Instead, the movement is now driven by parents, educators, and religious leaders who are dissatisfied with the quality of education delivered by the public schools and are actively working to develop other viable alternatives, such as charter schools and vouchers for use at private schools. The event attracted 500 people, representing a cross-section of the city's parents and community leaders. That point was not lost on the News.
Choice lets families vote with their feet, and there's nothing more democratic than that.
Hosted by the Detroit Partnership for Parental Choice, the community-wide summit featured keynote speaker Dr. Howard Fuller, who was Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent when the city became the first in the nation to expand parental choice to include both public and private schools. Empowering parents to choose the right school for their child will help us save a generation and force bad schools to improve or be replaced. Interest in the parent empowerment movement has grown rapidly in the last decade as tens of thousands of parents have taken advantage of new options such as charter schools and district choice schools. Almost every choice school in Michigan has a waiting list. The way the system spends money, not enough trickles down to the classroom.