Real Reform Means School Choice

Determine Donde Estudian sus hijos (Giving Parents A Voice) Today, as the nation celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday it is appropriate to look to ways to improve educational opportunities to those most in need. For parents with children trapped in failing schools, it is time to give them a voice and a choice. Reverend Floyd Flake, a former Democratic Member of Congress, strongly supports school choice. He and his wife run their own private school in New York City. He believes that if the public schools don’t work, parents should have a choice.

Education consistently ranks near or at the top of every public opinion survey that asks for the most important issues facing our state and our country. For this Alabamian, it is the No. I issue. My wife and I are the parents of three girls, ages 2 to 4. Only a year away from enrolling one child in school, and three years away from having all three in school, we are faced with the question that hundreds of thousands of parents across Alabama ask themselves every day: Is my child getting a quality education?

"Is it moral to tax families, compel their children’s attendance at schools, and then give no choice between teaching methods, religious or secular education and other matters?" Alveda King (niece of Martin Luther King, Jr.) The Wall Street Journal, 9/11/1997

Americans are free to make decisions about their health, education, and welfare. We can choose what to eat, how to exercise, whom to marry, where to worship, and which candidate deserves our vote. Students can use federal financial aid to attend the college of their choice – even a seminary! But most Americans have little ability to choose how or where their children will be educated during their most critical formative years.