What Is Choice?

Abstract

By most accounts, the modern school choice movement can be traced back to the 1980s with the US Supreme Court setting a significant precedent with its decision in Mueller v. Allen in 1983 (Kafer, 2009). The plaintiffs in the case had challenged a Minnesota statue, which allowed for a state education tax deduction for independent school expenses, on the grounds that it violated the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. The district court sided with the state, ruling that the law was “neutral on its face and in its application and does not have a primary effect of either advancing or inhibiting religion.” The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals and eventually the US Supreme Court upheld the district court’s decision. Minnesota then continued to push the choice envelope by enacting the first statewide interdistrict public school choice law allowing students to transfer from their assigned public schools to public schools in other school districts. Then in 1987, Iowa enacted a law allowing families that earned less than $45,000 annually to deduct up to $1,000 per child annually from their state income tax liability for education expenses.