School choice key for Hispanic families

Not long ago, Nevadans were celebrating the arrival of Educational Savings Accounts, which would have marked a new era for parents looking to give their children a better shot in life. Unfortunately, special interests have blocked the doors of opportunity for the 4,100 children already enrolled in ESAs and those waiting to sign up next week.

This week is National School Choice Week. It's a perfect time for parents — particularly Hispanics — to demand more control over how and where their children are educated, and to dispel misinformation about school choice and ESAs.

Under Nevada's new ESA law — now in legal limbo — more than 150,000 low-income families and households with disabled children can qualify for about $5,700 per year, per child. All other families can qualify for about $5,100 per child. These funds represent up to 90 percent of the average amount the state spends per student in a school year. They can be used for private school tuition, books, fees to enroll in a virtual school, curriculum materials, specialized services or therapies for a student with a disability, transportation and tutoring, and other qualified expenses.

This would put money — and education decisions — in the hands of those who know their children best: parents.

Hispanic families understand how school choice helps their children — an overwhelming 73 percent of Hispanics favor Education Savings Accounts, and similar levels of support exist for other educational options as well. We know that a better education leads to better opportunities for our children.

And we need those opportunities now. Forty percent of Nevada students are Hispanic, and Hispanic public-schoolers underperform their white, non-Hispanic peers by 21 points in math and 22 points in reading. By contrast, in Florida, where school choice has been embraced, Hispanic students outscored or tied the statewide reading average of all students in 21 states and the District of Columbia in 2010.

Hispanic children in the Silver State deserve better. For a state that receives a "D" rating in giving students a chance to succeed, this reform is a crucial.

Nevertheless, special interest groups are working against these innovative programs, at the expense of the achievement of low-income and minority students — the very groups of students that stand to benefit the most.

Our top priority must be students, not underperforming institutions. Money should follow the student, instead of serving the interests of bureaucrats and unions. School choice allows low-income or disadvantaged students to do what those with wealthier parents can do: escape bad schools and access high-quality education. Hispanics are especially poised to benefit; according to a 2013 study by researchers at Stanford, Hispanic students in poverty have greater learning gains at charter schools than other students.

Sadly, there is an overall lack of knowledge about ESAs, and those who advocate for special interest groups are using this to spread misinformation about the program. Stories about public schools being left to fail because of school choice are untrue. One of the great benefits of the ESAs is they promote accountability in the use of tax dollars, as well as for teachers and institutions. Good teachers and high-performing schools will not only still maintain their funding when ESAs are in place, but they may even see funding increases, as excellence is recognized and rewarded with higher enrollment and thus more funding.

Opponents of these common-sense steps have turned to scare tactics, but the truth is Nevada schools can only get better with school choice. In a diverse community that seeks equality and opportunity for all, we can start by empowering parents and giving students of all races and income levels the opportunity to access the best education they can.

— Rachel Campos-Duffy is the national spokeswoman for The LIBRE Institute, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that educates Hispanics on the importance of economic freedom.