From Darrell Allison, president of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, which supports greater educational choice:

I often sense an adversarial tone when listening to discussions about the different educational options available to our children. We often fail to recognize that whether a child attends a traditional public school, public charter school, private school or is homeschooled, each learning environment enjoys a symbiotic relationship with the other.

Imagine if every Mecklenburg County private school, public charter school and homeschool closed its doors today, thus forcing those students to enroll in traditional Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. The result, according to the state Department of Public Instruction, would be an immediate influx of more than 19,000 private school students, 6,300 public charter school students and 6,000 home-schooled students entering or re-entering a public school system already busting at the seams.

What if statewide the more than 96,200 private school students, 83,000 homeschooled students and 41,200 public charter school students, totaling more than 220,000 children, enrolled or re-enrolled in our traditional public schools?

The result would be catastrophic for our students and families, and debilitating for school budgets. In 2010-11, North Carolina spent an average of $5,162 per student. Based on that, taxpayers would be on the hook for an additional $925 million (which excludes public charter school students).

Such a scenario is unlikely. But we must recognize that private, public charter and homeschools have a significant relationship with public schools in educating our children. It is a model North Carolina has long embraced and one which should be celebrated. Our lawmakers eliminated the cap on public charter schools last year and approved a private school measure allowing parents of children with disabilities to claim a tax credit for educational expenses.

These votes demonstrate that supporting the best learning environment for children is not about party. Nearly every lawmaker - 97 percent - voted to remove the public charter school cap, and 65 percent of Democrats voted for the Tax Credit for Children with Disabilities. This measure is the state's first K-12 law allowing private education as an option, and will benefit thousands of families while saving school districts millions. These measures also highlight that any true partnership must be mutually beneficial.

North Carolina should join other states celebrating National School Choice Week this week. We must realize the importance of a strong collaborative relationship between the diverse educational models our state employs. It should benefit students and work for every school through sharing best practices and preventing the overwhelming financial strain from the sheer numbers of children that our state must teach.

North Carolina's strong history of educational options should be celebrated, but we still need to work toward ensuring that this partnership be one that is mutually beneficial for each educational model. Each one - including our traditional public schools - helps to support our shared responsibility to fully educate not just some of our children, but all of them.