Transcripts For CSPAN School Choice 20150214

Frankly, it is a panel filled with people who have been there done that. People who have done real change. One of these people is fitted is to my right. Sister john berry fleming. They go to person when it comes to Catholic Education and understanding Catholic Schools in america. Not surprising since she has been an educator. We also join by dr. Steve perry. Dr. Steve perry is the founder and ceo of one of the top Public Schools in the Country Capital repertory Magnet School in hartford, connecticut. Capital prep which is for mostly low income families, mostly children of color, graduates 100 of its children and has done so every year since 2006. Sending them to fouryear colleges. That alone is worth applause. [applause] dr. Parry is a regular education contributor for msnbc. Upa bestselling author. As soon as you hear him talk you will see him be one of the most passionate voices for education reform. Next to him is nina rees. The president and ceo of the National Alliance for public Charter Schools. She has over 20 years expense in washington dc. Most recently as the Senior Vice President for Strategic Initiatives for an Amazing Company helping kids. She is also served as the deputy secretary for innovation at the u. S. Department of education. They never had an secretary for innovation and change before. Nina was the first. That was right after she was dick cheneys assistant director for policy. Nina has a huge history with d. C. And education. Finally, to her right is Mashea Ashton who is ceo for the new or Charter School fund. Previously, she served as the executive Director Director for the new york program. Executive director for Charter Schools for new york Citys Department of education. We will do the same thing that rick did. First of all, on your seeds are the social media please. Please get involved. I will start really quick with following up on what senator scott asked. At the end of last panel he said, we need to have a grassroots conversation about what is having to restaurants today. Im going to throw this to you dr. Gray, what is happening to our kids, how bad is it . First of all, thank you. Thank you to senator scott and all the people who assembled here this morning to have a conversation about the most important issue of alltime. It is education. The enlightenment of education and the ability to transform individuals where opportunity has not been there. What is happening is the variant life forests of a generation is being brought from them and being given to the employees of the status quo. We do not have a School System is put in place to help our children. We have a School System that is kept in place to ensure that grown people can have their jobs. I have seen too many beautiful children, like those who are here [applause] who, if you have the opportunity to talk to them, they would tell you their stories and struggles of their community. Those stories will not hold them down because they are at good schools. They are at choice schools and their lives are being changed everything will day. We cannot continue to pour good children into that schools and expect good things to happen. The biggest challenge to our community is quite frankly, not adversary, it is our advocates who are weak and unwilling to fight. They are too apologetic. They have an issue with calling a failed school, a failed school. The local mayor says that having a failed school offense or more. If we do not hold our allies a accountable im sorry, you got me warmed up. [applause] that was the intention. Sister john berry, please pray for me. She could put her hand on me. Sister john mary, you are part of the Catholic School sector, why should we have options . Why should we have is competition a good thing or bad thing . I think charters have paved the way for options for parents that are very important. In the catholic community, we educate 1. 9 students in the Catholic Schools. There are many catholic children in the public sector. Therefore, we are interested in Excellent Schools as we are in Catholic Schools. Thats why we are interested in Parental Choice. Its part of our dna as a School System. We exist because we want to give parents the right and choice to be to choose Catholic Schools. Hence, we are supportive of it 100 from the Vantage Point of continuing to do that. Thats why we are interested in Parental Choice. We are just in Parental Choice to piggyback off of dr. Parry, we are very concerned about children. The hope of our society is in this room right now. These are the kids that we have. Through Catholic Schools, we offer hope through school and education. It is an act of hope. We are making a statement to kids out there that we care a great deal about who they are and not just what they learn. But actually, who they are by giving parents the option to choose. Thats why we are interested in School Choice. [applause] nina. I would also like to thank senator scott for hosting this great event. Ive been involved in this co School Choice movement for a long time. One of you have a senator interested in the topic, it attracts so many people to th is. The question of choice. By way of background, im extremely proud that we have Charter School laws and 42 states and in washington dc. We are serving a little over 2. 7 million children across the country. One of the reasons why taras gold is so important is that that they are serving the needs of children where they are. As the governor mentioned earlier, when families want to make a choice, they can move if they are wealthy. In the innercity setting, the option is not available. We do not have enough voucher programs to meet the needs of lowincome families. Right here in washington dc, we have a bustling School Choice movement. Close to 50 of children in the district are attending Charter Schools. As a result, the overall quality of the public system has improved over time. Im a believer because i think it empowers families, im also believer in the impact of the Charter Schools on the judicial system. And making sure that we are transferring the knowledge to the church and knowledge to the digital system so that everything is improved at the end of the day. Can i jump in real quick to tell my story. I come up this from a very personal perspective. I have an identical twin sister we in the traditional Public Schools. And at that point, my parents took us out and put us into private schools, Catholic Schools and that made all of the difference. I just believe every parent wants to best for their parent and as a four chair, we believe that Parental Choice is widespread, but not for low income and working class families. If you are, if you have resources, you do two things. You move to a community where the traditional Public Schools are great or you put your child into private school. And i believe that children in low income and working class communities deserve that same access to quality education. And it should not, should be a right. Whether youre in southeast washington, d. C. Or in newark, new jersey, you deserve an access to a quality education. I think its worth noting im a School Choice advocate, not a Charter School advocate. Raggedy schools are raggedy schools, no matter the destination. There are some raggedy charters that need to be shut down this evening and some that need to be shut down a couple of years ago. Simply because a Charter School struggles, it doesnt mean Charter Schools struggle. We need to get past either charter or traditional. We need to get past either private or public. We need to get down to what education is about, which is providing different instruction to children so you can meet them where they are and take them to where they need to be. We spend too much time having a conversation about the ends of the conversation, of the issue. Thats not what this is about. Its about whats at central. Whats central to it, which are the children. I know weve forgotten somewhere along the way that education was supposed to be about children, but it is. Its not a jobs program. Its not a tenure conversation. You hear so many times, people talking about well, the traditional schools need more resources. For what . To do what . If i give you more money, are you going to be worse . Or better . Because its not the issue of money. The overwhelming majority of Charter Schools and Catholic Schools function on a fraction of the amount of money traditional schools get. If that were the issue, the best place to send a child to school would be the prison. Thats where we spend more than anything. So, if the issue were money, we would have those parts of the conversation. What the issue is quality of instruction and quality of leadership. Simply because you have a certification that says you can be a teacher doesnt mean you should. This is a calling. [applause] and just because somebody called you with a job offer, that doesnt mean you were called. Our community specifically africanamerican latino and poor communities, we have been trying to find a way to claw our way out of poverty through education for quite some time. And for a long time, the Catholic Schools were there for us. You see, whats interesting is a baptist will go to a Catholic School just to get out of the raggedy school thats at the end of their street. Now, they have to wait until they get out of church somebody around monday evening, but when they get out, theyre going to go to school. Children will lie, families will lie about a childs address and if race is considered, theyll lie about their race, so ja kim will be a white kid if necessary to get the child out of the circumstances that are literally robbing him of his life. This is america. A place where you can go into a store and find so many different types of a gum that your head would spin and were supposed to only choose from the school thats closest to our house . Its an absurd notion. You cannot under any circumstances think that the best indicator of a schools compatibility to a child or the family is because its close to their house. You know, its interesting that people call themselves liberals and say theyre prochoice, but theyre prochoice when it comes to having a choice, but antichoice when it comes to where you send a child to school. Its interesting to say somebody calls themselves a liberal whos so focused on making sure social programs are in place, but the greatest social program of all time is education, but thats not what they want. What they want to do is maintain the status quo. So, i submit to you that if youre not willing to fight, then get out the way because theres a fight going on. [applause] shes praying. She is pray inging for me as we speak. Right here. Dr. Perry talked about it being a calling. So, your schools is a calling. What makes your schools unique in the catholic sector and what do you offer that others dont . In the catholic environment we offer jesus christ preached in the gospel and so, that is the fundamental reality of our schools. But what we believe is that the individual, the human person within our schools is of inest mall dignity and because of that, we owe them within our environment an excellent education that will help them flourish as an individual person, as a human being. And therefore, all the things that make up good education are part of the conversation for our schools. And good teachers, community excellent governance, good use of resources, all of that is part of the larger question because it matters to who the children are. We believe that education has two ends and the churchs teachings have been clear for many years. Both the flourishing of the person here and now as a citizen of this world and their eternal end as a citizen of the world to come. And so, the mission and the vision of our schools, we try to lock, keep that very much within our minds because it matters to the children in front of us, so thats what makes our schools different. Im going to assume thats exactly the same mission at the Charter Schools, right . What makes the Charter School sector unique and different . What to you offer . Again, its a diverse community, so depending on the state law that allows for the creation of Charter Schools, youre going to have very different types of Charter Schools. One of the things we do at the National Alliance is grade laws based on their strengths and last year, we produced a document that looks at the movement and quality of the movement. How innovative is the space in the different states. The thing we base it on whether as an entrepreneur, youre able to open a school and come up with different types of curriculum, different modes of delivery and different ways of attracting families and running your school. The more freedom you have to do that, the more, the stronger your law is, so to speak, so here again in washington, d. C. And states like louisiana, they have some of the strongest Charter School movements because youre able to create online Charter Schools. Youre able to create Charter Schools that are focused on math and science, on bilingual education, character building and what not, so depending on the strength of the law, were agnostic as to what type of education is provided so long as the school is held accountable to raising student achieve m and held account bable to making sure all of the students regardless of race, background are graduating and going on to college. Thats great. Go ahead. Ill just add i think you asked earlier, like whats happening in our schools and in our communities and in many schools and particularly in urban and working class communities, our kids are dying. They dont have hope. Theres teachers who dont believe in them. They dont see going to and through college or having a career in family as something thats real to them, so this problem is urgent. Its real and we have to have a three sector approach to it. Sometimes, i hear you know, its all about having great Charter Schools or having great traditional Public Schools or put more money to it. We need a three sector approach. We need great Charter Schools, great traditional Public Schools, great private schools if theyre not quality, then they need to close. We need to have a no excuses, no time, no patience for schools and for organizations where people who dont put children and students interests first. Thats a great question. Last couple of months or last six months, two schools in indianapolis have closed. Parents did not want it even though the schools were poorly performing. So, is there a distinction between the idea that we want accountableility based on test scores and performance and yet parents still dont want them to close. Should parents be able to go to poorly performing schools . I think its on us as reformers to think thoughtfully. If students are going to go to worse off schools, thats not a better choice. This panel is about Engaging Community in the process. Weve got to be more transparent about what is a Quality Schools. Its not just test scores family engagement, teacher sats fak, so i would argue theres not great transparency around what is a Quality School and the more we can engage parents stakeholders and policymakers into the discussion about quality, i think the more thoughtful we can be about closing schools and providing students and families better options. She looks at me, i have to say yes. And i agree from the Vantage Point that we use a phrase principal subsidiarity. The local level in the Catholic School, the community should be vested in that, in that environment. And that means parents, it means administrators, the pastor, the bishop, it means a vestedness. The other point that i think is really important is is that in doing so, that relationship between the school and the family is a partnership. Its not just a consumer experience. Its an actual partnership where the school takes on the obligation to educate that child on behalf of the parent in local parentes and i think that element of relationship related to education is extremely important and may be sometimes missing in this conversation. That the parents have an obligation to communicate well with the school, its not just one way and so, when we talk about accountability, its a relationship accountability. Not necessarily just you know, a gavel accountability. So i think thats a very important part of a good school. Can i take that real quick . So, if the Charter School movement were to operate the same way as a traditional system operating where after years of poor performance, it keeps its doors open, we would be no different from the other system, so its important were firm on accountability and advocate for closure when a school is failing. Having said that, the reason why these families are not reacting it could be perhaps because the schools which they escaped are not as safe or high quality as the school theyre currently sending their children so, so, as reformers, i think its extremely important for us to come up with sensible options, whether through giving the governorer nance of that charter to another Charter School and really explaining to families why is it they would be better off in another school in that neighborhood. Making sure other opgs are available is important to us. One last thing as a parent myself, we often think of this as something that only impacts low income families, but as a parent who is exercising choice right now, it is extremely confusing to really understand if a school is a high Quality School and whether it is spending your tax dollars effectively. Its opaque. So, from a Public Policy standpoint, the more information thats out in the Public Domain whether academics or quality measures, it would be better for our nation to understand what makes a equalQuality School and what types of schools are likely to put you on the path to success and college and later in life. Great. Im pro vouchers. 100 pro vouchers. And most people are pro vouchers. They just get caught up in the politics of what the words have come to mean in the political theatre that is education. If youre pro section 8, some of yall might be using it. If your pro food stamps or most recent iteration thereof, if youre pro Student Financial aid, if youre pro medicaid, pro medicare, youre pro vouchers. You are for public money being used for either public or private goods or services. Further, we dont have a problem with sending Brigham Young xavier university, notre dame, Boston College or any of the other jesuit schools federal Student Financial aid. We dont have a problem with that. We see this part of the thing. That we do to educate at this next level, but then youll hear people say inging theyre against prek to 12 vouchers because they might go to a Catholic School. Isnt notre dame a Catholic School . So, why would you have a problem, why would you be okay with notre dame the university receiving a voucher, but not Notre Dame High School or Elementary School receiving a voucher . Its because notre dame university, or the university of notre dame doesnt have as good a lobbying group. As the pre k12 folks do. We need to do a better job of making it plain to the Community Whats really what. Too much of the education conversation is held in the minds and mouths of wonky politicos. Love you guys in your khaki pants and blue blazers, love you, but you dont make sense to the rest of the world. Your little echo Chamber Conversations dont mean anything to people. People dont get you, so you wonder why people dont sign on. Its because youre talking over peoples heads. You dont respect the humanity of the people youre supposed to be supporting because if you did, youd take to time to make sure they understood what you said. You would have them ask you questions. You would teach them. Too much of the conversation goes over the heads of our community and as a result, they just sit there, i dont understand what theyre talking about. So making it plain is this. Every child has a right to go to a good school. Thats period. And that weve found, the federal government through the the courts have found on every single time, that if you put children from one community in a disadvantaged circumstance because of education, that is wrong. Thats bad. So, they need to be given choice. We need to fight to make sure our community understands that if they got a scholarship like theyre trying to fight for for their child who can barely play basketball, but theyll pay 1200 to put him in aau program, if we can explain it simply, a scholarship, just like that College Scholarship you want could help your child go to a school, whether it be from prek or in 12th grade, then they understand terms like a voucher. Just a scholarship. Further, you hear people on both sides of the political conversation talking about how they want to save money in Public Education or as a whole. What youre paying for it twice not because its a Charter School or Magnet School because its a school into that the children do not attend. All these children who are here attending Charter Schools, if their school, their Neighborhood School they were supposed to go to receives one dime, then youre paying twice for them. Ill say it again. In connecticut for instance, if a child is slated to go to a so, my Neighborhood School will be snow school. Snow School Elementary school up the street from me. The one that kept me back in the third grade. Well, my sons dont attend snow school. They attend my school. Capital prep, in hartford. So, snow school gets 13,000 per pupil. Capital prep gets 12,000. Were paying 25,000, thats why third grade didnt work out. For my sons to go to one school. A school, snow school, theyve never set foot in. For any reason at all. If they were vouchered, theyd only be paid once. If it was a scholarship, wed only pay once, the reason why were in the situation that were in is because were trying to keep the other school open so that the grown people can keep their jobs. But what even they neglect to understand is that the number of students doesnt change. Its static. Meaning if there are 1,000 students that need teachers, there are 1,000 students who need teachers no matter where they are, so, if you can halfway teach, then youre going to have a job as a teacher. We need to make it plain to our community theyre being played by the system so that the people who dont utilize these urban schools who send their kids to suburban, charter or Catholic Schools, which is always funny they send their own children to Catholic School, but they dont support private schools. We need to make it plain for all communities, so our community can fight with us as a posed to us simply fighting and them not understanding what were fighting for. As one of those khaki suited policy people, right, dr. Perry talked about grass roots politics. So has done some incredible work and grass roots activism. What are the big challenges you faced and in particular, maybe even dealing with people in khaki pants and blue blazers . I agree what dr. Perry says. Sometimes, the policymakers or funders think this is an intellectual debate. Well, lets talk through it. We can talk our way through the problems. And what it really is is personal, oneonone relationships. Weve got to spend the time and the other challenges. Its an urgent problem. So, people want to give money, get organized and come out today and then it be done. But this is a longterm battle. Its a longterm fight and weve got to invest in, it just takes time, but it takes a oneonone con conversation. As we think abts organizing, engagement, louisiana or alabama, kentucky or even in new york, new jersey, we have to start with the oneonone conversations and the reality is that there are petter people who are messengers in the community. We cant have the fly in pilot helicopter type of people who say believe in these policies and come fight with us. It has to be from the parents and from the community, but it takes the trusted relationships, it takes time and it takes real support. Looking at the charter sector, what are some examples of great grass roots activism . You have emily kim from success academies on a later panel. She and if families of her school rallied 20,000 Community Leaders and parents to walk to albany to ask to make sure that one of the schools that the mayor was trying to close would stay open. To me, thats a great example of an effort that started with one school, families for Excellent Schools assisted and brought the other leaders to the forefront. We have two leaders in the room today. Darlene chambers from the ohio Charter School association and mary car michael with the South Carolina Charter School association in the back. These two can probably tell you more about what theyre doing but one of the things that you notice when you get to a lot of these communities is the sense of learned helplessness. A lot of people have come to these communities to offer hope. And they have left. And thats often quite frankly an unfortunately what happens with School District leaders who go in with a lot of hope. They may have the School Boards support at the time. When theyre in office, they offer hope, create a safe community, but unfortunately the average tenure of an inner City District superintendent is less than three years, so when they leave, they take those ideas and the next person comes with new ideas, so i think understanding where they come from and making sure whatever infrastructure you have in place is going to stay there is important and one reason why Charter Schools or any form of choice trumps any systemic reform is because these schools are going to stay and families are choosing them. Theyre not beholden to them because theyre assigned to those schools. You know, we often overlook the most obvious grass roots efforts. The waiting lists. Parents are voting with their feet. They are saying i dont want this school to which i am assigned. And so, some of the largest School Systems in america are losing ten, 20, 30 , 40, 50 of their entire student population. There are no other cities, theres no other movement thats clearer than that. Our school in hartford has 4,200 children on the waiting list. One school. 70 available seats. But because of a weak school board, because of a weak mayor and because of visionless leaders in the community, our school is not allowed to expand with vouchers, we wouldnt have to go through this. Each one of those children would just leave and wed just open another school. Wed open as many schools as the community has asked for. When the Community Says so resoundingly they want something and the politicians stand in the way because literally, a blogger or a union person sends something mean to them or says something about them, theyre so weak in their conviction, yet they say theyre for children. These same people do not send their own children to the schools which they legislate over. We have what we refer to as micro activism. Micro activism is what we overlook when we have the conversation about grass roots movements. These families, our families who seemed a long time to be uneducated have found a way to understand which schools are the best performing schools. They may not understand the test data, what stem means, what the theme is, but if you look at the schools with the longest waiting lists, you will find theyre the best performing schools, so the streets are talking. The drums are playing and our Community Wants out. We, we, the powerful people, are not letting them out. We need to fight on to make sure that, when they do their part, that we do our part, that we put in place policies that will allow them to have the choices theyre asking for. When you have cities with school after school with waiting lists on it, that is the clearest example of the grass roots and then we go around and blame the parents for not wanting to participate in the process, are you kidding me . Some of these parents are so erased and guess who theyre mad at . Us. They shouldnt be, but because we dont explain to them is p reason youre not a waiting list because the Charter School doesnt want you, thats not why. Its because the weak school board and the overzealous Union Members have put a cap. Theyve put a limit on how many of you can get out of this school. Until we begin to make it abundantly clear who is to blame for this, we keep getting the blame, so when im doing bus duty. Im a principal, dont worry, we have a snow day. Why im in d. C. Mind your damn business, im working. When im out doing bus duty and parents come up and stop and say, my child has been on your waiting list for six years. That doesnt feel good. Im not proud of that. To know somebody has waited their childs entire academic career on a waiting list in a school they dont want to be in. Many of us would open more schools if we could just get to the children. We have a grass roots movement. Give it voice. Fight to make sure that once the parents have done what they could do, which is to vote with their feet, once they have moved out of these failed School Systems and sought an opportunity, then fight to make sure that voucher rs real, the choice is real, so that they can get the children out of doldrums of the system that uneducated them. As a proud Catholic School parent for my children for many years, i dont know of a more grass roots based or Community Based organization than the Catholic Church when it comes to edgeucation education, so how have you been so successful at getting parents to come and my school was filled with a wide Diverse Income group. There were a lot of people in poverty that were there. That were choosing. So, how have you been able to create this success . I think the product and i use that word widely. Parents want an excellent education for their children and Catholic Schools have over many years, graduated their students at 98 . 87 go on to a fouryear institution and do very well. And so, the reality of whats going on within the school itself, to piggy back after dr. Perry, that parents really want that and theyll do what they can do and need to do to be part of that. We have approximately 6500 schools in the United States and according to the most recent ncea data, 41 of those are in urban or inner city settings. And so, i think part of our challenge still although we have a very good brand and parents want our product, is is is to help with those structures that do actually give parents more voice and give them an opportunity to state why its important why they are the ones involved and theyre the ones choosing the school that matters most to them, including faithbased schools, including the opportunity to have a full education for their child. So, i think one, parents recognize a good education when they see it and they want it and thats been helpful as far as attracting people to the public school, but i think we need to do more structurally to give our parents a voice related to Parental Choice and we use to term specifically, Parental Choice. We dont use School Choice. Because we believe thats what this is all about. Its much, much more about the parents choosing and having the right to choose than it is necessarily supporting a particular institution. As we go ahead. Dr. Perry. One of the things i think is also important to do is to point out the hypocrisy. You know, were having a conversation around School Choice as if it isnt typically engaged in by other people. Im often disappointed by members of the congressional black caucuses and latino caucus, who themselves as parents, exercise School Choice. Who in many cases do not send their children to the Neighborhood School in the hood that they represent because some get really lucky and through lotteries, get their kids into Charter Schools and its just awesome how lucky some of these folks are. If we dont call out the hypocrisy of individuals who themselves benefit from choice but then pull the bridge of choice up behind them, then were not going to get to where we need to be. In america, in this country, your fate should not be decided by a lottery. But in many cases, the reason why there is a lottery in many states is because the law is written such that when there are more applicants than there are seats, there needs to be a lottery. But if there were more seats or more options, then there were applicants, there would be no more lotteries in most states, so then we would all get to enjoy the same benefits that the people we elect to represent us enjoy. With all due respect to our president , he wasnt always the president. He didnt send his children to Public Schools. At any point. Nor did he attend them. Im not against him for that. Im saying i want what he wants for his kids for all kids. Im saying i respect and support this brother, but i want him to respect and support the other children in the same way that his own children have been respected and supported. So, we only have a we only have a short period of time left, so i wanted to get everyone to answer this one last question. We have lots of people in the audience. Heres what id like to say or ask you. You all have been involved in grass roots and schools for a long time. What one piece of advice would you give to reformers and in particular, the young reformers and Young Scholars . The young ones out there. What one piece of advice would you give them about getting involved . Start with mache. Well, you know, thanks again for having me. I think the one thing i want to impress upon as we had this debate is is what i often hear is that parents and low income and working class communities cannot make great choices. And i just think we have to just go away with that idea and really meet parents where they are. Every parent wants whats best for their child or for their children. And weve got to assume the best and give them the tools and resources and the advocacy tools to fight for themselves and particularly, i see the children here in the room, your voice matters. You can be the voice for the voiceless. I hope, was hoping that a child would be up on the panel, maybe later this afternoon, we can hear from the children because they actually know whats happening in our schools. Thanks, robert. I completely agree. I would just leave you with one bit of advice. As congressman kathy rogers mentioned, theres a program at the federal level that supports the Charter Schools. It has huge bipartisan support but doesnt have enough funding in it to keep up with the pace of growth. As dr. Perry mentioned, there are a lot of families currently putting their childrens names on wait lists. We have over 1 million names on these wait lists. There is a quick and easy way, nothing is easy here in washington, but there is a way to address this, by chaeting more seats and one way congress can help is by putting more money into this program. So, if you want to engage at the federal level, tell your members of congress to put more funding into the program. Thats the quickest, fastest, easiest way to get rid of this wait list and to make more opportunities available for families. You know, both chavez and Richard Wright are here and if i miss any other schools, ill meet you afterwards, but your, this is not a day off for you either. Youre here to learn how to make it possible for your brothers and sisters and cousins and them as a group, to get off wait list and get into good schools. So many of you have watched your family and friends who didnt have access to the same quality, loving relationship you have with your educators, youve watched their lives crumble in just your short lives and youre seeing them fall down even worse and thats not cool. So, i talk to you like i do my own kids and let you know that on the one hand, you are special. But dont ever think that you are so special that youre different than them. They deserve what you have. And you do not have the right to sit still or to be silent as they suffer. So, you have to fight for a School Choice. You dont have an option. Since its been given to you, since you are partaking in it, you have a moral obligation to fight to ensure that for every seat that one of you is in, that you get ten more kids in behind you. Because as far as im concerned when we were younger, if you somehow got into the party and you didnt pay, you supposed to go around and open the door for your brothers. Thank you. Sister. Ill do a shout out to the students from Bishop Ireton and archbishop spaulding and i know we have one other Catholic School here. Kano. Thank you. Just thanks for being here today and dr. Perry has pretty much laid the moral gauntlet down, so i dont have to do that, but what i wanted, what i want to say is that in dealing with advocacy and the whole question of advocacy, respecting the local community and the parent is fundamental in any reform that were about. The parents i agree, do know what they want for their children and theyre looking to us to help give them a voice to be sure that the Legislature Knows what they want for their children and so, that partnership i think is critical to success in reform and so, the other thing is education education, education. Theres so many people we know who really dont understand what Parental Choice is all about and therefore, we think they do and so, i think its important for us to keep remembering theres a lot of people out there who could be with us and help us but may not fully comprehend what it really is all about and so, education, advocacy, implementation, those are the three things. [applause] ladies and gentlemen, were three minutes over on the panel. I would like to give our panelists one more round of applause. [applause] thank you and we will come back at 12 00. The education form also heard from rod paige. He outlined a proposal for universal School Choice. He also talked about the importance of technology in education. This is 30 minutes. The son of a School Principal and librarian, dr. Paige theres three things. A School Principal, a librarian that produces a doctor. Does that not speak to the power and necessity of education . He rose from humble roots in segregated smalltown mississippi, all the way to the United States department of education. As secretary of that department, he championed a student achievement and employed bestofbreed solutions to raise standards of educational excellence. He forced his reputation that forced his repetition for putting in place innovative approaches to systemic academic improvement when he was a dean of the college of education at Texas Southern university. He established a University Center for excellence in urban education. He has also been known to have a knack for inclusive leadership. As a School Board Trustee and then as superintendent of the houston independent School District. That School District was the seventh largest School District in all of the United States. He was appointed superintendent in 1994 and he was the first africanamerican in the districts history to serve in that position. In 1999, he was named one of two educators in the country by the council of the great city schools. Two years later, paige was honored as t