|
Heritage
Foundation
National School Choice Week
Artur Davis: School Choice Is About
“Basic Principles”
T. Elliot Gaiser
January
30, 2013
The
7th grade class in Highland
Park, Michigan’s school district was given an assignment: Write a
one-paragraph
essay on “what could make the school better.” Former Alabama
congressman Artur
Davis, who celebrated National School Choice Week at The Heritage
Foundation’s
event “Choosing to Succeed,” presented a particularly alarming response:
[Y]ou
can make the school gooder by
getting people that will do the jod that is pay for get a football tame
for the
kinds mybe a baksball tamoe get a other jamtacher for the school get a
lot of
tacher.
The
student who produced this
paragraph at the end of the 7th grade was passed into the 8th grade
despite
being unable to form a coherent paragraph. While a jarring example,
two-thirds
of 4th graders are not proficient in reading, as defined by the
National
Assessment for Educational Progress.
“Some
children are not getting from
their school what they deserve. So what do they do about it?” said
Davis.
“There are some places in the country where a child like Quentin could
get a
voucher.”
“Last
week happened to be the
President’s inauguration,” he said. “I didn’t hear a sentence, not a
sentence,
in that speech about 13-year-old children who can’t compose their
thoughts for
a paragraph.”
State
leaders across the country
have the opportunity to pursue reforms like school choice. Davis said
this
educational crisis represents a “strategic opening” for conservatives,
because
failing schools affect ordinary people every day. Giving parents
control over
their children’s education can significantly improve their lives.
Read
the rest of the article at
Heritage Foundation
|
