School choice is a winning issue for all Missourians to pursue the American dream

The principles of liberty and the blessings of freedom empower everyone. As a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, I served to preserve and protect those values.

As an entrepreneur and business owner, it was the empowerment of the customer through their free choice that drove me to provide a better product, at a lower cost, and superior service.

Competition allows the customer to choose the best, and we worked every day to be the customer's first choice. We understood that our mission was "Continuous Improvement," and if we fell short, we would be out of business because someone else did a better job.

We've all experienced the power of choice. If we have a poor experience at a restaurant or a repair center, or even a doctor or lawyer, we don't go back -- we make a better choice. This system inspires all providers of goods and services to improve every day.

But the power of choice is severely lacking in education. Tragically, when a child is forced to go to an underperforming school, almost nothing can be done to incentivize change. Far too many children are locked into a system that fails them all because their parents lack the economic resources to send them elsewhere.

"No choice" means that the parent must continue to send their child to a failing school with no opportunity to escape the system.

Unfortunately, nowhere is there less freedom than in our state's public education system. This has become painfully clear during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Thousands of Missouri families learned that they are bound by the decisions and policies of school boards. As so-called online learning and virtual classrooms continue to replace actual teaching and instruction, parents are recognizing that their children are falling behind.

Failure is not an option. The status quo of "one-size-fits-all" public education is no longer viable.

But what if all parents were given a choice? What if parents could take their child out of a failing school system and put them in a better school for hope and a future? What if a parent without economic resources had the same opportunity as those who do?

That is why 2021 is the year to try and inject those two great innovators, freedom and choice, into our education system.

I applaud the leadership of many of our outstanding state legislators, including House Speaker Rob Vescovo, Sen. Caleb Rowden and Sen. Cindy O'Laughlin, chair of the Senate Education Committee, which swiftly endorsed a school choice reform bill with several important features.

Critically, the pending Senate legislation would expand tuition-free, public charter schools to places such as Cape Girardeau, Columbia, Jefferson City, Joplin, Springfield, St. Joseph and St. Louis County.

Right now, state law limits charter schools to unaccredited or provisionally accredited school districts, which really means just Kansas City and St. Louis (though St. Louis County will soon see its first public charter school in the unaccredited Normandy district).

Then there's the Missouri Empowerment Scholarship Program, which will allow families to direct education resources to where they're most needed.

These scholarships would be funded by individual and private contributions to charitable educational assistance organizations, with the donors able to claim non-transferable tax credits savings accounts (ESAs) equal to the contribution (and capped at 50% of state tax liability).

ESAs would allow Missouri families to have some say, a real choice, in how to direct their tax dollars in educating their children.

For instance, a family could decide that to make a better choice for their child's education. They would have the freedom to leave a deficient public school and choose to send them to an alternative school, or a public school in a nearby district so they can get a better education, specifically suited to the needs of their child.

The family would then get a set amount of funds from the state in an education savings account. These funds represent the money that would have been spent on the child were they to remain in the failing school system.

ESAs represent the idea that education dollars should follow the student, and not be locked into a government school board mandated school.

The whole reason we have a system of public education is so that our students receive the best quality education possible. By bringing in freedom of choice to Missouri parents, all schools will be motivated to improve -- just as I was in my industry, and in millions of other everyday choices available to consumers everywhere.

Missourians can lead with a vision on the most important resource of our state -- our children. Let's make 2021 the year we can look back on and say this was the year we restored freedom to excel in education in Missouri. "School choice" is all about allowing every child the opportunity to be all they can be. It's not about the school boards -- it's all about the kids!

John Brunner is a third-generation Missouri manufacturer, author, U.S Marine and a leading voice in the state's conservative movement.