Partisans Need Not Apply

We frequently try to showcase the growing bipartisan coalition that is making up support for school choice across the country. It's becoming more and more clear that the idea of educating low-income children via vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs, and charter schools does not fall along traditionally-conceived party boundaries.

But our voice has its limits—we are, of course, just one reform-minded organization among many across the country, and mischaracterizations abound like to paint a picture of us as a profit-driven, conservative-owned, politics-driven entity that has a scary agenda.

Well, we do have an agenda—it exists of nothing more than helping kids. We could not care less about the political affiliation of the folks involved, as long as their intent is to give educational options to the kids that need them most. We think that's best accomplished via school choice.

And we're not the only ones. Here's an excerpt from an interview the NJ Spotlight conducted with prominent New Jersey Democrat George Norcross, which was posted yesterday on the Spotlight's web site:

In Camden, you have 1,500 to 2,500 kids who have a mom and/or dad with their hand raised wanting a seat outside the Camden [public schools]. That’s how I got involved, almost by accident. I was at a Cooper community event, three blocks from here, and a mother came up to me, no idea who she was. She said, "Mr. Norcross, I know you are, you are a powerful man, and I need your help. I thought she'd ask about a job. She said I have two children, I can’t get them out of Camden public schools, I can’t get in charter school, and I can’t afford a parochial school. I need you to do something to get them in charter school." I thought I could do that, but then found out the real deal, and it’s a lottery-driven system, and because of the avoidance of the Democrats over the years in approving alternative education, charters and others, there were no seats available.

Read more from the interview by clicking here.

- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MAG