K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: School safety is top reason parents use choice to leave public schools.

Bullying is the number one reason parents use choice programs to leave public schools, write researchers Misty Gallo, Colyn Ritter and Patrick J. Wolf. Low middle-school test scores rank second. “When public schools are not equipped to limit exposure to bullying behavior and when the academics of the middle school years are insufficient, parents flee the public schools if and when private school choice programs provide the financial means to do so.”

Even if test scores go down when a student moves to a private school of choice, long-term success odds improve, argues Marty Lueken, director of EdChoice’s Fiscal Research and Education Center.

“Many high-quality evaluations of private school choice, such as those in Washington, D.C., Louisiana, Indiana, and Milwaukee, have found a disconnect: lower test scores, but better long-term outcomes like high school graduation and college attendance, persistence, and degree attainment,” he writes.

How much of the decline after leaving public schools might be attributable to earning honest grades instead of inflated grades?