I have spent nearly 30 years in independent school education, moving from classroom teacher to state-level leader, and in that time, my understanding of what school choice actually means has shifted in ways I did not expect.
When most people hear “private school,” they picture wealth and exclusivity, and historically, that picture was accurate. Independent schools have existed for centuries, but for most of that time, access was determined by a family’s bank account rather than a child’s needs. I lived and worked inside that world long enough to know both its strengths and its limitations.
What changed me was watching what happens when the financial barrier comes down.
I have a friend’s son who struggled through middle school in ways that are hard to watch from the outside, and I can only imagine it was harder to experience firsthand. He didn’t quite fit the social norms of his peers. He was falling behind in his coursework. He was being bullied, and the stress of that was spilling over at home. His family was doing everything right, and it wasn’t enough because the educational environment wasn’t right for him.
Through North Carolina’s ESA+ program, his family was able to enroll him at Noble Academy in Greensboro, a school designed to serve students who learn differently. What happened next is the reason I do this work. He grasped the content. He found a community where he belonged. He built friendships that carried him through the rest of high school. Those of us who know him believe, without reservation, that this changed the trajectory of his life.
I want to be clear about something, because I think it matters. I believe deeply in the importance of a strong public school system. That belief does not conflict with my advocacy for school choice. They are not opposites. Families choose independent schools for countless reasons: alignment of values, pedagogical approach, community, faith, or simply the sense that a particular school is the right fit for their child. What school choice makes possible is that this decision no longer has to be reserved for families with the means to pay for it. And for some students, like my friend’s son, access to the right environment isn’t just a preference. It’s the difference between struggling and thriving. For most of our history, that access was reserved for families who could pay for it out of pocket.
School choice changes that. It is not a threat to public education. It is an acknowledgment that children are not interchangeable and that families who cannot write a tuition check deserve the same options as those who can.
That is the equity argument. And it is why I advocate for school choice.
