School Choice

School choice is a wide array of programs aimed at giving families the opportunity to choose the school their children will attend. As a matter of form, school choice does not give preference to one form of schooling or another, rather manifests itself whenever a student attends school outside of the one they would have been assigned to by geographic default. The most common options offered by school choice programs are open enrollment laws that allow students to attend other public schools, private schools, charter schools, tax credit and deductions for expenses related to schooling, vouchers, and homeschooling. In U.S. political discourse it refers exclusively to programs that would provide public funds to privately run schools, since parents already have the option of sending their child to the private school of their choice (within their economic means).