This claim is neither new nor persuasive. Democrat Joy Hofmeister called school choice a “rural school killer” in her unsuccessful bid for Oklahoma governor this November. Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke likewise failed in his attempt to campaign against Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s support for school choice. This week Iowa Senate Minority Leader Zach Wahls resorted to the same tactic, calling school choice “an existential threat” to rural public schools.
These same politicians also claim that rural constituents wouldn’t benefit from school choice because the local public school is their only option. These arguments can’t both be true. If rural families didn’t have any other options, public schools wouldn’t suffer. And if rural public schools are as great as the teachers unions say they are, they would have no need to worry about a little competition.