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	School Choice - - Hope for Equal Access to Quality Education -by Walt Barbee


	When African - American leaders like former Atlanta Mayor and UN Ambassador Andrew Young and former N.Y. Congressman Floyd Flake jump on the growing bandwagon for school choice, you know it's time to see what's going on.


	Writing in the Richmond Times-Dispatch last month, Andrew Young KO'd school choice opponents' elitist argument that poor parents would make bad choices and are really too out of it to take an active role in their children's education, anyway.

Young noted that in May, parents registered "1.25 million cries for help voiced by poor, largely minority families, seeking something most Americans take for granted - a decent education for their children." That's how many families applied to the Children's Scholarship Fund for one of the 40,000 partial, K-8 scholarships offered to help low-income parents send their child to the public, private or parochial school of their choice.


	Behind the 40,000 who will be helped loom more than 1 million applicants, and countless others, who suffer in similar circumstances. "What can be done to help them - not 5 or 10 years from now, when their childhood, their precious chance to learn, is over - but today?" Young asks.


	"Will allowing parents to choose from different education options 'destroy public education'? Has competition from Federal Express 'destroyed' the government postal service, or has the latter indeed become better, faster, more innovative in response?"


	Young warns readers against those who "wave their worn- out ideologies to defend a system of educational apartheid while demonizing anyone who promotes a parent's right to choose." He reminds us that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human rights states: "Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children."


	In a parent-friendly move, Governor Jim Gilmore recently announced he now supports school choice. House Finance Committee Co-chairman, Harry Parrish of Manassas also sees the handwriting on the wall. He indicated to me last week that he thinks school choice will pass in Virginia sooner or later.


	Republican delegates Richard Black (Sterling) and Jay Katzen (Warrenton) are two of a growing number of legislators who plan to reintroduce the Virginia Children's Educational Opportunity Act this coming General Assembly session.

Delegate Black speaks to over 700 school choice supporters

This Act would offer all Virginians two key benefits. First, tax credits up to $200 per individual /business, or $400 per couple, for donations to charities which provide education scholarships for low-income families. Second, tax credits to parents for valid K-12 education expenses. The value of the tax credits would not exceed the greater of 50% of state per-pupil-spending, or $2,500, when fully phased in.

Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, an ardent school choice supporter, says, "The reason school choice succeeds is no mystery. It gives power to people who have the most at stake - - parents." Metropolitan Milwaukee Assoc. of Commerce president Tom Sheehy, who represents over 2,500 businesses, notes, "Today, because of the healthy competition introduced by school choice, there are more quality educational options for parents in Milwaukee than any other city in the United States."

State Representative Polly Williams, now age 62, was a single, welfare-recipient mom before she pulled herself and her children out of poverty and out of a failing educational system. After winning election to the Wisconsin legislature, this Democrat African-American led the fight for the first legislation anywhere to allow low - income families to use vouchers to send their children to schools of their choosing.

Dr. Howard Fuller, now a distinguished Marquette University professor, was Superintendent of Milwaukee Schools from 1991 to 1995 when school choice was implemented there. "It is terribly hypocritical for those of us who have money and are making choices everyday about the future of our children and their education to then sit back and condemn a school voucher program. This is not a liberal versus conservative issue," he says. "It's about what's best for the education of our children, period. The reason our coalition works in Milwaukee is because we can all agree that empowering parents to help their children is a good thing."

Regarding fiscal impact, an analysis by Milwaukee Public Schools district administrators reported school choice "could result in substantial savings for Milwaukee Public Schools and ease classroom overcrowding." Since school choice implementation, Milwaukee Public Schools expanded available "seats" in early childhood schools by more than 1,000 per year, and all-day child care expanded from 3 to 27 schools.


	More significantly, real spending for Milwaukee Public School operations has grown from $629 million to $921 million from 1990-91 to 1998-99, which translates into a per pupil spending *increase* from $7,070 to $8,914 per pupil per year.


	The more citizens learn about school choice, the more they appreciate the benefits. That's why polls show Americans are now solidly in support of school choice. For example, a Family Foundation poll (January 1999) found 67.8% of Virginians support school choice.


	And, finally, a "the polling company / Family Research Council" poll (1998) on parental choice in education found 77% of Americans support parental tax credits and a like number support scholarship tax credits (like the Virginia Children's Educational Opportunity Act.)

		Readers who care about giving hope and empowerment to poor parents and providing the best education options for children through school choice should talk to their candidates for delegate and state senator this summer. They are the ones who will either make it happen in Virginia - or kill it.