-By Israel Teitelbaum
We now have the enormous opportunity to test the mettle of our leading presidential candidates. They made strong statements in support of school choice. Now we need to see which candidate can bring this idea to Congress?
You can help with this test.
Here’s how:
In the final Republican Presidential debate last Wednesday, December 12, four of the leading candidates came out firmly in favor of school choice. Here is some of what they said:
Sen. John McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com/Contact/. Phone: 703-418-2008.
“We don’t have a choice and competition. We need it in K through 12.”
Mayor Rudy Giuliani: webteam@joinrudy2008.com. Phone: 212-835-9449
“Parents should choose the school that their child goes to, the same way people choose higher education.”
Sen. Fred Thomson: http://www.fred08.com/Index.aspx. Phone: 515-276-9427.
“…every time someone wants to inject a little choice into the equation for the benefit of the kids, inject a little freedom, inject a little competition…the National Education Association is there to oppose it, and bring in millions and millions of dollars to go on television and work and scare people and misrepresent the situation on the ground. I think that just goes against everything that we know, that can make progress in this country.”
Gov. Mitt Romney: compliance1@mittromney.com. Phone: 857-288-6400.
“I agree with Senator Thompson on that. Boy, they’ve been the biggest obstacle to change in education and choice.”
Please call or write these candidates:
Hon. Presidential Candidate:
I agree that school choice is the correct remedy for our hurting educational system. As a leading presidential candidate, you can surely prevail upon at least one Congressman and one Senator to sponsor The Civil Rights Act for Equal Educational Opportunity. Please be assured that even if we do not have the votes now in Congress to pass this legislation, we still have Tuesday, November 4, 2008, when we can elect 435 new Congressmen and 35 new Senators who favor this legislation.
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Israel Teitelbaum is currently creating a new school choice organization to help further the efforts to improve our public schools. His blog will soon be up and running at SchoolChoiceVoter.org. Mr. Teitelbaum can be reached at israel@schoolchoicenj.org.