VIDEO: No such thing as choice in U.S. public education? Check out Pender Early College High School

By James Starr

GSS Correspondent

BURGAW, North Carolina — U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made headlines again this week with comments on the need for more school choice for high school students, saying that public schools often don’t offer enough options and proposing charter schools or vouchers for private schools instead.

But public school districts often do offer choices, as GSS correspondent James Starr, a student at Pender Early College High School in Burgaw, North Carolina, shows in this report:

A budget blueprint announced by President Trump March 16 would cut education funding by $9 billion or 13.5 percent. But it would include $168 million in spending on charter schools and $250 million for private school vouchers, according to The New York Times.

School districts that adopt flexible policies such as student-based budgeting and open enrollment could get additional funding through a $1 billion increase in Title 1 funding for low-income students.

Congressional Democrats oppose the Trump approach, saying that charter schools and vouchers would take funding away from public schools at a time when many are calling for more investment in American education.

Starr’s report is part of our “45for45” video series of millennial messages for President Trump. Click here for the series.

—Video by The Washington Post.