National School Choice Week

Date: February 2, 2022
Host: Randy Melchert
​Guests: Justin Moralez and Jamison Coppola
MP3  ​​​| Order

In 2014, Randy was a candidate for statewide office and he’s also helped others run for office as well.  What he discovered is that while there were people willing to run for president, governor, village board or city counsel, the position most difficult to find people to run for was school board.

Now we’re seeing a record number of candidates running for school board across the nation.  Randy noted that the Virginia gubernatorial election flipped when the leading candidate said, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” 

Home education has been growing so much that one example, Wisconsin’s parental choice program, crashed as too many parents were signing up to participate in the program.  

Last week 26,000 events were held across America in celebration of National School Choice Week, the 12th annual celebration of the right, the importance and the duty of parents to be involved in the education process. 

Joining Randy to discuss school choice during the first half of the broadcast was Justin Moralez, the Wisconsin Director of the American Federation for Children.  He was followed by Jamison Coppola, the Director of Government Affairs for the American Association of Christian Schools.

Here are some of the points covered by Justin:

  • The record number of parents seeking a different school for their children in just the past year and the high number of parents supporting school choice, the number of which is also high among black and Hispanic parents.
  • Why Wisconsin is so important to school choice.
  • What other considerations besides education factor in to the school choice decision?
  • What legislative gains have we seen concerning school choice in recent years?
  • What is the Education Freedom Pledge and what have been some of the results?

Some points covered by Jamison included:

  • How does a biblical worldview about education differ from a secular worldview of education when it comes to what students should be taught?
  • What does the Washington office of the American Association of Christian schools do for Christian education?
  • Carson v. Makin and Bethel Ministries v. Salmon are recent Supreme Court cases.  How do these cases affect Christian education and school choice?
  • What were the concerns of AACS as it pertained to President Biden’s reconciliation bill that would have brought about universal childcare?

More Information

federationforchildren.org

aacs.org

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