The theme must be freedom.
“President Trump has a primetime opportunity to tell Congress that the watchwords in the field of education for the next four years are parental choice and freedom for children to attend a school that meets their needs,” declared Jeanne Allen, the founder and CEO of the Center of Education Reform (CER).
CER, which has championed fundamental changes in the field of education since its founding a quarter century ago, has played a key role in the mainstream acceptance of education choice and the dramatic expansion of charter schools in the United States. Today, 43 states and the District of Columbia have charter school laws, and private school choice options are available in 14 states. Several other states are poised to join them.
“The president’s greatest opportunity in his address before the joint session of Congress tomorrow is to use the bully pulpit of the Presidency to advance the cause of true education reform,” Allen said.
“Universal adoption of educational opportunity will be a tremendous milestone,” Allen said, “but other forms of school choice are equally worthy of adoption, and high on the list of needed reforms are steps to expand access to efficient, sophisticated information technology in smaller towns and rural areas to increase families’ options for high quality education,” she added.
“Just as when Rural Electric Cooperatives brought electric power to those communities nearly a century ago, transforming rural America dramatically for the better, 21st Century communications can transform their lives and opportunities once again,” Allen said.
President Trump addresses Congress Tuesday evening at 9:00 p.m. Eastern time in the chamber of the House of Representatives.
Allen will be live-Tweeting the president’s speech. Follow her @JeanneAllen.