Friday School Choice News
Earlier this week we noted the results of a new survey finding that DC parents overwhelmingly support school choice. This continues to make headlines:
To read the full survey results and report, visit the Friedman Foundation.
And in exciting news for DC families, yesterday a bi-partisan group of Senators led by Senator Joe Lieberman announced legislation to save the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. The legislation includes co-sponsors Diane Feinstein (D-CA), George Voinovich (R-OH), Robert Byrd (D-WV) and John Ensign (R-NV).
From the press release from the Alliance for School Choice:
“This is not a liberal program or a conservative program, but a program that puts children first,” Lieberman said. “And I am proud to say that it’s working.”
Under Senator Lieberman’s bill, the program would be preserved and strengthened significantly. The Lieberman bill would increase scholarship amounts to $9,000 for K-8 students and $11,000 for high school students—indexing the scholarship amounts to inflation. While these amounts remain significantly below the amounts for the D.C. Public Schools, they provide the necessary increases to account for inflation over the past five years.
Several stories have run on this development:
- Senate introduces bill augmenting D.C. voucher program
- Liberal and Conservative Senators Unite on Bill to Reinstate D.C. School Vouchers
Collins, meanwhile, noted that a little girl sitting in the front row was wearing a sticker reading, “What about me?”
“I think that’s the question that you should ask anyone who is opposing our efforts to extend this important program — you should ask, ‘What about me? Don’t I deserve a good education?’
Encouraging School Choice News from Arizona
Arizona families got some good news last week as the Governor and legislature took action to protect school choice tax credit programs.
The Alliance for School Choice reported:
School choice initiatives that benefit Arizona’s children and taxpayers were strengthened last night, when Gov. Jan Brewer signed legislation to improve two scholarship tax credit programs.
Brewer signed legislation that eliminated the “sunset” provision on the state’s Corporate School Tuition Organization Tax Credit. Enacted in 2006, this program allows corporations to receive tax credits for donating to nonprofits that offer scholarships so that low-income children can attend private schools.
The legislation also expanded the base of businesses that can contribute to the program by adding insurance companies—which pay premium taxes, not income taxes. This year, nearly 2,000 children benefit from the program.
This is great news for Arizona families, students and taxpayers. Let’s work to have Virginia follow Arizona’s leadership on education reform!
In signing another bill, Brewer allowed individuals to make paycheck contributions to School Tuition Organizations on a weekly or monthly basis—instead of in just one sum of $500. This legislation—which provides more efficient access to education donations for Arizona’s taxpayers—will likely expand the number of donors to the program. The program benefits more than 27,000 children this year.
Creating Great Schools: Ohio’s example
In recent years, Ohio has become another leader in the school choice movement, providing parents and students with more educational options.
According to the Alliance for School Choice:
Ohio is one of the most active states in the school choice movement. The state offers three distinct private school choice programs: the Educational Choice voucher program for students in failing schools, the Cleveland Scholarship and Tutoring Program, and the Autism Scholarship Program. Additionally, the state has a relatively strong charter school law.
Parents should visit the Web site of School Choice Ohio for detailed information on school choice in the state: www.scohio.org
This recent op-ed, “Lawmakers should support all schools that work well,” written by Terry Ryan, takes a closer look at how Ohio’s Ed Choice program benefits students in the state and urges lawmakers to continue to support these options as both a benefit to families and a benefit to taxpayers. It also underscores something we have talked about here before- this isn’t a matter of “public versus private,” but rather about creating great educational options for all students- whether those choices be public, private, charter, religious or home schooling.
What’s less known, however, is that many of the individuals and organizations that supported PACE also supported Dayton Public Schools’ reform efforts, as well as those of a handful of the city’s charter schools.
Frankly, these benefactors diversified their philanthropic investments across school sectors — district, charter and private — because what they wanted were great schools for all children. They saw competition and diverse reform efforts as the best hope for getting there, and were not doctrinaire about these sector distinctions.
Because Dayton has three great high schools (one district, one charter, and one private), we have evidence that the city can provide high-quality school options for its children. Lawmakers and others — no matter where they went to school themselves — should be encouraged to focus their support on those schools that work for children, regardless of label.
Dayton, like the state’s other cities, needs all hands on deck if we are serious about educating all children well.
Education and National Security
With much focus lately being placed on the national economy, less focus has been placed on our national security.
Even so, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recognizes the relationship between education and our national security.
In a recent Reuters article, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was quoted as saying that the “lack of quality education for all children jeopardizes the fundamental American belief that every citizen has the opportunity for success, no matter their background or place of origin.” She added that “if we can’t keep that true for every American, we’re going to lose who we are, and then we won’t lead – and so it is, for me, the most pressing national security issue.”
Andrew Campanella of Alliance for School Choice agrees with Rice. “When you have a bad education system, we’re going to lose jobs and lose small businesses and lose our ability to compete,” he contends. “When we lose the fundamental core of our economic prosperity, we will be become weak and we will become more vulnerable to attack.”
We agree that improving education is critical both for our future economic stability as well as to help ensure our national security.
ASC Recognizes Dem Supporters of School Choice
The Alliance for School Choice recognized Democratic supporters of school choice, including Newark, NJ Mayor Corey Booker and DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.
The Alliance for School Choice today hailed Democratic supporters of school choice, hundreds of whom stood together at events this week in Denver to decry a failed style of politics that has confined children to underperforming schools and prevented parents from exercising meaningful options.
The ASC has noted an increase in bipartisan support for school choice reforsm all across the country as leaders recognize that this isn’t about politics but about doing what is right for our children.
Notably, 40 percent of Democratic lawmakers backed a sweeping increase in Florida’s Corporate Tax Credit Scholarship (CTC) Program this year and the two primary sponsors of an opportunity scholarship program for New Orleans children were Democrat. Most recently, Democrats in New Jersey and Maryland have boldly introduced school choice legislation and vowed to carry it to passage.
Earlier this year, the Alliance for School Choice gave two of its inaugural leadership awards to Democrats. The State Executive of the Year Award was presented to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell and the State Legislator of the Year Award was presented to Pennsylvania State Representative Dwight Evans of Philadelphia.
