CER News Alert

(Washington, D.C. 5/24/01) The following is a statement by Jeanne Allen, President of the Center for Education Reform on the filing of a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Cleveland Scholarship Program. The brief was filed by the Institute for Justice on behalf of 5 Cleveland families who participate in the program.

We are deeply grateful for the petition to the Supreme Court of the United States and support the arguments made in the petition for a writ of certiorari, which note that the fate of nearly 4,000 schoolchildren and the future of a promising educational reform depends upon the Court's decision to review the case.

The ability of parents to make educational choices is an effective reform that will have a tremendous impact for the children of Cleveland. That city's quarter-century history of education reform has failed to eradicate early and persistent failure, and it has failed to deliver on its promise to parents and children.

As a consequence of that failure, it is vitally necessary that the scholarship program be examined as an integral part of modern education reform, and in the full context of past efforts and current strategies to help every child in Cleveland obtain an that will ensure their place in society.

The Sixth Circuit Court declined to conduct that examination, and as a result The Center for Education Reform is considering an amicus brief in support of the petition filed today.

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The Center for Education Reform is a national, independent, non-profit advocacy organization founded in 1993 to provide support and guidance to individuals, community and civic groups, policymakers and others who are working to bring fundamental reforms to their schools. For further information, please call (202) 822-9000.

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