Great schools change lives. School choice puts families in the driver’s seat.

As our nation marks National School Choice Week, America has real momentum to celebrate. What once started as a set of policy reforms has become something more lasting: an expectation. Families increasingly believe they can and must have meaningful options for their children’s education. And educators and leaders across the country are recognizing a simple truth: a strong education system includes many models, not a single default setting.

The most important lesson of the past decade is this: families are not beneficiaries of education systems — they are the system. When informed parents are trusted to make decisions for their children, education becomes more responsive and more effective.

School choice today reflects the varied needs of families. Parents may choose among neighborhood schools, charter schools, magnet schools, private and religious schools, microschools, or homeschooling. Increasingly, those choices are powered and enhanced by education savings accounts and scholarship programs that give families the flexibility to direct resources toward what works best for their child.

Families are not chasing trends. They are searching for what every parent wants: a learning environment that fits their child’s strengths, needs and aspirations.

This shift matters most for families who have historically had the fewest choices. Low-income and minority parents often face the greatest obstacles, and their children have the most to gain from a great school. For too long, opportunity depended too heavily on financial means or zip code. Too many families were forced to accept what was available, not what their children truly needed. School choice helps change that by putting real power in parents’ hands and expanding access to schools that are safe, rigorous, and supportive.

When options expand, hope expands. And when hope is within reach, there are no limits.

This National School Choice Week also marks an important milestone for families nationwide. A new federal school choice tax credit has opened the door to expanded scholarship support, encouraging communities to invest in educational opportunity. Governors now face a clear choice of their own: whether to opt in and give families in their states more tools to build an education that works for their children, whether that’s a public or private school. The potential impact for kids in Colorado and across the country is significant and worth acting on.

We know that expanding options works. But policy alone is not enough.

If you want to see what it takes to turn opportunity into lasting change, look to New Mexico.  It’s a state that demonstrates what’s possible when communities refuse to accept “good enough” for children.  This week, the Daniels Fund recognized Excellent Schools New Mexico with the Daniels Fund Medal of Excellence and a $250,000 award for its transformational work expanding high-quality charter schools. 

New Mexico has long faced steep challenges, including high child poverty rates and education outcomes that have lagged far behind the national average. But demographics need not be destiny.

Excellent Schools New Mexico supports educational entrepreneurs who are creating high-performing charter schools in communities where options have been profoundly limited. These leaders are building schools with high expectations, real support, and a deep belief in every student’s potential.

This is where philanthropy plays a distinct and essential role to build the ecosystem that allows new schools, new leaders, and new models to take root and thrive.

As Scott Hindman, CEO of Excellent Schools New Mexico, has noted, the children who most need the life-changing power of a great education are often the furthest from it. School choice helps close that gap. Over time, these choices do more than raise academic achievement. They strengthen neighborhoods, restore hope, and help break cycles of generational poverty.

School choice is not about politics. It is about kids. It is about trusting parents and building an education system that reflects the many ways students learn and thrive. This National School Choice Week, we have much to celebrate because not only has progress been made, but the direction is clear. The future of education is family-driven, and the work ahead is to build systems bold enough to follow their lead.

Hanna Skandera is president and CEO of the Daniels Fund (www.danielsfund.org).