The school choice movement is gaining momentum

[ DECEMBER 2009 ] - Not just in Washington, D.C., but throughout the country. From educators to research organizations to scholarhip groups, supporters are finding ways to bring school choice to America's children.

Seth Cohen – Spruce Hill Christian School & City Center Academy - Pennsylvania

Who among us would condemn our children to a school in which the majority of the students are performing below grade level? What parent or grandparent among us would condemn their child to a school that will leave her well behind her suburban or international peers? These parents and grandparents grieve because they have no choice in the matter.

Each year at Spruce hill Christian School and City Center Academy, we receive hundreds and hundreds of calls for the very few seats we have available. When a parent or grandparent calls, they almost never ask about class sizes, computers, test scores, second language offerings, or the educational level of the teaching staff. Almost always, their first question is, “What is your tuition?”

We offer a college preparatory education to any qualified student, regardless of their ability to pay. How do we do it? We do it by asking parents to pay some of the tuition, by paying highly professional teachers far less than they could make in the public sector, and by relying on the generosity of supporters: businesses, churches, foundations, and individuals. This year alone, our supporters will provide $750,000 to educate our students.

Pennsylvania’s Educational Improvement Tax Credit has been an additional source of funding for non-public schools that are committed to parents having choices. We have awarded $400,000 to 165 low income students, or about 61 percent of the student population.

Mary Theroux – Independent Institute - California

Fundamentally, education itself means choice: without a good education, a child is left subject to the vicissitudes of chance and exploitation. Without education that trains critical thinking, neither individual freedom, not a free, civil society, is possible. Thus, in many ways, education is the most vital component for the future of freedom.

The Independent Institute established its Center on Educational Excellence to critically examine the educational crisis, and to chart a course for the achievement of educational excellence for all. Projects have included the books School Choices: True and False, by John D. Merrifield, a far-reaching critique of what passes for choice today, and a compelling argument for universal, true choice; and Can Teachers Own Their Own Schools?: New Strategies for Educational Excellence, by Richard Vedder, which examines the economics, history, and politics of education and lays out a plan whereby public schools could be privatized.

The center has further produced and disseminated a wide array of commentary, op-eds, conferences, and media events to increase awareness of educational issues. For the past ten years, the institute has also operated a private voucher program, the Independent Scholarship Fund, not only to assist children in our community by providing them an immediate alternative to the current public school crisis, but also to demonstrate that competitive, innovative, community-based approaches can revolutionize the educational system, improve the quality of education that children receive, and benefit society as a whole.

Bill Price – Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs – Oklahoma

School choice is one of the most important issues of our time. I see a confluence of events in Oklahoma today that could create a unique opportunity for major reform—a public awareness that our schools are failing our children, and for the first time since statehood, a legislature more likely to stand up for parents and students than for the institutional forces that have thwarted reform in the past.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) is a well established conservative public policy research organization. One of OCPA’s principal issues for many years has been the need for school choice. Brandon Dutcher, vice president for policy at OCPA, and Patrick Mcguigan, a research fellow for OCPA, have written a number of articles advocating school choice, which have appeared in OCPA’s publications as well as state newspapers, setting the intellectual groundwork for school choice among state opinion leaders. Dutcher also chairs the center-right coalition that meets at OCPA’s offices every month and brings together conservative groups.

With the tremendous assistance of the Friedman Foundation, the OCPA, along with the center-right coalition and state legislative leaders on education issues, have formed the Oklahoma school choice coalition. As an OCPA board member and member of the center-right coalition, it’s been exciting to see these elements come together. Our plan is to expand this coalition to further educate and activate legislators and the public to create the momentum for choice.