"I strongly support National School Choice Week because all children in
America should be able to access the best schools possible. We have a
moral and societal obligation to give our children the opportunity to
succeed in school, at work, and in life. We cannot meet that obligation
unless parents are empowered to select the best schools of their
children. I encourage everyone who wants to see a transformation of
American education to get involved in National School Choice Week."The above comments come from comic legend Bill Cosby but there's a whole lot more who are enthusiastically supporting National School Choice Week by attending a giant kickoff event in New Orleans.
There was an air of celebration at the event as participants recognized that 2011 was a banner year for the school choice movement. And the thanks for that goes, not exclusively but primarily, to conservatives. As Mike Brownfield, writing in the Heritage Foundation, points out:
The groundswell of support comes after a year of significant strides in the school choice movement. A total of 12 states and the District of Columbia either enacted or expanded school choice options in 2011. Heritage education expert Lindsey Burke explains that last year, “more families than ever before gained access to school choice options, freeing them from assignment-by-zip code policies that often relegate families to the public school closest to their home, regardless of whether it meet their child’s needs.” As a result, more families have access to school choice options — including vouchers, tax credits, homeschooling, online learning, and even education savings accounts.
That expansion of school choice came after what appeared to be ominous news for some of America’s schoolchildren in 2009 and 2010. In Washington, D.C., home to some of the country’s most dangerous and under-performing schools, families of low-income children received vouchers through the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, giving them a chance to choose a brighter educational future. That light of hope, though, was about to be extinguished when Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) inserted a provision in a 2009 spending bill that would have ended the program. That changed, though, when the Tea Party revolution came to Congress, bringing with it a new movement toward school choice...
