If schools don’t reopen, “the taxpayer money that funds those schools” should go to help parents pay for at-home Education, argues Katherine Kellett Bathgate, CEO of SchoolForward and a mother of two, on The 74.

In a State Policy Network poll in June, K-12 parents favored “a stipend to support at-home learning or remote or distance learning options,” if their children couldn’t return to school.

Thirty-seven percent of of parents said they are very or extremely likely to consider homeschooling this year.

Thirty-five percent said they would be very or extremely like to use Education Savings Accounts, if available. ESAs, “first passed in Arizona in 2011, allow families to spend a portion of their child’s state education funding on qualifying education expenses,” she writes. “This could be used for homeschooling, online tutoring or even chipping in to hire a teacher for a neighborhood learning pod.”

Another option is using CARES Act funding. “In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster recently announced a $32 million SAFE Grants program to give low-income families up to $6,500 to fund their child’s education,” Bathgate writes.

“When Idaho students reach seventh grade, the state provides them with $4,125 that they can use to customize their high-school education,” writes Max Eden. As a result, a majority of 12th graders are taking college classes.

Depending on their career and educational goals, students can use the money to earn college credit by taking courses that are taught online, on campus, or by high-school teachers in partnership with professors. They can also use the funds to pay for Advanced Placement exams, professional certification tests, and, as of this school year, workforce development and apprenticeship courses.

The Advanced Opportunities program started four years ago.

Educated middle-class people assume that low-income parents aren’t capable of choosing a better school than the low-performing district-run school to which they’re assigned, writes John E. Coons is a Berkeley professor of law, emeritus, and co-author of two books on school choice.