Think Different: A Lesson in Education Reform and Life, from Apple's Steve Jobs

"I really believe in equal opportunity. Equal opportunity to me
more than anything means a great education." - Steve Jobs

News today has been dominated by the sad passing of former Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who died yesterday at the young age of 56 from what, by most accounts, seems like complications from a long battle with pancreatic cancer. His wife and four children are in our thoughts today, as we reflect on the life of someone who truly had an impact on the day-to-day lives of people spanning multiple generations.

Jobs was an extremely private man (that's in part why his death yesterday came as such a surprise; few knew how ill he'd been in recent weeks), and beyond his trademark unveiling of new Apple products (and his characteristic "one more thing" line before the reveal of the big product), appearances at technology conferences, and the occasional, sometimes remarkable commencement address (the most notable being a 2005 speech to the graduating class that you can watch below), he kept things pretty close to the vest.

But occasionally, Jobs would chime in about the issues of the day, and in the same way he was an innovator when it came to consumer electronics and the computer industry, he had a a way of understanding the complexities of some of the most significant problems facing our country.

Among those was, not surprisingly, education.

The Will of the People: How the Green Bay Packers Serve as a Model for Education Reform in their Community

Opponents to school choice in Green Bay earned a victory earlier this year (and no—we're not talking about the Packers; at least not yet) when the Wisconsin state budget that passed with sweeping school choice expansions failed to include a proposed voucher expansion into Green Bay. Still, even without measure, significant expansions in Milwaukee and Racine made 2011 one of the most successful years for school choice since the original inception of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program over 20 years ago.

But what wasn't lost on us was the fact that the legislature failed to act democratically for a city that is so predicated upon democratic ideals.

We mentioned the Green Bay Packers somewhat in jest, but the reality is that the Super Bowl Champions are a perfect example of how the people play a role in determining the operations of their town. Unlike any other major professional sports team in the United States, the Packers are publicly-owned by the people of Green Bay. They even have annual shareholders meetings just like any other publicly-traded company. Put simply, the people of the city have an unprecedented amount of control in determining the outcomes of their lone professional sports franchise.

It's unfortunate, then, that those people don't have the same say in their educational system.

We told you last month about the strong support for school choice expansion among the people of Green Bay and Racine, and yet, despite that support, the Racine voucher program was stuck with a remarkably low cap (that was, not surprisingly, reached relatively quickly) while Green Bay residents are not able to take advantage of vouchers at all.

Now, opponents are taking an additional step to forego the will of the people, working to eliminate any possibility that private school choice could reach Green Bay—despite the fact that the people want school choice in their community.

Highlighting the Important Need for Effective Implementation

One of the most important components in constructing the most useful and well-run school choice programs around the country is implementation—ensuring that, once programs become law, scholarships are granted to the students who need them, monies are spent wisely, and parents are kept aware of all the options at their disposal.

Among the foremost organizations charged with carrying out these duties is the Alliance for School Choice, where their efforts, along with the likes of School Choice Indiana, were instrumental in helping that state's new voucher program enroll nearly 4,000 students in a shortened signup period—making it the most successful first-year voucher program in history.

But sometimes we come across news reports that have us asking: how many people could have benefited from a Choice Scholarship this year that didn't even know they existed?

As The Tide Turns...

Many of you probably read our monthly e-newsletter, Turning the Tide. But did you know that TTT is almost a year and a half old?

We began the newsletter back in April of 2010, just a few short months after the American Federation for Children came into existence. Now that we seem to have found our sea legs, we wanted to give you the opportunity to look back at all of our past editions of TTT, as well as take at the honorees of the flagship feature of our newsletter: our monthly "Champion for School Choice."

The Champion for School Choice award is given to an elected official who has stood out as an especially stalwort supporter of educational options. In September, however, we decided to go a different route, and we awarded our first-ever Champion for School Choice award to a non-elected official. Who was the historic honoree for September? You'll have to check out our most recent edition to find out, but we'll give you a hint: we've told you about him before.

Take a Look at the New and Improved Alliance For School Choice Website!

If you're reading this, we take you to be at least mildly web-saavy. And if that's the case, then you'll be happy to hear the following news: our partner organization, the Alliance for School Choice, has launched a new website!

The brand-new homepage for the website of the Alliance for School Choice.

Folks who had the old address bookmarked need not worry—they're still located at the same address, at www.allianceforschoolchoice.org. But among the features included on the new site, besides a brand-new, much sleeker look and feel (as well as access to the Alliance's award-winning 2010-11 School Choice Yearbook) is some stuff we think you'll like.

They will now have constant news updates, frequently-refreshed information on Alliance work around the country, up-to-date info about current school choice programs across America, and what parents need to know about programs and how they can get their children involved.

One-Fifth of America's Chief Executives Convene for NBC Education Summit

There were many opinions under one tent (literally) at this week's Education Nation Summit, the second annual event hosted in New York City on Monday and Tuesday by the folks at NBC. It sometimes made for a few odd exchanges—like, for example, when reform-minded Michelle Rhee shared the stage with AFT President Randi Weingarten. Reason TV captured a portion of that conversation, as well as a few other highlights from the summit, in the video below:

Bureaucratic Bullying in Arizona

Earlier this year, teachers unions and the education establishment jumped on the anti-bullying bandwagon with gusto, and for good reason. The rationale behind the anti-bullying movement is rational: making sure that children and their parents are safe, secure, comfortable, and free to learn. It's hard to disagree with the sentiment, right?

But this week, the unions themselves became the bullies, in a big way.

In Arizona, the teacher-funded Arizona Education Association (AEA) and the taxpayer-funded Arizona School Boards Association (ASBA) filed a lawsuit to remove more than 100 children with special needs from the private schools of their parents' choice.

What did these children with special needs do to deserve a lawsuit? Their parents decided to apply for an Arizona Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA), allowing them to tap into their own tax dollars to send their children to private schools (or other educational settings) that best meet their children's needs. ESAs are "outplacements," the process by which school district officials send children with disabilities to receive services from qualified private providers. Except with ESAs, parents—not bureaucrats—select the outplacement. And so, given their top-down mentality about educating kids, and their fear of empowered parents, the AEA and the ASBA filed suit to strip these families of their rights.