Parents as Curators of Their Children’s Education: Balancing Choice, Equity & Accountability

During this GLR Week 2025 webinar, Bruno Manno, Ph.D., with the Progressive Policy Institute moderated a conversation exploring the changed landscape of K–12 education in which more parents are actively curating their children’s education through options, including charters, microschools, education savings accounts, homeschooling, and more, and the opportunities and concerns this increased curation brings.

Panelists began by describing various forms of school choice and the recent trends in their growth across the country. A school choice option that emerged more than 30 years ago and now extends across 49 states to reach almost 4 million students, charter schools are publicly funded schools that operate independently from the traditional public school system. Microschools are a newer sector of independently run schools — catalyzed by pandemic-related school closures — that serve a smaller group of students, often just 10 to 20 in one school. Open enrollment is a policy that enables students to attend a public school outside their zoned area and is available in 45 states. Education savings accounts exist in 19 states and are parent-directed flexible spending accounts funded by state dollars that can be used for tuition, textbooks, and other needs. Finally, homeschooling can occur at home through traditional parent-led teaching, homeschool co-ops, virtual learning, or hybrid models (often supported by education savings accounts), and has increased in recent years both in popularity and diversity of family demographics choosing homeschooling.

Michael Chartier of ExcelinEd gave a deeper dive into open enrollment — both within one’s district (intra-district) and across districts (inter-district) — as an increasingly popular choice option for students and families, and discussed its growth in Florida, Colorado, and Arizona in particular. Chartier shared some of ExcelinEd’s recommendations for open enrollment, including mandatory inter- and intra-district open enrollment if there is capacity for it and state transparency on transfer data on open enrollment.

Robin Lake of The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) discussed the need for school systems and teacher education programs to pay attention to the demand side of education to be able to respond to what parents and teachers want, and to ensure an ample supply of high-quality schools and options within a school district. Lake mentioned a model called “portfolio districts” that CRPE tracks, along with a broader “portfolio strategy.” These districts offer full sets of opportunities and choices to families through different kinds of schools and options to respond to demand. Lake noted, “A district that’s serious about choice really has to make sure that they’re already always curating and building a supply of high-quality schools.”

Derrell Bradford of 50 CAN: The 50-State Campaign for Achievement Now shared that the process of parents choosing the right school for their children is complicated and that we should provide ample information to parents and recognize the complexity of choosing the right school. Bradford also called for an “anti-scarcity agenda” for school choice that grows the options in response to demand.

“We should be focusing at the bare minimum on making sure that there is as much information available as possible so that parents can make an informed decision about the kind of school that they want to send their kids to. And in doing so, we have to acknowledge that this is a complicated, emotional, messy process. Trying to find the right match between what the parent likes and values, what the kid aspires to be, what the school is set up to do, and what the teachers and the leaders want to make happen…that is a complicated human process. And we should respect that.” 

– Derrell Bradford, 50 CAN

Halley Potter of The Century Foundation noted that policies promoting school choice options such as open enrollment and others should be designed to incorporate equity and opportunity, including to account for transportation needs to a school outside of one’s neighborhood. Potter said, “Choice without transportation isn’t really real school choice….If we don’t address that, then it becomes its own sort of gatekeeper.”

Panelists discussed potential implications of the recently passed federal tax credit for scholarships for school choice including private schools. They also reviewed what parents need to take advantage of these increasing school choice options, including more information about the schools and “navigator” roles that help parents become aware of and sort through the various options. Register now and make plans to join us for the next session in our Parents as Curators series on September 9: Parents as Curators? Supporting Parent Agency and Informed Decisions.

If you were able to attend the session, we would love to hear your feedback! We appreciate your help in filling out the following form as we seek to learn and understand the perspectives, ideas, critiques, and recommendations that better inform our key audiences.