Is paperwork more important than a child's education?
The East African Maasai people offer one another a traditional greeting, “Kasserian Ingera,” that translates to “and how are the children?” This greeting, spoken by all community members—including those without children of their own—highlights the value the Massai place on their youth, as well as how they orient their decisions. The eruption of educational choice laws in the United States in 2023 can be viewed as a legislative reaction that occurs when the response to Maasai interrogatory is found wanting. The need for system-wide change in K-12 education was made clear with the onset of Covid-19.
Newly passed programs may eventually result in millions of American children taking advantage of educational opportunities once reserved for those whose families could afford either the cost of private school tuition or moving into neighborhoods with high-quality zoned schools. Various states across the nation, including Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa, and Florida, have passed school choice laws in the form of education savings accounts, vouchers, tax credit scholarship programs, and charter schools.
However, even as these laws usher in a new era in K-12 education, the impact of the programs will not be fully realized if outdated local and state laws effectively ask whether the paperwork is in order, rather than asking the crucial question: “and how are the children?”
Continue reading the full article w/citations in the Belmont Law Review.