What is Parent Power and Why is Parent Power Important?

Parent Power means parents have access to and information about education options that best fit their children’s needs, regardless of their zip code or life circumstances.

 

Julie Collier, Parents Advocate League Founder & Executive Director, and CER Grassroots Advisory Board member, tells CER, “Once parents are informed, they’re definitely a force to be reckoned with.”

Dr. Marco Clark, Founder and CEO of Richard Wright Public Charter School in Washington, D.C., sat down with CER to answer a few questions on the importance of Parent Power, and said when you “give parents options, their voice becomes stronger!”

 

Colleen Dippel, Families Empowered Founder & Executive Director and CER Grassroots Advisory Board member, said Parent Power, which is not a fiction invented by policy wonks and elites but rather a real demand from parents nationwide, makes a “measurable different in the trajectory” of children’s lives when asked why Parent Power is so important today.

Parent Power means “every child has the opportunity to achieve his or her American Dream,” said National School Choice Week President Andrew Campanella, also a member of CER’s Grassroots Advisory Board.

 

Influencers “treat our families as if they are not in charge of their own children,” said Katie Duffy, CEO of Democracy Prep Public Schools. “I think that’s a huge mistake.” The power to make a conscious decision about “what you want and what you value for your own kids [is] something every parent should have.” The educator shared her experience and thoughts on parents’ role in their child’s education:

 
VISIT CER’s NEW Parent Power Index(c) 2015 with improved tools that help parents be a “force to be reckoned with” by providing information and data about how much power their state affords them when it comes to their child’s education, and what they can do to improve Parent Power right in their own backyard!