06.03.14 Daily News Clips - afternoon edition

June 3, 2014: AFC Daily News Clips – afternoon edition

Good afternoon:

All eyes are on the Yellowhammer State. No, not on the $6.8 million Nick Saban will make next season but on the $1 million+ the Alabama Education Association is spending to elect anti-education reform candidates. Tips/stories we’ve missed or should highlight – don’t hesitate to send me an email or tweet. And, if you have ever trouble viewing this on your phone, you can always view or clips online.

Stay tuned for tonight’s results!

Matt

---

Tweet of the afternoon:

@redefinEDonline Fact checking the fact checkers: @PolitiFactWisc misreads WI voucher research http://goo.gl/fbWXmM by @PatrickRGibbons #edchoice

---

Louisiana Federation for Children

Educating Louisiana featuring LFC’s Ann Duplessis http://vimeo.com/95571451

---

School Choice News

Redefined: PolitiFact Misreads WI Voucher Research http://bit.ly/1l3H26M

Heartland: Wisconsin Imposes New Regulations on Voucher Schools http://bit.ly/1m8AkZW

Watchdog: Feds Consider Joining School Choice Game http://bit.ly/1nawHWR

Alton Telegraph: School Choice for Parents Offers Alternative to Adult Focused System http://bit.ly/1jPihGQ

The Daily Signal: Universal School Choice: A Reform for the 21^st Century http://dailysign.al/1oTtrSI

Cincinnati Enquirer: School choice group sues CPS, Springfield http://cin.ci/1knA7qe

---

Charter Schools News

EdWeek: Rural Charter Schools Face Special Challenges http://bit.ly/1nM70PF

---

Is this Satire?

Huffington Post: School Choice is UnAmerican http://huff.to/1kAYxLW

_________________________________________ 

Matt Frendewey

National Communications Director

American Federation for Children | Alliance for School Choice

@mattfrendewey @SchoolChoiceNow | 202-280-1978 (O) |

www.federationforchildren.org | www.allianceforschoolchoice.org

AFC & ASC Honors the Memory of the late-Rep. John Patrick Julien

AFC & ASC Honors the Memory of the late-Rep. John Patrick Julien

The American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice issued the following statement in honor of Rep. John Patrick Julien, who passed away earlier today.

Betsy DeVos, chairman of the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice:

On behalf of the American Federation for Children and the Alliance for School Choice, our thoughts and prayers are with the family of Rep. John Patrick Julien. The legacy of JPJ, as he was called, will always be that of a leader who put the concern and needs of Florida children first.

Reign of Error: One book’s defense of the status-quo

By Kevin P. Chavous

In the several reviews of Diane Ravitch's new book, "Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools,” many have focused on her obvious obsession with corporate America and it's 'evil' involvement in education reform.  In writing this book, she clearly wants to warn us all "that reformers want to privatize their public schools and divert their taxes to pay profits to investors." And while Ravitch's rabid attacks throughout the book on education reformers is at times irrational and not based on facts, my problem with her approach and her rhetoric is more basic.

Parents, Students and Education Reform Advocates "Go Big" and "Go Bold" at National Policy Summit

The 4^th annual National Policy Summit officially concluded this afternoon after two days of impassioned speeches, closing with the marching orders for attendees to go home and work to implement big and bold ideas, policies and strategies to further expand educational choice.

Bringing together hundreds of parents, students and education reform advocates, we spent two days sharing success stories and discussing strategies for making school choice a reality for thousands of students stuck with limited access to quality education options.

Day one kicked off with a breakfast session featuring Washington Archbishop His Eminence Donald Cardinal Wuerl and D.C. Opportunity Scholarship parent advocate Sheila Jackson on the benefits of the scholarship program in our nation’s capitol.  During her speech, Sheila revealed some amazing news to the group: her daughter Shawnee, a D.C. OSP recipient, graduated as her school’s valedictorian and will be attending St. Augustine University in the fall!

At dinner, attendees heard from former Florida Tax Credit Scholarship recipient Denisha Merriweather on how her choice education opened the doors to greater educational opportunities, including college. Also at dinner, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence spoke passionately about the importance of school choice in the Hoosier State. (See Gov. Pence’s full speech here.)

Day two kicked off with Ohio mother Tera Myers’ heart wrenching story of her fight to ensure her special needs son was given the same educational opportunities as other children. Also at breakfast, former White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry discussed the role bipartisanship plays in furthering the goals of the school choice movement. (Watch Mike McCurry’s full speech here and our exclusive interview with the Governor here.)

Student advocate Sandeep Thomas kicked off the closing luncheon with an inspiring story about how school choice played a role in helping him overcome the scars of his traumatic childhood and help him grow into the student he is today. Former WNBA star and four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Lisa Leslie joined AFC’s executive counsel Kevin P. Chavous on stage to close out the conference with a conversation on why she got involved in promoting educational choice. Delivering what could be the quote of the conference, Leslie said, “It's about the opportunity to choose your education. What are we fussing about? This is the right thing to do" (Check out Leslie’s full interview here.)

From the entire AFC team, we hope everyone found this year’s Summit to be as informative – and enjoyable – as we did! Feeling completely inspired by all of our great speakers and fellow attendees, we cannot wait to hit the ground running to promote BIG and BOLD education reforms, giving thousands more students across the country a chance to be another school choice success story. To give you even further inspiration, check out AFC’s Kim Martinez’s interviews with attendees and speakers (update 1, update 2 and update 3).

Students Deserve a Choice

Thousands of families across the country have thousands of unique reasons why their assigned public school does not work for their child’s needs.  These myriad reasons are exactly why educational options are necessary in order to deliver each and every child an education that works best for their individual needs.   For many families – especially those who are low-income – their ability to choose the best education for their child is limited based on financial constraints. 

Parental choice or opportunity scholarship programs are a lifeline that allow low-income families to have the same choices taken for granted by higher income families.  Nearly 250,000 students across the country are seeing the benefits of such programs. 

Jason Bedrick, Visiting Policy Analyst at the Cato Institute’s Center for Educational Freedom, recently drafted a piece for Educationnext in support of scholarship tax credit programs.

“There is clear evidence that students benefit by participating in educational choice programs,” said Bedrick. 

“Under the status quo, wealthy families already have school choice while low-income families do not,” continued Bedrick.  “Wealthy families can afford to live in districts with high-performing government schools or to send their children to private schools. By contrast, low-income families generally only have one choice: the local assigned government school.”

Assigned public schools may work for many students.  For those students not being adequately served by the status quo, educational options are a must!  This sentiment was echoed in a letter to the editor featured in the Tampa Bay Times from Manuel L. Sykes, president, NAACP St. Petersburg.
   
Writing in support of FL Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed tax credit scholarship bill, Sykes says, “Two-thirds of the 50,000 low-income students on the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship are black or Hispanic. They were the lowest performers in the public schools they left behind and are now making the same academic gains as students of all income levels nationally. Just as encouraging, the public schools most impacted by the scholarship are experiencing higher learning gains.”

Whether on the left or the right of the political spectrum, we can all agree that providing the highest quality education to each and every student needs to be our nation’s number one priority.  If the traditional public school does not work for a student, families need every