Howard Fuller ―School choice and the liberation of low-income families

Education reform: For Marquette professor Howard Fuller, it's not about test scores, it's about liberation and freedom. But Fuller argues that the ed reform movement has three requirements for success: Low-income families need school choices, the schools they choose among must be high quality, and the reform movement must be led by the people it's trying to liberate.

 

Sen. Tim Scott hosts school choice forum

The Post and Courier

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott believes where a child lives should not determine the quality of his or her education.

That’s why Scott on Monday hosted a day-long forum in Washington, D.C., titled “Choosing Excellence: A Forum on the Freedom to Choose Academic Excellence for Every Child.” The school choice forum included four panel discussions ranging from how to lead the choice effort to marketing school choice options to parents and students. 

Scott, R-S.C. and a supporter of school choice, thinks that giving more flexibility to parents and school districts will improve educational opportunities for all students. 

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The school choice journey: A conversation featuring US Senator Tim Scott

 The impact of school choice in America is about more than improved student test scores. School choice has the potential to inspire political activism among low- and moderate-income parents and families. In their thought-provoking new book, “The School Choice Journey: School Vouchers and the Empowerment of Urban Families” (Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), researchers Thomas Stewart and Patrick Wolf track the experiences of families participating in the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, the first federally funded school voucher program based in the District of Columbia. They find that parents look to several factors when choosing a school for their child, and the impacts of school choice on parents and families go far beyond anything that can be measured by a standardized test.

 We welcome you to join us at AEI during School Choice Week as US Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), Stewart, and Wolf discuss “The School Choice Journey” and why promoting school choice is important to expanding the range of education opportunities for every student in the United States, regardless of zip code.

Chelsi P. Henry — School Choice Empowers Students of Color

via The Root:

This week marks National School Choice Week: Communities across the nation are celebrating the successes of school choice, voucher programs, tax-credit scholarships and charter schools. Unfortunately, over the past six years, the Obama administration, Democrats and teachers unions have fought against parents’ right to choose the best education for their child. This, even as 52 percent of Congressional Black Caucus members have, at one time or another, sent their children to private schools.

Which begs the question: How is it that students of color—particularly black students—have a 68 percent graduation rate, versus 85 percent for white students, 60 years after Brown v. Board of Education? The statistics say to me that education is the civil rights issue of my generation.

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CHAVOUS: An Open Letter to Black Elected Officials

Kevin P. Chavous, an attorney, author, national education reform leader, and former Democratic Party politician in Washington, D.C., makes the case for school choice and charter schools. 

Each year, various social service organizations issue reports relating to the state of black America. While issues such as affordable housing, jobs, crime and challenging family dynamics are generally discussed, the poor quality of the education received by far too many African-American children continues to be a focal point found in these reports. The facts don't lie. According to John Hopkins University, 32 percent of African-American students drop out of high school nationally — 15 percentage points higher than their white counterparts. In urban school districts with a high concentration of low-income and minority students, the gap is widened and graduation rates are even lower. 

According to the Schott Report on Black Males in Public Education, African-American males have the lowest graduation rates out of any other race in 38 of our nation’s 50 states, a 76 percent majority. For over a decade, African-American students have been the least likely to obtain a high school diploma out of every racial or ethnic group in the United States. Additionally, the achievement gap between African-American and white students has consistently grown or stayed stagnant nationally with white students outperforming their African-American peers by up to 30 points on standardized tests. Not only are African-American students struggling in high school, but they are ill prepared to succeed in higher education. Nearly 63 percent of African-American students enrolled in a full-time, four-year college institution fail to graduate.

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