Marking the seventh year of National School Choice Week, the Heritage Foundation’s Lindsey Burke, Director for the Center for Education Policy Studies and Will Skillman Fellow in Education, said there is much to celebrate on the school choice front:

More than 400,000 children across the country now have access to school choice options, like vouchers, tax credit scholarships, and education savings accounts, that enable them to choose learning options that fit their needs.

In all, more than 60 school choice options now operate in 30 states and the District of Columbia, unlocking the educational opportunity that should be available to every child across America. We know school choice works. It improves graduation rates, parental satisfaction, school safety, and access to options that are the right fit for individual students.

Those outcomes are worth celebrating and highlight how even more education choice options are needed. States should establish universal education choice options and Congress should take the opportunity to advance school choice, as appropriate, through federal policy—creating education options for students in areas under the jurisdiction of Congress, such as children in military families, Native American children attending Bureau of Indian Education schools, and students residing in the District.