Moments ago in his Twitter Town Hall chat, President Barack Obama said he “wouldn’t be president if someone hadn’t helped provide some scholarships for my school.”
At age ten, President Obama received a scholarship to attend the prestigious Punahou School in Hawaii. President Obama’s remarks today underscore the life-changing significance of school choice—an opportunity most students trapped in failing and often violent public schools never get. (To hear the stories of a few who have had their horizons expanded by the school choice, watch our documentary Let Me Rise.)
Sadly, the President has done little to bring this life-changing opportunity to more children. Until his hand was forced by Speaker Boehner during budget negotiations this past April, the President stood by as the highly successful D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program was left to wither out of existence. Now, no thanks to his effort, low-income students in the Nation’s Capitol once again have the same opportunity the President was afforded to attend a quality school that best meets their needs.
We’re glad the President has given such a testimonial to the significance of educational choice in this “Year of School Choice,” as the Wall Street Journal recently dubbed this spring’s extraordinary advances during state legislative sessions. 13 new school choice programs were created – an unprecedented development for educational freedom.
To learn more about all of the monumental school choice developments in the states in 2011, visit Choices in Education.
