implemented, including:
- Public school choice: This refers to programs that allow families to choose which public school their child attends, regardless of the school’s location. This can include programs like magnet schools, open enrollment policies, and charter schools.
- Private school choice: This refers to programs that provide financial assistance to families to help them afford to send their children to private schools. This can include vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts.
- Homeschooling: This refers to the practice of educating children at home, rather than sending them to a traditional school.
Overall, the goal of school choice is to give families more control over their children’s education and to provide more options for finding the best educational fit for their children.
School choice is important because it gives families the ability to select the best educational option for their children, which can help improve academic outcomes and increase student participation and satisfaction. The National Bureau of Economic Research completed a study which found that among children of low socio-economic status the ability to participate in school choice programs ultimately, increased secondary school completion rates by 15–20 percent.
When families have a range of education choices, it can also lead to increased competition among schools, which can drive improvements in the quality of education that every child receives. School choice also offers families the opportunity to find schools that align with their values and learning philosophies or schools that cater to the needs of children who have unique needs or who may not thrive in a traditional school setting.
Here are the stories of local families who took advantage of Arizona's many school choice options.
