School Choice: The Time has Come

From National Review Corner

“President Obama recognized the extraordinary efforts of some ordinary Americans who were his guests in the House chamber for his State of the Union address. One person who didn’t get his attention, though, was Virginia Walden Ford, a tireless advocate for school choice and education reform.

Walden Ford joined several young D.C. Opportunity Scholarship recipients and their parents and teachers as guests of Speaker John Boehner. Their presence in his box for the speech was a clear indication of the importance Speaker Boehner places on empowering parents with educational options for their children.

Boehner’s recognition of these families and Walden Ford’s leadership stands in clear contrast to President Obama’s omission of them and their cause from his uplifting narrative about making the best education possible to all.”

I hope that the Republicans will gut or eliminate the Dept of Education and take on the teacher’s unions. The brouhaha here in Memphis about the failure of Memphis City Schools is proof that it’s all about money, not about actually educating the children. It’s time to empower parents of all economic levels to choose where their children go to school instead of mandating them into failing schools.

Why not try something New?

With all the brouhaha over the MCS board voting to surrender their charter, why not use this as an opportunity to try something completely new; school vouchers. Why don't we empower the parents that do care and bring competition back into the equation? We already have proof that it works. SCS spend $2K less than MCS per child; yet SCS have better schools. I haven't seen anyone touting the success of MCS; just complaining about SCS being better. SCS already has a problem with kids who live outside the district going to their schools. Why is that? Why not give each parent a voucher for each child. They can then use that voucher to enroll their child in the school of their choice. The schools would then have to compete for students, instead of having a monopoly. The schools would be better. They would start coming up with solutions for educating the children instead of being complacent because they know that they won’t be able to keep their job if their school doesn’t attract students.

Just a thought. . .