A Republican congressman from Virginia on Tuesday introduced the Children Have Opportunities in Classrooms Everywhere Act in the 118th Congress, seeking to strengthen students’ ability to attend the schools of their choice.
Rep. Bob Good’s CHOICE Act aims to counter what he sees as leftist control of the education system by providing low-income families with the ability to have federal education funds follow their children to the schools of their choice or to deposit the funds into a 529 savings account.
Good’s bill would strengthen low-income families’ ability to send their children to better public schools or private schools, or to homeschool them, or to cover other education expenses.
“Authoritarian coronavirus lockdowns exposed the grip teachers unions have on our public school education system,” Good, who represents Virginia’s 5th Congressional District, said in a press release Tuesday. “Increased parental attention to their children’s classrooms helped expose the woke agenda items, critical race theory, and racist discrimination towards scholarship awards.”
Now more than ever, parents want to have more of a choice in where their kids go to school. The CHOICE Act aims to give students and parents the ability to remove the bureaucracy tied to education funding and ensure that no student’s future falls victim to political games.
The bill would also help streamline existing federal funding programs by placing them into two grant formulas.
“This legislation provides parents and students the opportunity to take control of their own academic future, rather than be forced into a one-size-fits-all solution,” Good added. “Every student should have the opportunity to succeed.”
Good’s bill, introduced during National School Choice Week, has two Republican co-sponsors, Reps. Mary Miller of Illinois and Michael Burgess of Texas.
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