This school choice ‘evangelist’ is leading a revolution that's changing American education

I didn’t think it was possible for anyone to be more despised by the teachers unions than Betsy DeVos, the former Education secretary and billionaire Republican donor who has devoted decades to promoting school choice.

Yet, it seems Corey DeAngelis has taken on that mantle. And he’s loving it.

DeAngelis bears the label “school choice evangelist” with pride, and in the past few years he has quickly risen as one of the most prominent voices in the education freedom realm. In many ways, he’s become the face of the sharp rise in private school choice that’s spread across the country since 2020.

The senior fellow at the American Federation for Children and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution has written a book documenting this trend. “The Parent Revolution: Rescuing Your Kids from the Radicals Ruining Our Schools” hit the bookshelves this week.

The dedication sets the tone for DeAngelis’ book:

"To Randi Weingarten and the teachers unions. You’re doing more to advance freedom in education than anyone could have ever imagined. Thank you for overplaying your hand, showing your true colors, and sparking the Parent Revolution. America is beyond grateful."

Sarcastic? Sure.

It’s also true.

A bright side to COVID pandemic: Parents got fed up

DeAngelis credits Weingarten with the school choice explosion because of the COVID-19 school closures that teachers unions forced far beyond what was necessary.

Parents could see what was happening to their children, and they didn’t like it. Study after study confirms how devastating virtual “learning” was for kids.

“It was nonstop fearmongering making themselves (unions) look pathetic,” DeAngelis told me this week. “But when they overplayed their hand, what they were really trying to do in pushing to keep the schools closed was to hold children's education hostage as long as possible to extract as many resources from the taxpayer as possible.”

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In the short run, the unions’ strategy proved effective. Schools got $190 billion in so-called emergency COVID-19 relief, while many remained shuttered to in-person learning.

“Their plan quickly backfired in a spectacular fashion because through remote learning, which we really should just call it remotely learning because there wasn't a lot of learning going on, families got to see what was happening in the classroom, and parents who thought their kids were in good public schools based on their test scores started to see another dimension of school quality,” DeAngelis said.

They also saw what kids were being taught about race and gender. And many families didn’t think these lessons meshed with their values.

Thus, the beginning of the parent revolution.

Can this school choice revolution last?

School choice advocates like DeAngelis seized the frustration that parents felt as an opportunity for substantial change.

It worked.

DeAngelis has traveled to states across the nation, working with governors and legislatures to pass expansive choice laws. And organizations like the American Federation for Children helped fund candidates with a strong stance on education freedom.

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Since 2021, 10 states (eight last year alone) have passed universal or near-universal school choice programs that include private schools – something that didn’t exist on such a broad basis before the pandemic. Those include large states such as Florida and Ohio.

More than 20 states expanded their choice options in other ways.

While the major wins have been in red states, DeAngelis hopes that more Democrats will join the movement. As more states offer families more choices for their children's education, it will put pressure on blue states to do the same.

As a longtime proponent of school choice, I’ve been thrilled to see these developments in recent years. But is it really a sustainable revolution?

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DeAngelis believes it is, although teachers unions will try their darnedest to quell this competition, which they hate.

“Parents are never going to unsee what they saw in 2020,” he said. “So this mobilization is going to continue going forward because parents care about their kids more than anybody else, and it’s becoming such a political winner to support parental rights in education.”

Ingrid Jacques is a columnist at USA TODAY. Contact her at ijacques@usatoday.com or on X, formerly Twitter: @Ingrid_Jacques

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What is school choice? Freedom in how families educate their children