The hopes and needs of children are
clearly evident when charter, or pilot schools become available in school districts.
Lines, sometimes blocks long, of applicants eager to give their children a better shot at an education can be seen. Unfortunately, there are a limited amount of openings compared to the overwhelming demand by parents desperate to get their children a better education. These scenes, repeated around the country, are heartbreaking, but at the same time gives a sense of hope, that something is being attempted to shake up the government education system
This week is National School Choice Week. It is being celebrated throughout our country
with over 3,500 events honoring the change that can transform our education
system into one of the finest in the world…But it will take courage to
change the status quo.
In honor of School Choice Week, I talked to Jeff Reed,
communications director for the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice. The Friedman Foundation has been spearheading
school choice efforts throughout the country, working with new thinking
Governors such as Louisiana’s
Bobby Jindall and Wisconsins Scott Walker, in turning around a failing
government education system.
Jeff shared many positive developments with me, as school
choice starts to take hold around the country. See this map of where school choice is being implemented.
Parents love the freedom, when offered, to take a voucher to
a private, or alternative school for the chance of a better
education for their children.
Many Governors and Mayors love the idea of vouchers not only
for the freedom of choice they offer, they love it because
it can save them huge amounts of money. Sometimes the cost of a voucher for a
student to enroll in a private school is ½ the cost of the public school. That can add up to substantial
cost savings to states and cities struggling to keep their heads above water.
Additionally, when school choice is introduced into a state
or district, through vouchers, tax credits, savings accounts, etc…It brings competition, which is lacking in the public school system.
But John Norquist, Democratic mayor of Milwaukee from 1988 to 2004, had a unique perspective
on school choice and how it can restore our cities.
Norquist wrote: “If a young couple moves to, say, St. Louis and chooses a
home in one of the city's revitalizing neighborhoods, everything goes well
until their first child approaches school age. They might decide to pay for
private education at one of the few such schools in the city. Or they might
take a chance on getting into one of the city's elite magnet schools. But what
looks like the surest way to enroll their child in a good school is to move to
a suburb.”
He goes on with: “Although the couple enjoys urban life in St. Louis, they leave for
better school opportunities. This process occurs all across the country; many
parents with resources move away from cities and suburbs where poor people
live.”
The lack of quality education choice leads to the further
decay of our big cities and urban areas.
Mr. Norquist believes “many more, including middle-class parents, would
live in economically and racially diverse cities once school choice was
universally available.”
When you hear a leader of the top public education union and
fiercest foe of education choice say: “Union dues, not education, are our top
priority,”…..it is plain to see we have lost our way as a country and have
failed our children.
Lets give all of our parents and children a choice when it
comes to education.