During Tuesday’s House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing, Rep. Mark Messmer (R-IN) questioned experts about how school choice will push schools to improve through competition.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Gentleman from Indiana, Mr. Messmer is recognized for for five minutes. Thank
00:06you. My home state of Indiana stands as a national leader in pro-school choice
00:11legislation. Back in 2011 our state legislator passed the Indiana's Choice
00:16Scholarship Program that has become since become the largest single voucher
00:20program in the United States. This session the House is looking to pass
00:24universal school choice vouchers that would further increase options for
00:28Hoosier families to educate their children in the best environment that
00:31fits their individual needs. At the federal level as we members of Congress
00:37should follow these steps. I'm proud to join my friend Rep. Adrian Smith and
00:42other distinguished colleagues on this committee in co-sponsoring the Education
00:46Choice for Children Act, a bill that would provide K through 12 scholarships
00:50to as many as 2 million students across the country to attend the school that
00:54best meets their needs. Dr. McShane, Indiana is a leader in school choice
00:59reform creating the largest voucher program in the country and it's seen a
01:0332% growth this past year. Now the state is looking to move universal
01:08vouchers allowing parents to choose specialized programs that fit their
01:12children's needs or schools that align with the religious and moral values
01:16regardless of their income level. How would a federal universal program like
01:19this fit into Milton Friedman's idea of a government's role in
01:23education? I think it would be relatively well aligned with that. As I
01:29mentioned Milton Friedman's idea which is oftentimes caricatured to be a sort
01:33of free-for-all of schools, he thought that schools could be independently
01:39operated, parents could freely choose between them, but the state would play a
01:44role in financially supporting them which sounds like what would be
01:47happening in that in that bill. Okay thank you and just to clarify in
01:52Indiana to accept vouchers a school must submit to the same accountability
01:55standards as any of the public school. As a follow-up to that Mr. McShane, do
02:00you think it is possible that giving parents choice to what is best for their
02:05option including vouchers, charters, and unrestricted public-to-public transfers
02:10could lead to better outcomes for all students by creating competition?
02:14Yes, I mean as I mentioned earlier there's a very strong empirical
02:18literature on the competitive effects of private school vouchers. It's a
02:22consistent finding, meta-analyses, studies of studies that put these together have
02:27found that result. I have no reason to believe that it wouldn't continue into
02:30the future. Thank you. Mr. Blanks, one of the important aspects of Education Choice
02:35for Children Act is that it creates a lifeline for students trapped in local
02:39schools, school districts, or states that will likely never pass school choice
02:43policies for themselves. It's vital that these students have access to educational
02:47options. You live in a state that established a voucher program but not
02:51every student is so fortunate. Why do you think is important for students
02:54nationwide rather than just select states to have choice?
02:57Yeah well thank you for that question and it's it's absolutely vital because
03:01like you alluded to there are some states that have been slow to pass
03:04school choice legislation at the state level and so the ECCA would allow some
03:09of those families who are currently being locked out of options to tap into
03:14some of those to some of those dollars and and now I live in Tennessee where
03:17the governor was monumental in passing the educational safety account for for
03:22the state and so for a state like ours when we're my wife and I are talking
03:26about you know where we're going to send our son what is his educational bring up
03:29going to look like with the ECCA on top of a state-level you know program that
03:34means more resources, more access, more opportunities really for me as a father
03:39to be in the driver's seat of my child's education. Thank you. Mrs. Clark
03:43there are many families in my district in Indiana who are affected by learning
03:46disorders like your children and need the benefit of choosing a program that
03:50will fit the needs of their child and learning disabilities. Indiana implemented
03:55a similar program called the Indiana education scholarship account that
03:58provides access to students with disabilities and their families access
04:02to education environment the best needs their needs. As a parent how do you think
04:06these types of types programs can improve to further assist those that our
04:10public school system tends to leave behind? Well one of the best parts of the
04:14ESA programs and school choice programs for students with disabilities is all of
04:18the innovation that happens because parents now have the funding and we can
04:23go online and find you know an incredible math AI tutor we can download
04:27those you know automated flashcards we can do all these new and exciting things
04:32this whole new arena of education entrepreneurship has come out of giving
04:38parents control of their education dollars so a lot of the new things that
04:42our family has tried that have really helped our kids have been because we
04:45have an ESA and because you know the public schools as big as they are they
04:49tend to not be able to move very quickly when it comes to addressing individual
04:53student needs. Thank you. I yield back my time.