Education policy debates often result in very spirited arguments because change can be as difficult as pulling teeth.

This is particularly true when a school choice option is on the table for discussion.

For the past several weeks, I've read statements from various sources that cite opponents' claims against the foolishness of parental choice in the form of vouchers, scholarships or tuition tax credits to provide children public or private funds to transfer to the private school of their choice.

The unfortunate reality is that most of the anti-choice claims are predictably fear-based and expectedly not evidenced-based.

While debate about and critiques of vouchers and scholarships are warranted and can be healthy, what is unproductive is to base a decision on erroneous claims. Since I've lived in a city with a vibrant voucher program (Milwaukee) and have researched the issue as well, I'd like to counter the three most common criticisms of vouchers.

> Fallacy: Vouchers will destroy public education. No such doomsday prophesies have materialized in the 20 years that we have had this type of school choice in America. Instead, in the three city-based voucher programs in the nation —- Milwaukee, Cleveland and Washington, D.C. —- the introduction of parental choice has invigorated a healthy dialogue among community stakeholders about the importance of a quality education. This is not just rhetoric from the right. Public school leaders believe so as well. For example, two former Milwaukee public school superintendents, Howard Fuller and Spence Korte, and current superintendent Bill Andrekopoulos, all agree that the introduction of vouchers into Milwaukee has produced positive effects on Wisconsin's largest school district.

> Fallacy: Parents, particularly poor parents, are incapable of making good decisions in an educational marketplace. This claim is unconvincing on two fronts. First, the same poor parent who is smart enough to use a Section 8 voucher to find a suitable place to live or is smart enough to use a food stamp voucher in a grocery store will not suddenly become stupid when it comes to shopping for his child's education. Yes, choosing between schools is different from choosing between apples, but parents know a rotten school and a rotten apple when they see it. Parents whom I've met in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C. —- two cities with scholarship programs —- are savvier than voucher opponents give them credit for. In fact, the role of parents in the Georgia Special Needs Scholarship Program that kicked off here last year represents one example of active parent participation in the education marketplace.

> Fallacy: There is little parental demand for scholarships or vouchers, and there is no evidence that they improve student achievement. In 2007, at least 55,550 students participated in publicly funded voucher programs in Arizona; Washington, D.C.; Florida; Georgia; Ohio; Utah and Wisconsin.

Here in Georgia, more than 5,000 parents inquired about the new voucher program for special-needs children last year; 908 children earned scholarships for this first year. In 1999, a privately funded Children's Scholarship Fund here in Georgia offered a total of 750 scholarships to parents of children in Atlanta and Savannah public schools. More than 18,000 parents applied. That illustrates incredible local demand —- and that was almost a decade ago.

In the four years of the Washington, D.C., Opportunity Scholarship Program for children, at least 7,200 parents applied. That federally funded pilot program has served 2,600 students so far with scholarships averaging $6,800.

In terms of vouchers and research, the Alliance for School Choice identified in its School Choice Yearbook 2007, published in March 2008, a list of articles about the positive impact vouchers have on children and youth, parent satisfaction, high school graduation rates and academic achievement.

All these variables are vitally important to parents, business leaders and educators.

School choice in action is making a tremendous contribution to the quality of city schools, its families and children, and to civic leadership.

Although a school voucher or any method of choice is neither a panacea nor an indictment against the great work of public schools, parents deserve this option and the means to make it happen. Therefore, an honest conversation about choice has to begin from a platform of freedom rather than a platform of fear.

> Gerard Robinson is president of the Black Alliance for Educational Options and an adjunct scholar with the Georgia Public Policy Foundation, an independent think tank in Atlanta.

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