By Jeremiah Poff, featuring the Education Freedom Center, recently launched by Independent Women’s Forum
Supporters and members of a conservative women ‘s organization touted the importance of parental rights as the group launched a new policy center to advocate school choice.
The Independent Women’s Forum, a conservative nonprofit organization, announced the launch of its Education Freedom Center at the Capitol Hill Club on Thursday, touting the center’s work advocating school choice as an important measure to protect parental rights in education.
“When [parents] look at what’s going on in schools, they are very concerned about what’s happening,” Education Freedom Center Director Ginny Gentles told the Washington Examiner. “They want education freedom. They want the ability to either take their child out or to tell the school, ‘If you don’t shape up, I’m going to take my child out.'”
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“Parents already know what is going wrong in the schools,” Stepman said. “But we want to equip them with the leverage so that when they go into that meeting with the superintendent or the principal, or they show up to a school board meeting, they can walk, with a lot of money … The only thing that’s going to shift the dial with our school districts is the ability to leave.”
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In a press release, IWF President Carrie Lukas said that the center “will build on the momentum created by parents throughout the last two years who are seeking transparency, leverage, and a voice in their children’s education” and “will be a resource that connects families to policies that empower parents and address the egregious power imbalance between parents and unresponsive school districts.”
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Nineteen states enacted some form of school choice program in 2021, and recent polling indicates the policy enjoys widespread public support.
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