Check out Virginia Walden Ford’s impassioned defense of the D.C. school choice program in the Examiner:
As we’ve talked to parents, we’ve heard over and over that it would be devastating to have to look for new schools for their children when they are doing so well in the schools they are currently attending. It is so heartbreaking to have to come up with an answer that makes sense. The schools that once met our children’s needs are not currently working for them. Schools that don’t work are dead-end streets for our kids. Parents here in the District daily express their frustration in finding educational environments that work for their children. Many of them have gotten to the point where they feel hopeless and helpless.
The Opportunity Scholarship Program has empowered parents by giving them the chance to get their children out of low-performing schools and send them to schools that meet their individual needs. We have seen that, when children are placed in nurturing educational environments, they succeed and their parents become active and involved.
Our children need a good education, and we can no longer stand by while politicians condemn them to a life of lost opportunities and unfulfilled dreams.
More here.