There’s no misreading the signs waving at protests across Pennsylvania. Health restrictions, curriculum, remote learning — almost everything has become a political battle. Just like our nation, our schools are at an inflection point.

The controversies roiling school districts all around the state — seemingly absolute and extreme — leave us wondering if they will ever end peacefully. Parents and students protesting every side of every issue just keep growing louder and louder.

Citizens making their voices heard at school board meetings in recent months have shown unprecedented fervor. As politics drives Americans to further frustration, schools can’t please everyone — and often the education bureaucracy has its own agenda as well.

Thankfully, there is a simple, peaceful solution that can diffuse the drama — it’s called school choice.

School choice policies allow some of the funding used to educate a child to follow that child to the family’s school of choice. That way, parents of all income levels can vote with their feet as to where they prefer to send their kids.

Of course, nobody is completely depriving parents of decision rights over their children’s education. Many families choose to quietly home-school their children rather than loudly protest, and Pennsylvania has a thriving home-school community. But not every family has the resources for home-schooling or other alternative educational options. What are they supposed to do?

It’s not fair to leave these Pennsylvanians with just one government-assigned school to pick from. Parents who disagree with the policies of the local school administration should not be forced to send their children there under threat of truancy. How much money somebody makes or what ZIP code they live in should not be the deciding factor in whether they enjoy this most basic freedom.

Thankfully, school choice policies have been a growing tradition in Pennsylvania for over a decade, and they keep expanding each year. The state’s tax credit scholarships, for example, are a proven and effective way to help more families afford quality private education. Charter and cyber-charter schools also provide a popular public alternative in many school districts.

The problem is arbitrary state policies that have not allowed these programs to expand quickly enough to meet accelerating demand. Each year, tens of thousands of deserving applicants are being turned away.

To address this urgent need, the state Legislature has begun considering an impressive, comprehensive new bill that will expand school choice. The Excellent Education for All Act (House Bill 1), the House chamber’s top priority for the session, would increase the availability of tax credit scholarships by matching their growth to applicants’ demand. It also permanently protects charter schools, home-schooling and “learning pods” as legitimate educational forms in state law. Best of all, HB 1 would provide Education Opportunity Accounts for all qualifying children, offering approximately $6,000 per child for parents to use on education expenses as they see fit.

Our neighbor to the southwest, West Virginia, just enacted a law that offers similar accounts to 90% of its students. Following in the footsteps of Arizona, Florida and Indiana, West Virginia will now experience the documented benefits of this school choice program, both in parental satisfaction and education quality.

Enacting expanded choice legislation in Pennsylvania would allow parents to choose peace in our schools. Everyone benefits from putting decisions in the hands of families instead of politicians and bureaucrats — everyone, that is, except the state education bureaucracy, which prefers to keep students (and their per-pupil funding) trapped in their one-size-fits-all bureaucratic system. Powerful lobbying groups like the teachers’ union fight tooth and nail to prevent important legislation like HB 1 from becoming law.

That’s why parents must lead the charge to support school choice. Parents have the power to call their legislators, to make their voices heard in the media and their communities. A day is coming when all Pennsylvania families can peacefully choose the educational settings that are best for their own children instead of fighting incessantly over school policies. School choice policies like HB 1 will help us get there.

Stephen Bloom, a former state representative, is vice president of the Commonwealth Foundation.

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