That’s the bad news. The good news is that it doesn’t have to be this way. In fact, for most places in the world, it isn’t. That’s because most countries fund a wide variety of schools and hold them all accountable for academic results. This approach is called educational pluralism, and it animates school systems from Europe to Asia, from Canada to Australia and across southern Africa. The Netherlands funds 36 kinds of schools equally; the government of Indonesia supports secular and religious schools alike; the Australian federal government is the top funder of independent schools in the country because of their ability to close achievement gaps for low-income students. In fact, tracked by UNESCO rely on public-private partnerships, the volunteer sector and community organizations to deliver education for all.

In U.S. terms, educational pluralism means school choice and accountability by design. It acknowledges that schools that reflect distinctive norms and values often bring real benefits to students — so these governments fund a variety of school types. It also assumes that education is not merely a private good, but also a common project whose outcomes affect society as a whole; therefore, public concern and oversight of academic content is appropriate. 

Educational pluralism is not perfect, but if implemented with care, it can function as an escape valve against constant conflict; while it deliberately honors families’ diverse values, it also builds social cohesion by insisting that everyone share a broad base of knowledge, such as capital cities of the world, 20th century poetry, the history and impact of the American Revolution or the tenets of major religions. This common content would include, as a matter of course, exposure to a variety of viewpoints and beliefs without indoctrinating students as to their merits. For instance, the English government has funded religious schools since 1834 and secular schools since 1870, but all students in all schools learn about diverse religions and philosophies.

Here are three practical steps toward the pluralist ideal that elected officials and candidates alike in the U.S. could get behind.

The first step: Find a cross-partisan message that invites rather than condemns. This means putting down rhetorical weapons and eschewing charged terms such as “educational marketplace” (on the right) or “privatization” (on the left).

Second, focus on initiatives that welcome all schools. High-quality curriculum and instruction is a good place to start. Teachers in every school need access to rigorous materials that challenge students’ minds and enliven their hearts. They also need time to learn what the materials require in the classroom. This is exactly what a state department of education can provide across the board, and many — including — already do, though only for those who work in district schools. Why not teachers in any type of school?

Third, build the infrastructure to support both choice and quality. A great example is Indianapolis’s , a nonprofit that, since 2006, has recruited teachers into the state, launched four dozen charter schools and partnered with the city’s public school district to design schools that by design meet their communities’ specific needs. They don’t pit schools against each other; rather, they help all schools in Indianapolis grow stronger. Since 2021, the organization has partnered with the Indiana General Assembly and the state Department of Education to accelerate students’ academic recovery, in two ways. Indiana Learns gives eligible students access to math and reading tutoring, and Summer Learning Labs offer a rigorous, five-week, free or low-cost summer academic and enrichment program. The nation needs more of such thoughtful approaches that champion instead of demeaning teachers and set a high bar for academic success.

Policies that fund a variety of schools with distinctive world views, while incentivizing the use of curricula that build robust knowledge across the major subjects, would constitute an unfamiliar “both/and” to an American audience. This approach asks a lot of teachers, parents and young people. But if Belgium, South Africa and many Canadian provinces can lean into productive pluralism, so can the United States.

Programs that add hours and support to the school day, are especially critical for low-income students who were set back the most during the pandemic, according to the report, “The Expanded Classroom.” Those students’ families can’t pay for tutoring, museum visits, and arts activities that more affluent families can.

“The classroom has been the primary venue for helping students learn, build relationships, and develop skills for the workforce,” according to the report. “But in the current era, such activities must transcend the classroom to help kids fully recover from learning loss, close longstanding achievement gaps, and prepare students for 21st-century careers.”

Only one quarter of Indiana students are able to attend these programs, the report found, but many more should be added, not reduced, as will happen if money runs out in the next two years. 

“Effort must be sustained over years—not months—to make up for the lost time of the pandemic and to begin to chip away at a decades-old gap in educational outcomes between high- and low-income students,” states the report, a joint project of the United Way of Central Indiana, the Boys and Girls Clubs serving South Bend and Indianapolis, and nonprofit education advocacy groups The Mind Trust and Indiana Afterschool Network.

Since the start of the pandemic, the state has devoted $35 million of federal COVID relief money to out-of-school learning, plus another $185 million in state money. The federal money runs out next fall and the state money runs out in the summer of 2025.

Mind Trust officials said they hope the report rallies support for out-of-school learning with legislators ahead of the 2025-2027 state budget debate. The report doesn’t ask for a specific amount of money or for money for any particular program, just for understanding the importance of learning outside of the school day.

“It’s really to make sure that our state leaders, legislators and others are thinking about the out-of-school time programs in Indiana as an important part of the ecosystem, and not as something that is just a time-limited program that’s about COVID recovery, and nothing else,” said Mind Trust chief strategy officer Kristin Grimme.

State Rep. Bob Behning, chairman of the House Education Committee, said there’s support for programs outside of the school day in the Legislature. But he cautioned there will be competition for money in the next budget.

“I would predict it’s going to be tight, tighter than we’ve had the last couple of budget cycles,” Behning said. “So you’re going to have to really define not just the need, but that there are gains. Once you can define the academic gains. I think that there would be more interest.”

Grimme agreed and said programs need to be evaluated and money should go to those that were the most successful. Some programs have evaluations pending while others have emerging data on their academic impact that should be reviewed next year.

Adding academic gains is extra important because Indiana’s recovery from the pandemic has “stalled,” the report contends. Though state test scores have improved since 2021, reading proficiency rates fell slightly between 2022 and 2023 while other gains were small.

 Indiana also saw college enrollment drop from 65 percent of graduating high school seniors before the pandemic to 53 percent in 2020–21.

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The report highlights the Indy Summer Learning Labs the Mind Trust and United Way have organized in Indianapolis using state money the last three years. That five-week program serving more than 5,000 students in 43 different sites around the city shows double-digit gains in proficiency rates in the tests students take at the start of the program and at the end.

Last summer, the labs saw 23 percentage point increases in students scoring at grade level or above in English and 22 percentage points in math.

The state will soon take applications from organizations around the state to expand that summer program to other cities, though money set aside for them ends in 2025.

Indiana Learns, another program that gives $1,000 grants to low-income parents to spend on tutoring or afterschool programs for their children, is being evaluated now to see if it needs changes. With more than 10,000 students using more than 100 different tutoring providers, Grimme said, it’s hard to know if Indiana Learns is reaching the right students and if they are getting what they need.

“I do think it’s something that we launched quickly to try to support students and families across the state,” Grimme said. “Is it the version of the program that the state should sustain in the future?”

The pandemic’s devastating impact on student learning provided an opportunity for community leaders in Indianapolis and around the country to think about summer learning differently. Rather than the traditional out-of-school program focus on remediation, students need access to grade-level content in order to truly .

In 2021, The Mind Trust teamed up with United Way of Central Indiana to launch Indy Summer Learning Labs. For five weeks in summer 2021 and 2022, thousands of Indianapolis students attended rigorous, high-quality summer programming designed to ensure the pandemic did not derail their educational futures.

Sites were located both within schools and community organizations, so students and families could choose the option that worked best for them. The results were remarkable. In summer 2022, the labs served 5,000 students at 39 sites across the city. For a second year running, students . Here are some examples of the results:

• A 25-percentage-point increase in basic and proficient scores for English language arts
• A 24-point increase in basic and proficient scores for math
• A 15-point increase in overall English and math scores
• Perhaps most convincing, the Indiana Department of Education commissioned an external study that found learning lab students achieved above their pre-pandemic rates of learning and did better than their peers who did not participate in the program
• 93% of participating families rated their experience as good or great

Importantly, the summer learning labs served a demographically and socioeconomically representative sample of Indianapolis’ student population. In 2022, 79% of participating students were children of color, and 68% came from low-income backgrounds. It is clear that the learning labs served the students who most needed rigorous summer programming. And it served them well.

A key factor in the program’s success was the Lavinia Group’s rigorous , which was customized to match Indiana’s state standards for each grade level.

As a former educator, I understand the impulse to stick with remediation. When you’re working with middle schoolers whose average reading ability is at a third grade level, it’s tempting to give them third-grade material. But this well-meaning tendency actually does a great disservice to the students, who should be afforded opportunities to gain grade-level mastery by accessing grade-level content.

Students who need the most support are too often given remediation when research is clear that what they need is grade-level material matched with adult support. Two years of data in Indianapolis proves when students get rigorous instruction and the support they need, they rise to the occasion and make significant progress.

The summer learning labs were able to produce such transformative outcomes due to three design decisions that supported the use of a high-quality curriculum: the program at all sites was free or low-cost; we hired over 100 licensed teachers to deliver instruction; and the student experience balanced rigorous academics with daily enrichment, such as fields trips, art projects and outdoor recreation. Feedback from families, teachers and the students themselves was clear: Kids wanted to show up, and they learned a lot in just five weeks as a result.

Inspired in part by Indy Summer Learning Labs, New York City took a similar approach last summer, thanks to the leadership of Bloomberg Philanthropies. Summer Boost NYC served more than 17,000 students last summer, with many schools using the RISE curriculum. That proves that this type of summer learning approach is replicable in other cities and potentially a model for other out-of-school programs, such as during spring break or after school.

As for our work in Indianapolis, our vision is that the learning labs will eventually be an independent nonprofit and serve as the enduring academic acceleration engine for the city’s students. To do this, we plan to advocate in the Indiana General Assembly for recognition that continued investments in proven models like Indy Summer Learning Labs are vital for accelerating learning in the wake of the pandemic. Other states and education philanthropists would benefit from pursuing similar strategies. The nation cannot treat efforts to mitigate learning loss as one-off investments and just move on to the next shiny object. It will take a sustained effort over time to achieve the learning gains that students deserve.

Disclosure: The Mind Trust provides financial support to ����Ӱ��. City Fund provides financial support to The Mind Trust and ����Ӱ��.