When President Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act earlier this month, he celebrated the bipartisan support for the legislation--which replaced the No Child Left Behind Act--as a "Christmas miracle." Miracle or not, the new law ended the largest school-choice program in the country.

"Public School Choice," was the simple name for the program, and it was built into No Child Left Behind. Under the law, any school failing to meet performance benchmarks in reading or math for two consecutive years was identified as "in need of improvement." Families whose children attended one of these schools had to be offered the option to transfer to any other district school that was not so identified.