School choice comes in many different varieties (school vouchers, public charter schools, education savings accounts, and more), but nothing is quite like the freedom of choice provided by the nonprofit group Parents Challenge.
Based in Colorado Springs, Colo., the group has given more educational freedom to more than 2,000 low-income students over the last 18 years. Students who choose to attend private school get scholarships up to $2,000, paid to the private school of the student’s choice. But what’s truly unique is the $1,000 grants available to eligible students attending a traditional public school, a charter school, or anyone that’s home-schooled: Subject to approval (to prevent fraud) from Parents Challenge, parents can spend the grants on whatever education expense they choose, whether it’s computers, tutoring, extracurriculars, transportation, or uniforms.
“We’re into empowering parents,” Steve Schuck, one of the group’s founders, told the Washington Examiner. “And we don’t tell them what choice to make. We educate them, we train them, provide them all kinds of information … so they can make an enlightened choice. But damn it, it’s their choice, and it’s not for us to decide whether it’s only private or public, or which choice to make.”
The closest similarity might be the education savings accounts that some state governments fill with a portion of per-pupil spending and allow parents to use on pre-approved educational expenses. But Parents Challenge doesn’t just stop at giving away money: Students are required to have a C-grade average or better, and parents have to volunteer 10 hours per semester at school and attend required “parent empowerment sessions.”
These sessions, open to the general public as well, provide dinner and child care. Experts are brought in to cover a wide range of topics, including parenting skills, college prep, how to handle bullying, and even personal finances.
“We’re a change agent,” Schuck says. “If we teach parents how to take control over the education of their kids, then the next step will be healthcare, and the step after that will be housing.” Schuck hopes to help end the “self-perpetuating cycle” of poverty and dependency on government.
Even as a nonprofit organization that doesn’t use taxpayer dollars, Parents Challenge has faced opposition. Naturally, teachers’ unions (the Colorado Education Association and the National Education Association) oppose most forms of school choice and have been “doing battle” (in Shuck’s words) against Parents Challenge for 20 years. The group has also gotten opposition from those who don’t trust low-income parents to make wise choices for their child’s education.
But Parents Challenge has also seen bipartisan support. There’s the natural support from conservatives who support school choice, but also support from Democratic politicians, including Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo. A Bennet quote on the Parents Challenge website says:
In some states, corporate or individual donors can get a special income tax credit for donating to nonprofit organizations that give out scholarships to private schools. No such tax credit exists in Colorado, so Parents Challenge has relied on donors with little government help (other than rhetorical support from politicians). Funders have included, at one time or another, John Walton (of the Walmart-founding Walton family), Milton Friedman (often called the father of school choice), and Phil Anschutz (owner of the Washington Examiner, among other businesses).
With such sustained success in the Colorado Springs area, Schuck thinks the Parents Challenge model can work in other cities across the country. A 25-page Affiliate Start-up Guide given to the Washington Examiner details the “why” and the “how” for expansion. Schuck aims to start in “second-tier” cities that are roughly the same size as Colorado Springs (for reference, El Paso County, home to Colorado Springs, has roughly the same population as the counties which are home to Ft. Myers, Fla.; Nashville, Tenn.; Birmingham, Ala.; and Albuquerque, N.M.).
All it takes is a handful of local leaders to volunteer their time, donors, and parents who want more financial freedom to give their children a great education.
