National School Choice Week (NSCW) is being celebrated this year from Sunday, January 26 through Saturday, February 1.
NSCW was first celebrated in 2011 to promote all forms of school choice: open enrollment, magnet schools, charter schools, private schools, and home schooling. NCSW 2025 will be the biggest celebration yet, with tens of thousands events across the country, including 67 “flagship” events across 39 states.
Decades ago, Wisconsin was at the cutting-edge of providing parents with school choice options. In recent years it’s fallen behind. Among other reasons: Wisconsin offers no tax credit scholarship or education savings account program.
Nevertheless, the school choice we have here in Wisconsin is worth celebrating! Here are five ways to do so … and three reasons you should.
How to Celebrate School Choice Week?
- Join School Choice Wisconsin on Wednesday, January 29 at the State Capitol in Madison. From 9:00 to 10:00 a.m. in the North Hearing Room, school choice expert Patrick Wolf will discuss new research on the impact of private education on civic knowledge, skills, and participation. Then, from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m., be part of the Rally in the Rotunda – hundreds of students, parents, and teachers from across Wisconsin will be there with you! Register for the Madison events here.
- Is Milwaukee closer for you? Join LUMIN Schools and the National School Choice Awareness Foundation at Discovery World in Milwaukee for Opportunity Day on Thursday, January 30, 2025 from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. Learn about the exciting work done by LUMIN students and the positive impact school choice has had on their education!
- Share School Choice Week memes (including those on this page) on your favorite social media channels, and be sure to tag #SchoolChoiceWeek! Or create your own memes using imgFlip or your favorite meme generator.
Wear your School Choice gear – including that iconic yellow scarf!- Be a voice for school choice! School Choice Wisconsin offers a mapping tool to help you find contact information for the state legislators who represent you. Call, email, or mail a letter to your state representative and senator, inviting them to join you on a tour of a choice school in your community or attend a school function.
Why Celebrate School Choice Week?
- Wisconsin has a long history of supporting school choice: The Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, founded in 1990, is the oldest school choice program in the nation. Wisconsin offers three additional private school choice programs – the Racine Parental Choice Program, Wisconsin Parental Choice Program, and Special Needs Scholarship Program – in addition to open enrollment, magnet schools, and charter schools. Wisconsin is also considered a “low regulation” state for homeschooling … although homeschooling here is more heavily regulated than in many neighboring states.
- Beginning with the 2026–27 school year, enrollment caps for the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program (WPCP) will be lifted. The WPCP was launched in 2013 with a first-year enrollment cap of just 500 students. For school years 2015–16 and 2016–17, the enrollment cap was set at 1% of the number of students enrolled in a district. Beginning with the 2017–18 school year, the enrollment cap for each district was increased by 1% each year. Once the 10% enrollment cap is reached, the enrollment cap will be lifted entirely. Lauren Greuel, associate counsel at the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, notes, “As of right now, state statute says that the WPCP enrollment caps will end after the 2025–26 school year, so the 2026–27 school year will be the first school year with no enrollment caps. See Stat. § 118.60(2)(be)1.a.”
- School choice leads to improved educational outcomes: Data from Wisconsin’s Forward Exam, released by the Department of Public Instruction in October 2024, show students in the state’s private school choice programs outscored public school students in 32 of 36 tested grades. “Wisconsin choice students perform better despite being financed at 70% of the average public school cost,” said Nicholas Kelly, president of School Choice Wisconsin.
