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This is a special Forum Section featuring responses to the U. S. Supreme Court Decision upholding the constitutionality of the Cleveland Ohio School Choice Scholarship Program.
STATEMENT OF LISA GRAHAM KEEGAN, CEO, EDUCATION LEADERS COUNCIL, ON THE
SUPREME COURT’S DECISION TO UPHOLD THE CLEVELAND SCHOOL CHOICE PROGRAM (Zelman
v. Simmons-Harris)
Press Release from the Education Leaders Council
“The Supreme Court’s decision today is warmly welcomed and long overdue – and we applaud the Court for its decisive judgment in what the ELC considers to be one of fundamental civil rights. While the Cleveland program prevailed in the court, there is really one clear winner in today’s Supreme Court decision: America’s families.
“The Supreme Court instinctively understood what opponents of the Cleveland program do not – that education in America is not about particular systems or structures, but students. True educational choice puts the system to work for students, rather than students at the mercy of the system. By allowing states to provide families with vouchers for tuition at religious schools, the Court has helped low-income families assert the right to choose from schools of every type to determine the best educational setting for their child– a fundamental right that more fortunate families already take for granted.
“For more than a generation, poor and minority children have been promised equal educational opportunities – and have received only empty but continual reassurances that if families would just wait a little longer, the failing public schools in their neighborhoods would improve with time. Time’s up. This decision will allow states to keep a promise made to families a generation ago: the opportunity to attend a school that works.
“Many of ELC’s member states have already put this promise into practice. We hope that other states will now be bolstered by this decision in their efforts to increase educational options for all families in their states as well. Do not allow obsolete thinking to stand in the way of a child’s education. Instead, work to open all schools in your state – public, private, and religious – to all families, and to make that open system work for families. Choosing a decent school for children should be a right, not a reverie.
“We are grateful to the Court for its decision and to the men and women who worked so hard to effectively argue this case.”
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Lisa Graham Keegan – former Superintendent of Education for the State of Arizona and one of President Bush’s finalists for the Secretary of Education position -- is the CEO of the Education Leaders Council, the nation’s premiere education reform organization. For more information contact Brian Jones at ELC at (202) 261-2603.
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