Where a child lives should not determine the quality of education they receive. Yet in Illinois, and especially in Chicago, that is precisely what happens. Families are often locked into schools based solely on their ZIP code, regardless of whether those schools meet their child’s needs.
That’s why I support school choice and voucher-style programs, not as an attack on public education, but as a defense of families, students, and freedom.
Choice Empowers Families — Not Bureaucracies
School choice shifts power away from centralized systems and back to parents. Families know their children better than any board, administrator, or politician ever will. Some students thrive in traditional public schools. Others need smaller classrooms, specialized instruction, religious education, or alternative learning environments.
A one-size-fits-all system doesn’t serve everyone, and pretending it does only protects institutions, not kids.
Vouchers and tax-credit scholarship programs give families options they otherwise could never afford. They create real choice, not theoretical choice limited to those with the means to move or pay private tuition out of pocket.
ZIP Codes Are Not Destiny
In too many communities, families are told to accept failing or underperforming schools because “that’s just how the system works.” That is not equity, it is resignation.
School choice recognizes a simple truth:
Children should not be penalized for where they were born.
When families are trapped by geography, inequality hardens. When families have options, opportunity expands.
Competition Drives Improvement
Choice doesn’t weaken education; it strengthens it.
When schools must compete to attract families, they are incentivized to improve outcomes, innovate, and respond to parents. Systems that face no competition too often drift toward complacency, bureaucracy, and declining performance.
Public schools that are doing a good job have nothing to fear from choice. In fact, many improve when families are given real alternatives.
Funding Students, Not Systems
From a libertarian perspective, education funding should follow the student, not the institution.
Vouchers and scholarship programs recognize that public dollars exist to educate children, not to preserve monopolies. If a family chooses a different school that better serves their child, the funding should reflect that choice.
That isn’t abandonment. It’s accountability.
Supporting Choice Is Not Opposing Public Schools
Supporting school choice does not mean opposing public education. It means acknowledging that no single system works for every student.
Public schools will continue to play a vital role. But they should not be the only option, especially when families are pleading for alternatives and being told none exist.
Freedom, Opportunity, and Trust
At its core, school choice is about trust. Trusting parents. Trusting families. Trusting communities to make decisions that work for them.
Education policy should expand opportunity, not restrict it based on geography or income. A child’s future should be shaped by potential and effort, not by a boundary on a map.
That’s why I support vouchers and school choice.
A ZIP code should lock in no child.
