Obama's address was titled: "Ensuring Every Child Gets a Great Education."
In 2003, Congress enacted a program for “opportunity scholarships” in Washington, D.C. These allowed some students in public schools to get a voucher to help offset the cost of attending a private school. When President Barack Obama came to office in 2009, he tried to kill the program, then settled on a plan that would allow then-current recipients of the vouchers to continue, but would not allow new people into the program. When Republicans took back control of the U.S. House of Representatives, they renewed the program and extended it through 2016.
http://cnsnews.com/blog/terence-p-jeffrey/obama-while-trying-kill-school-choice-dc-we-need-make-sure-all-children-get
A new report indicates black parents overwhelmingly favor school choice. Roland Martin of NewsOne Now recently interviewed Cornell Belcher, founder and president of Brilliant Corners Research and Strategies, to discuss his survey findings on views of African-American parents on charter schools, vouchers, and teachers.
The findings show African-American parents resoundingly favor school choice options. The respondents were all African-American, and neither they, nor an immediate family member, currently work in a public, private, or parochial school. Another stipulation of the survey: parents did not home-school their children.
| Question | Total Parent Respondents | Charter Parent Respondents |
| Generally speaking from what you know, do you favor or oppose public charter schools? | 72% Favor | 97% favor |
| Favorability among respondents familiar with public charter schools | 79% Favor | 98% Favor |
| How interested would you be in enrolling your children in public charter schools, would yousay you are very interested, somewhat interested, somewhat uninterested, or very uninterested in enrolling your children in public charter schools? | 74% Interested | 94% Interested |
| Do you favor or oppose providing parents who enroll their children in private or parochial schools a voucher to cover tuition? | 70% Favor | 77% Favor |
| Favorability of respondents familiar with school vouchers | 75% Favor | 80% Favor |
| How interested would you be in obtaining a voucher to cover the cost of private or parochial school tuition for your children, would you say you are very interested, somewhat interested, somewhat uninterested, or very uninterested in obtaining school vouchers? | 78% Interested | 89% Interested |
Some of the more interesting findings from the survey were as follows: Nearly three out of four African-Americans are interested in exploring school choice options. Nearly eight out of 10 parents out would be interested in receiving a voucher to do so.
The survey relied on sets of statements, rather than questions. An overview is below:
| Question | Total Parent Respondents | Charter Parent Respondents |
| Statement A: As a parent I should be able to decide which school my child attends. If a public charter school can give my child a better educational opportunity my child shouldn’t be prevented from enrolling just to prop up a failing public system. | 56% Agree | 62% Agree |
| Statement B: Public schools must educate every child that walks through its doors while public charter schools are free to pick and choose its students. Instead of providing an alternative for a few children, we should make public schools better for every child. | 24% Agree | 16% Agree |
| Statement A: As a parent I should be able to enroll my child in the school I think will give my child the best educational opportunity. If my choice is a private or parochial school then I should be allowed to use the same tax dollars allotted to every child in public school to cover the cost of their tuition. | 56% Agree | 57% Agree |
| Statement B: Public schools must accept every child of school age while private and parochial schools can deny children they think are harder to educate. Taking money out of the public system to cover private or parochial tuition will only makes it tougher to educate the vast majority of children who remain. | 27% Agree | 25% Agree |
| Statement A: If my child could be enrolled in a public charter school they would definitely attend regardless of what arrangements I would have to make to get them there. | 45% Agree | 59% Agree |
| Statement B: I’d like to enroll my child into a public charter school but unless the school district provides the daily transportation it’s not really a viable option for my family. | 35% Agree | 26% Agree |
These survey results indicate parents want a quality education for their children and that school choice offers the best opportunity for that to occur. Moreover, these parents are not satisfied with the current public school quality and want changes. In addition to wanting a number of options for school choice, the two other major challenges parents identified in the survey are the lack of quality teachers and the lack of funding.
You can see the full study results here.
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