Empower America Applauds Supreme Court Ruling In Historic School Choice Case

Today the United States Supreme Court made history. It ruled on the most important education case since Brown v. Board of Education. In its ruling, the right of children in Cleveland to attend schools that offer a quality education, and the right of parents elsewhere to have a choice in the education of their children, were upheld.

The decision could not have come at a better time. According to our best measure of student performance, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, nearly a third of fourth-graders cannot solve basic math problems. In reading, 37 percent of fourth-graders, 26 percent of eighth-graders and 23 percent of seniors scored below basic levels on the national assessment. Math scores have increased slightly since 1990, but reading scores essentially have remained stagnant for the past decade. It is time for change.

In Ohio, the numbers are just as bleak. While the entire state of Ohio enjoys a better than 80 percent graduation rate, the city of Cleveland manages only to graduate slightly over 33 percent of their children. Most of the failing 67 percent of children who do not graduate are poor and minority students. They are trapped in a system that continually fails them. The choice program there, begun in 1995, has helped thousands of students to break the bonds of failing schools.