Founded in 1959 by Virgil Blum, a Jesuit priest and political scientist at Marquette University, the Citizens for Educational Freedom (CEF) has been a strong supporting voice for parental choice in education. Based in St. Louis, Missouri, the organization strives to promote the rights of parents to choose quality schools for their children.

In its simplest sense, parental choice involves giving the parents, regardless of income and status in life, the right of choosing the schools they want their children to attend, instead of letting the government assign them to schools based on proximity and residence. But as the concept caught on, the movement has proposed that the government should provide parents with vouchers or tax credits with which they can use to enroll their children to any public / private school of their choice. Simply put, this type of educational reform seeks substantial financial support from the government to enable parents to have their children attend the schools of their choice.

The Citizens for Educational Freedom seeks and continues to expand the degree of involvement parents can extend with regards to their children’s education. Teacher unions, school boards, and state bureaucrats have long opposed parental choice as an educational reform movement because they want to gain control of the education tax dollars reserved for every student.

CEF also provides free lobbying services for parents who want to become vouchers for tax credits.

CEF has battled it out with several educational institutions rallying against the parental choice movement and has claimed victories when state politicians took on their cause.

Parental choice for education still remains a hot debate among educational institutions and politicians. Although several states have already adopted public policies that grant significant amount of educational vouchers, the whole movement needs money and social consciousness for it to become a reality across the country. CEF, however, continues to rally the cause of parental choice in the face of strong political opposition.