school choice

noun

US : a program or policy in which students are given the choice to use public funds to attend a school other than their district's public school (as at a charter school, private school, home school, or at a public school in a different district)

Voucher plans were adopted largely as a last resort, an effort to guarantee a semblance of school choice for low-income minority students in failing inner-city schools.

—Jeffrey Rosen

To be sure, even their most enthusiastic defenders acknowledge that many public schools, especially in big cities are riven with serious problems. The debate over "school choice" and tax vouchers for private schools illustrates the widespread discontent with public schools.

—Dirk Johnson

Examples of school choice in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The school choice application includes two new magnet school opportunities for the 2025-26 school year focused on school-to-career pathways. —Stephen Underwood, Hartford Courant, 14 Dec. 2024

Parents' rights, protecting women and girls in sports, and school choice policies -- issues that reached the national stage on the campaign trail this year -- were widely supported by Republicans under Foxx's leadership. —Arthur Jones Ii, ABC News, 11 Dec. 2024

Though Republicans largely swept to victory across the country in the November election, high-profile school choice measures in Colorado and Kentucky were rejected. —Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY, 2 Dec. 2024

Federal school choice Federal school choice legislation is a major possibility in the next four years, with Trump citing it as one of his Education secretary nominee’s top priorities. —Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill, 30 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1988, in the meaning defined above