Public school enrollment has dropped by more than 1 million students nationwide since the COVID-19 pandemic. District school leaders expected students to return after the pandemic abated, but enrollment has continued to decline as trust in public schools has hit an all-time low . Policymakers and leaders in the charter school sector must avoid making the same mistakes that led to the district school disaster.

A key reason many parents are fleeing the traditional public system is the concern that schools are indoctrinating students in radical “woke” ideology. Parents are watching as the left-wing ideologies clothed in the mantra of diversity, equity, and inclusion spread like wildfire across America's schools. Unfortunately, one prominent organization is working overtime to ensure that public charter schools embrace the very same ideologies from which parents seek to escape.

The National Association of Charter School Authorizers is a publicly subsidized kingmaker in the charter school world. NACSA consults with and produces best practices for charter school authorizers, the entities charged with determining when charter schools should be opened, expanded, or closed.

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NACSA believes that it is the true “expert” in determining what’s best for children, so it favors a regulatory approach that prioritizes its own judgment over parents' in deciding when charters should be opened, expanded, or closed.

Enforcement of DEI principles in charter authorizing is an integral part of NACSA’s technocratic agenda. This commitment is touted through its social media channels , which repeatedly refer to “closing the DEI gap” in authorizing. A lengthy toolkit published by NACSA on the same topic makes vague, ideologically charged suggestions such as “building cultural competence” through “confronting bias and developing awareness of our own privilege and prejudices.”

More specific guidance endorses authorizer partnership with DEI “experts” and exclusively highlights one authorizer’s contract with Pacific Educational Group, a consulting firm that, as the parental rights group Parents Defending Education discovered , encourages schools to adopt the use of critical race theory and racial affinity groups.

Unsurprisingly, the political principles that charter authorizers are pressured to avow manifest in charter school practices and culture. A Heritage Foundation report found that charter schools in states with the more technocratic charter ecosystems that NACSA favors signal stronger adherence to liberal politics. The phenomenon remains true even after statistically controlling for political partisanship (as measured by voting outcomes) across states.

Compelling schools of choice to adopt DEI principles is a bad policy on its merits. Parents, rather than “experts,” should be entrusted to determine what is best for their children. But it’s even worse when considering that DEI orthodoxy (e.g., racial fixation and racial separatism) consistently operates at odds with the things that DEI purports to foster. In K-12 schools, pandemic-era racial achievement gaps were larger in districts that employed chief diversity officers . Most recently, DEI officials at universities across the country have been silent or complicit while students and faculty celebrate violence against Jews.

NACSA’s pursuit of DEI does not even achieve its supposed aims. Peer-reviewed studies have found that NACSA’s policy recommendations disproportionately prevent black aspiring school leaders from receiving authorization to operate charter schools. The recommendations also disproportionately result in the closure of charter schools that serve a higher proportion of black students.

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While NACSA’s influence and insistence on DEI ought to be a source of alarm, champions of educational freedom need not despair. Arizona has mostly eschewed NACSA’s recommendations and has been rewarded with an innovative charter sector that paces the nation in student academic growth, including among low-income and racial minority students. Leaders in states such as Florida and Texas , which embrace educational freedom and eschew woke indoctrination, should follow in Arizona’s footsteps.

NACSA’s attempt to compel charter schools to adopt liberal politics is also a stark reminder that not all models of school choice are created equal. Education savings accounts allow public funds to be used for a host of expenses, including private school tuition, books, online instruction, tutoring, and more. ESAs are comparatively permission-less and do not mediate the relationship between parents and education providers beyond processing payments or reimbursement claims.

ESAs allow all parents, no matter their worldview, to choose the learning environments that align with their values. That means liberal parents can select schools that emphasize DEI while other parents can avoid it. In a system of education freedom, the choices of some parents do not limit or infringe upon the legitimate desires of others.

A NACSA director once tweeted , “School choice for school choice’s sake is completely misguided … social justice and equity are the GOAL not some political tactic.” NACSA’s insistence on technocracy and DEI demonstrate why choice for choice’s sake must, in fact, be the goal.