LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — There are a lot of choices parents get to make, and on Thursday, advocates for school choice pushed for one more.
Speaking to a crowd of about a hundred people, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders spoke on multiple education topics.
"This is not about school choice, this is about parental choice," Sanders said. "No child should ever be trapped in a failing school or sentenced to a lifetime in poverty because of the school they are forced to attend."
Along with the Governor, those in favor of parents selecting where their students go to school rallied for that choice.
"You can't get a more important choice than how we're going to educate our children," said Ryan Norris, State Director for the Arkansas chapter of Americans for Prosperity.
Norris explained that some parents just aren't finding what they're looking for in their child's current school.
"That makes it very frustrating for some parents, so when we're able to have a situation where a parent can choose a better option, then let's allow those parents to make those options," Norris said.
That choice could come as a voucher— though of course, not everyone agrees with this.
Veronica McClane is a parent who said that while she agrees that students need the best, something isn't being considered here.
"Public education should be the most funded, the most resourced, the most equitable, the most easily accessible providers of education in our country," McClane said.
She said that rather than leave the choice up to parents, funding schools should be the solution.
Additionally, McClane emphasized that what happens when students leave a school is just as important— especially for the ones who stay.
"If we have access to something and we get that, and we get that voucher, and we take our kid to another school, what happens to all the other kids that are left behind?" McClane said. "Do we care about them?"
While there's still a lot that has to happen before parents could have the choice, Norris said they're ready to make it.
"I know it sounds scary, but it really isn't as scary as you think," he said. "We make these consumer decisions on a daily basis with all kinds of choices, so this is just adding this most important choice to that mix."