Last week 191 Oklahoma high-school students were named National Merit Semifinalists; 106 of them attend traditional public schools (where students are bureaucratically assigned based on geography), and 85 attend schools of choice.

Of those 85 students attending schools of choice, the breakdown is as follows:

• 37 attend private schools
• 19 attend a public residential school
• 18 attend public magnet schools
• 8 are educated at home
• 3 attend a charter school

Truth be told, even many of the 106 students in traditional public schools are attending schools of choice. Their parents are exercising the most common form of school choice in Oklahoma—real-estate-based school choice. (You think the kids at Edmond North are there by accident?) But even without counting those, it’s interesting to note that nearly half of Oklahoma’s top scholars attend schools of choice. - See more at: http://afternoon-plains-9177.herokuapp.com/articles/1537#sthash.hXxa509Z.dpuf