Virginia Walden Ford, school choice activist and Little Rock native
Central Arkansas school choice enthusiasts had a unique opportunity Monday: a Heritage Foundation forum, “School Choice: An Enduring Legacy of Little Rock and the Civil Rights Struggle” in Little Rock.
The discussion was led by Heritage Visiting Fellow (and Little Rock native) Virginia Walden Ford, Heritage Domestic Policy Director Jennifer Marshall, and former U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige. All have had extensive experience in helping to write education policy into law. (Spotted in the cheap seats: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette editorialist Paul Greenberg, top Arkansas Education Association staffer Rich Nagel, Rep. Tim Griffin’s district director Carl Vogelpohl, and education reformer Luke Gordy).
“We can’t keep losing kids,” Ford said. Her discussion of the changes that she saw in her son, once they changed schools, were the most moving part of the forum: when he moved to a school “where he felt safe, where he felt other people cared as if he learned,” he changed from a boy who couldn’t see that he had good life prospects to a man who was ultimately the valedictorian of his class.
“I could see the changes in him,” Ford said. “He was getting up happier; he wanted to learn.”
A system in which parents have options for their children unleashes a torrent of creativity from teachers and administrators, panel members suggested. In an environment where schools can experiment, teachers get to be part of something they believe in and test new approaches. And if teachers do not support the school’s operating principles, those teachers are just as free as the students to choose a school where they do fit in. The “one size fits all” model is just as detrimental to the teachers as it is for the children.
“I don’t believe the system can work as a monopoly,” Paige said. “Monopolies can’t work.”
The panelists also emphasized the need for basic fairness in evaluation. Private schools, home schools and charter schools are repeatedly challenged to provide evidence of their excellence. This is more than fair, but the challengers will be taken more seriously when they insist that even public schools should have to meet the same standards.
But choice itself, serving as a spur to competition, makes for better education: as Ford said, “When a child is free and they are interested in the education they are getting, they’re going to do much, much better.”
Some people want to argue that advocacy for school choice is really just the same as condemning or denigrating our public schools and teachers. That is unfair. Many teachers do a tremendous job and deserve more credit than they get. School choice, however, is about filling the gaps where a school just is not meeting student needs.
If you want to see more educational options for parents and students coming from all walks of life, you should consider choice in schools. And if you already favor school choice, talk to your neighbors and your elected officials, starting with your school board members and your state legislators. Be active. As Ford said “If you stand up, you can change things.”
BONUS: Rep. David Sanders (R) of Little Rock was also at the event, where he told the Arkansas News Bureau about his plans to work with other lawmakers to expand school choice in Arkansas. Check out the full story here.
Christian Olson is an adjunct analyst at the Advance Arkansas Institute.
