AUSTIN — Today, the Texas Public Policy Foundation released a report by Center for Education Freedom Policy Analyst Michael Barba and Center for Effective Justice Policy Analyst Derek Cohen on how school choice helps keep kids in school and out of the juvenile justice system. The paper, “Destroying the School-to-Prison Pipeline,” examines school choice as an effective reform to break the school-to-prison pipeline and help children graduate and live fulfilling lives.
“At the most basic level, lack of educational attainment correlates with negative outcomes later on in life and is predictive of criminal reoffending,” said Barba and Cohen. “Any program that increases the likelihood of successful educational attainment could, indirectly, reduce criminal offending and recidivism. However, it is more likely that the school choice options grant concerned parents the ability to remove their child from a delinquent peer group; a factor highly ingrained in deviant and criminal behavior.
“School choice is the first and best step to meeting the individual needs of students. There are many policies that can destroy the school-to-prison pipeline: school choice is one component of many that should be used to help high-risk students. Parents with a choice will find schools that can best meet their children’s needs.”
To read the full report, visit: http://txpo.li/school-to-prison-pipeline
Michael Barba is a Policy Analyst at the Center for Education Freedom at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
Derek Cohen is a Policy Analyst with the Center for Effective Justice at the Texas Public Policy Foundation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation is a non-profit, free-market research institute based in Austin, Texas.