Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds is the Vice President of Policy for ExcelinEd.
Next week we celebrate National School Choice Week with more than 32,000 events and activities across the country. Parents, teachers and students will be featuring traditional public schools, public charter schools, private schools, magnet schools, online schools and homeschooling. I personally will be among an estimated 6.7 million participants at National School Choice Week events.
My first stop is Austin, Texas, to hear Tim Keller and Arif Panju, attorneys from the Institute for Justice, discuss their work defending educational choice. On Wednesday in Dallas, I’ll be among families and students whose lives were positively impacted by educational opportunities. We’ll be honoring legislative champions of choice in Texas: Governor Greg Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Senator Larry Taylor and Representative Ron Simmons. I cannot wait!
As a mother, I’m a strong believer in having the ability to choose the best learning environment for my three kids. A few years ago, despite the valiant efforts of my son’s teachers, I did not feel confident in my neighborhood school’s ability to fully meet his educational needs. My husband and I took out a loan to send him to a small private school for several years.
When my daughter decided to pursue her talents in visual arts, she applied and was accepted to our district’s fine arts middle school magnet. Now my youngest son is about to transition from fifth to sixth grade, and he’s on the lottery list to a public charter school and also applying to the fine arts middle school. I know how fortunate we were to have these choices for our kids.
In states across the country, too many parents and guardians of too many kids do not have educational options. They may be zoned into failing schools or schools that do not adequately meet the needs of their children. They may struggle to demand that the schools meet their needs because they are disenfranchised or intimidated by barriers of language, income or education. In the end, their choices for their children are not valued—or choices don’t exist at all.
For me, National School Choice Week represents how critical it is to level the playing field for every parent or guardian who simply strives to find the best learning environment for their child. Disadvantages of any kind should never be a barrier to a quality education and a bright future for our kids, nor should they matter.
