School choice & civil rights
To progressives like Martin Luther King III and many others, school choice is an extension of the civil rights movement. His remarks to 10,000 school choice supporters at a rally in Florida last year emphasized school choice as a way to expand opportunity and embrace diversity.
No, school choice isn’t a conservative plot
School choice isn't a right-wing plot, despite what school choice critics say. Take it from the guy who wrote a Marxist critique of public schools in America.
At the heart of the progressive divide over school choice
The Heart Pine School accepts school choice scholarships and reflects the environmental consciousness and progressive values of its parents. Yet two anti-school choice lawsuits championed by other progressives would kill the scholarships that help the school live up to its vision.
From MLK’s “field general” to charter school champion
Civil rights leader Wyatt Tee Walker, chief of staff to Martin Luther King Jr., is a noteworthy bridge between the civil rights and school choice movements. He helped lead the charge for the first charter school in New York.
Racism, irony & school choice
Rosenwald schools, built during an earlier era to expand educational opportunity, reflect many of the impulses that guide today's school choice movement.
Lessons from a school choice trailblazer
Mary McLeod Bethune was an American hero. She was also a school choice pioneer, opening a private, faith-based school in Daytona in 1904 to expand education opportunity for African American girls. Now the state of Florida may honor her with a statue in the U.S. Capitol.
What drives a school choice stalwart
Before he became one of the most prolific and thoughtful school choice advocates in America, Jack Coons was a law professor who did what he could to promote civil rights in the 1960s.
His work on potential legal snags with boycotts led to a meeting with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His conscience led him to Selma. He participated in demonstrations in Chicago after violence erupted over calls for fair housing.
Those experiences helped fuel the sustained push for school choice that Coons and fellow Berkeley law professor Stephen Sugarman began in the late 1960s and continue to this day. Much...
‘Hippie school’ votes for school choice
The Grassroots Free School in Florida, a democratic "free school" with roots in '60s counterculture, supports school choice and accepts tax credit scholarships for low-income students.