Thursday, March 22, 2012

Rhee: I'm for Choice That 'Results in Better Outcomes and Opportunities for Kids'

Here at School Choice Now!, we know former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee supports vouchers.  In fact, she even spoke at our 2011 Policy Summit on why she—as a Democrat and former chancellor of D.C. Public Schools—supports putting all educational options on the table.

Rhee also recently sat down with Education Week to discuss why she supports private school choice.  Here’s what she said:
"I believe in accountability across the board. If you're going to be having a publicly funded voucher program, then kids have to be taking standardized tests. We have to be measuring whether kids are academically better off in this private school with this voucher than they would be going to their failing neighborhood school. If they're not, they shouldn't get the voucher. ... I'm about choice only if it results in better outcomes and opportunities for kids." 
"There are a lot of people out there who sort of believe, the free market, let the free market reign, the market will correct itself—give every kid a backpack with their money in it and let them choose wherever they want to go. I don't believe in that model at all." 
"I don't think it makes sense to subsidize families who are already sending their kids to private schools, anyway, I'm not a voucher proponent in the way that some people would want me to be. ... This is not about choice for choice's sake." 
"When people talk about universal vouchers, first of all, I've never seen an economic model that actually made sense and laid that out in way that's sustainable. I haven't seen any kind of model that makes economic sense. ... My support for vouchers is around a specific group of kids." 
"But the vast majority of kids are going to be in a high-performing public school environment.  I'm a believer in public schools. I'm a public school parent. I ran a public school district."
- American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice, MSG

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