Opt-out movement can 'loosen the state's grip on the children'

"To a large extent, the opt-out conflict is no different than the seemingly endless battles over countless matters into which public schooling forces Americans," Neal McCluskey writes today.

[A]ll children, families, and communities are different. They have different needs, desires, abilities, values, educational philosophies, and on and on, and no single system can possibly treat them all equally. That is why educational freedom—connecting educational funding and decisions to individual children—is the essential reform. That said, if parents are allowed to opt their children out of government-dictated tests it would be a welcome move in the right direction. It would loosen the state's grip on the children, at least a little bit.