Gerard Robinson, “A Brighter Course for Our Children”
Gerard Robinson, President of the Black Alliance for Education Options, today has a wonderful op-ed in the Richmond Times Dispatch. Mr. Robinson urges Virginia lawmakers to expand educational options for parents by embracing all aspects of school choice.
The 2009 Virginia General Assembly session provides lawmakers with a fresh opportunity to create laws that will chart a brighter course for the commonwealth.
As Virginia lawmakers ponder how best to strengthen its economy, continual improvement of the existing public school system must remain a top priority.
Equally important is an expansion of parental options through public charter schools and private schools for Virginia families and children. In the recent 2008 presidential election, then-presidential candidate Barack Obama acknowledged his support for public charter schools. Why? Because he believes accountability in the public school sector works. And this month President Obama acknowledged his support for private school options by enrolling his two daughters in an elite Washington, D.C., school. Why? Because he and Michelle Obama want the best education for their children — as do millions of Virginia families.
Results from a 2,200-person telephone survey conducted in Petersburg, Richmond, and Norfolk by the Virginia-based Thomas Jefferson Institute and the Washington, D.C.-based Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) demonstrate that black families in Virginia also support parental options for their children — both in the public and private school sector.
For example, 76 percent of respondents indicated that they support school choice. When asked to identify a preference for the type of option they prefer, 89 percent support publicly funded scholarships for students with disabilities, 70 percent support public charter schools, 68 percent support personal income tax credits, and 65 percent support business income tax credits.
None of these represents entirely new ideas. In fact, each parental-choice option is operating in several states. For private-school based options, lawmakers have enacted scholarship tax credit programs in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. Arizona, Utah, Ohio, Georgia, and Florida offer special needs scholarships. These programs educated more than 100,000 students in 2007-08.
EVEN MORE dramatically, nearly 1.2 million students attend public charter schools in 40 states and the District of Columbia. Given the interest expressed by black parents in three major Virginia cities, most of whom voted for President Obama, shouldn’t lawmakers give some consideration to public and private school options?
Continue reading the rest of Mr. Robinson’s op-ed.
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