Watch: A New Jersey Pastor on Why Poor Families Need School Choice
President Barack Obama may not be a fan of school voucher programs — and has allowed D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship Program to go out of business. But his Race to the Top school reform competition has fostered new discussion about — and efforts to — launch and expand these forms of school choice for the poorest children. One state in particular is New Jersey, where Gov. Chris Christie and a coalition of urban leaders, centrist and idiosyncratic liberal Democrats, and conservatives are battling the National Education Association’s state affiliate to develop a statewide voucher plan. Among the supporters is Rev. Reginald Jackson, the pastor at St. Matthew A.M.E. Church, who has also been front-and-center on tenure reform and other school reform issues.
Watch Jackson’s impassioned explanation about why the poorest children and their families — especially those in our urban communities — need tools for improving their educational and economic destinies. If you oppose vouchers, think about why you do — and then consider how can you deny the poorest of our children the choices for brighter futures availed even to their middle class schoolmates.
