25,000 for my sons to go to one school. A school, snow school, that 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 be paid once. The reason why were in the situation that were in is 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 thousands of students that need teachers there are thousands of students that need teachers no matter where they are. So if you can halfway teach or at least convince someone for 45 minutes that you can halfway teach, then youre going to have a job as a teacher. We need to make it plain to our community that 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 Schools but they dont support private schools. We need to make it plain for our community so our community can fight with us as opposed to us simply fighting and them not understanding what were fighting for. [ applause ] as one of those khaki, you know suited potential policy people, dr. Perry talked about grassroots politics. So theyve done some incredible work on grassroots politics and grassroots activism. What are the big challenges you faced at baio and in particular dealing with people in khaki pants and blue blazers . Well, i agree with what dr. Perry says. Sometimes the policy makers or the funders think this is an intellectual debate. They think lets talk through it, we can talk our way through the problems. And what it really is is personal one on one relationships. Weve got to spend the time the other challenge is its an urgent problem. People want to give money and get sxorgd come out today and then it be done. But this is a longterm battle. Its a longterm fight. And weve got to invest. It just takes time but it takes a oneonone conversation. You know, as we think about organizing or engagement whether its in louisiana or alabama, kentucky, or even in newark new jersey we have to start with the oneonone conversations and the reality is there are better people who are messengers in the community. We cant have the flyin pilot helicopter type of people who come in and say believe in these policies and come fight with us. It really has to be from the parents and from the community. But it takes the trusted relationships. It takes time. And it takes real support. I would agree with that. Nina, looking at the charter sector, what are some examples of great grassroots act advise frmt charter sector . The families of her school rallied 20,000 Community Leaders and parents to walk to albany to ask to make sure one of the schools that the mayor, mayor de blasio was trying to close would stay open. To me thats a great example of an effort that started with one school, families for excellence schools brought leaders to the forefront. We have two leaders in the room today, darlene chambers from the ohio Charter School association and Mary Carmichael with the South CarolinaCharter School association in the back. These two individuals probably can tell you more about what theyre doing in their respective communities. But i will tell you this, piggybacking on what mishay said. One of the things you notice when you go 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. Thats often quite frankly and 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. In an office they offer hope they 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. I think understanding where theyre coming from and making sure that whatever infrastructure you have in place is one thats going to stay there after the reform has gone is important. And one reason why Charter Schools or any form of choice trumps any systemic reform is because those 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 grassroots efforts. The waiting lists. Parents are voting with their feet. They are saying i dont want this school to which i am assigned assigned. So some of the Largest School systems in america are losing 10 , 20 30 , 40 , 50 of their entire student population. There are no other cities no other movement thats clearer than that. Our city 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 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 that 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 that 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 microactivism. Microactivism is what we overlook when we have the conversation about grassroots movements. These families are families who seemed for 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. They may not understand what stem means. They may not understand what the theme is. But if you look at the schools with the longest waiting lists you will find that they are also the best performing schools. So the streets are talking. The drums are playing. And our Community Wants out. 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 grassroots. 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 enraged, and guess who theyre mad at. Us. They shouldnt be mad at us. But because we dont explain to them is the reason youre on the waiting list is not because the Charter School association doesnt want you or the Catholic School doesnt want you, its because the weak school board and the overzealous and the overzealous Union Members have put a cap, they put a limit on how many of you can get out of this school. Until we begin to make p abundantly clear who is to blame for this, we keep getting the blame. So when im out there doing bus duty, because i still am a principal. Dont worry. We have a snow day. I knowing somebodys writing about why is he in d. C. Today . Mind your damn business. Im working. [ applause ] when im out doing bus duty and parents will come up and stop and say my child has been on your waiting list for six years, that doesnt feel good. I am not proud of that. Theres nothing that makes me feel like ive done something right, to know that somebody has waited that childs entire academic career on a waiting list in a school they do not want to be in when i would open the school. Many of us would open more schools if we could just get to the children. We have a grassroots 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 theyve sought an opportunity, then fight to make sure that vouchers are real, that choice is real so that they can get their children out of the doldrums of the very system that uneducated them. [ applause ] i have to say this. As a proud Catholic School parent for my children for many years, i dont know of a more grassrootsbased or communitybased organization than the Catholic Church when it comes to education. So how have you been so successful at getting parents to come . And my school of course was filled with a wide Diverse Income group. There are a lot of people in poverty that were there that were working hard. So how have you been able to create the success . Well, 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 institution. And do very well. And so the reality of whats going on within the school itself itself, to piggyback off 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 6,500 schools in the United States. According to the most recent ncaa data 41 of those are in urban or inner city settings. So i think part of our challenge still, although we have a very good brand and parents want our product, is to help with those structures that do actually give parents more voice and give them an opportunity to state why its important that they are actually 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 very helpful as far as attracting people to the Catholic School. But i think we need to do more structurally in our country to give parents a greater voice related to the question of Parental Choice. And we use the term very specifically, Parental Choice. We dont tend to use School Choice. We tend to use Parental Choice because we believe thats actually 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. I think thats right. [ applause ] yes, go ahead. Dr. Perry. One of the things thats also important to do is to point out the hypocrisy. Were having a conversation around School Choice as if it isnt something thats typically engaged in by other people. Im often disappointed by members of the Congressional Black Caucus and latino caucuses 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. But send their child because some of them get really lucky and through lotteries all of a sudden get their children into Charter Schools with long waiting lists and magnet schools with long waiting lists 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 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 than there were applicants there would be no more lotteries in most states. So then we would all get to enjoy the same benefits that those people who we elect to represent us enjoy. With all due respect to our president , he wasnt always the president. He didnt send his children to private 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. [ applause ] so we only have a short period of time left. I want to get everyone to answer one last question. We have lots of people in the audience. Heres what i have to say or ask you. You all have been involved in grassroots 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 in the room . Because people like me may not change our stripes very often. What one piece of advice would you give them about grassroots act advise sxm getting involved . Why dont we start with mishay and come down this way . Thanks again for having me. I think the one thing i want us to impress upon as we have this intellectual debate is what i often hear is that parents in lowin come and working class communities cannot make great choices. And i just think we have to go away with that idea and really meet parents where they are. Every parent wnts 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. In particular i see the children here in the room. Your voice matters. You can be the voice for the voiceless. I 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. [ applause ] and i completely agree with mishay. I would just leave you with one bit of advice. As congressman kathy mc mcmorrisrogers mentioned theres a program at the federal level that supports the growth of Charter Schools. Its called the Charter School program. Its been around since the mid 90s. It has huge bipartisan support. But it simply doesnt have enough funding in it to keep up with the pace of growth. As dr. Perry mentioned, there are a lot of families who are currently putting their childrens names on wait lists. We have over a million names right now on these Charter School wait lists. There is a very quick and easy way. I dont want to say quick and easy because nothing is easy here in washington. But there is a way to address this wait list by creating more Charter School 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 Charter School program. Thats the quickest, fastest, easiest way to get rid of this wait list and to make more opportunities available for families. [ applause ] 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 waiting lists and to get into good schools. So many of you have watched your family and friends who didnt have access to the same quality loving relationship that 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 that on the one hand you are special. But dont ever think that youre so special that youre different than them. They deserve what you have. And you do not have the right to sit stillar to be silent as they suffer. So you have to fight to expand 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 were supposed to go around back and open the door for your brothers who came with you. [ applause ] ill do a shout out to the students from Bishop Ireton and archbishop spalding, and i know we have one other Catholic School here. Who is that . Connell. Thank you. Anyway, just thanks for being here today. And dr. Perry has pretty much laid the moral gauntlet down. So i dont have to do that at this particular point. But what i do want to say is that in dealing with advocacy and the whole question of advocacy respecting the local community and respecting the parent i think 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 the reform. The other thing is education, education, education. There are 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. So education