School Choice Now! is the official blog of the American Federation for Children, the nation's voice for educational choice. We seek to improve our nation’s K-12 education by advancing systemic and sustainable public policy that empowers parents, particularly those in low income families, to choose the education they determine is best for their children.
With this strong showing of support within and beyond the legislature, our hope is that this is enough compelling evidence for our governor to support this measure with her signature. With a stroke of her pen, thousands of families will be able to afford placing their special needs children in educational environments that meet all of their needs. Pending the governor’s approval, this will be the first piece of K-12 legislation that gives parents statewide choice regarding public and private education in North Carolina; in a word, awesome.This comes just a week after the legislature voted to eliminate the state’s 100-school cap on charter schools, a measure that also passed with strong bipartisan support.
Yesterday, North Carolina families were shackled by the restrictive cap of 100 charter schools, but today we’re moving in a new direction that will loosen those shackles for many of our children. I want to salute our state leaders for moving on this measure in a bipartisan effort. There’s still much work to be done, including equitable funding for charters and creating a better environment in which how charters are governed. But there’s no denying that today was a truly good day and we look forward to Governor Perdue making this a historic day with her signature once the measure reaches her desk. Though we’re happy where we are, we know that we still have more work to be done, particularly with our grassroots campaign calls to our governor in hopes that she will sign the measure soon so that this public school option can be made available to thousands of families across our state.Read the full PEFNC release here.
