Free To Choose Educational Freedom

The web link for this article is the home page for a new group. My reason for linking to it came from two recent emails I received. The first was from Lindalyn Kakadelis. Lindalyn is well known in Bertie County because she went out of her way to fight for J.P. Law and Askewville when there was still a chance we could keep them open, back before Seaton Fairless and Gary Cordon successfully got them closed. We lost that battle however we have not given up the fight for our children.

Lindalyn continues to fight for the children of our state, including the children of Bertie County. This week in one of the emails mentioned above a great new group called "Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina" was covered. This is what she said about this new group:

This past Tuesday, Parents for Educational Freedom (PEFNC) hosted their first public school-choice rally. Since its inception in July, 2005, PEFNC has labored behind the scenes to expand educational options in our state. Clearly, many North Carolinians share the vision: more than 1,000 people packed a school gymnasium to support choice, tripling PEFNC’s attendance expectations. Attendees transcended political affiliation, gender, and race to agree on the merits of one simple, transformational idea: All parents should have the opportunity to choose the best education provider for their child.

Dr. Howard Fuller, former Superintendent for the Milwaukee Public Schools and founder of the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO) gave the keynote address and electrified the audience by “being real.” He spoke convincingly of the political struggles that inevitably accompany any move to wrest money and control away from a government agency in order to give it to parents. Dr. Fuller cautioned that we must resolve to fight and not give up: “The real hurdle is the lack of political will to do what must be done for other people’s children. Every day I see children suffer because we don’t have the political will to change the institutions that continue to not serve them well.”

The other email is from the group she mentioned, PEFNC. I am not sure how they got my email, but I am glad that they did. In this second email, Darrell Alison, was quoted:

“This is a movement that is building in North Carolina,” said Darrell Allison, president of PEFNC, a nonprofit organization working to educate the state’s parents on the benefits of educational freedom. “Frankly speaking, the turnout last night literally overwhelmed our staff and volunteers. We were expecting about 350 to be in attendance on last night, but we nearly tripled that number with more than 1,000 coming out from nearly 20 different counties. There was a clear and strong message sent out on last night that parents want the freedom to choose the education that works best for their child.”

Free to chose. That was a great title for Milton Friedman's famous book, and it is a great concept for education here in Bertie County. It is time our parents were free to chose a good education for their children. Last night we had a Board of Education meeting I was not able to attend. However things are starting to happen in Bertie County because of the new Board that our citizens just elected. We are starting to admit that only when our parents DEMAND that our children be challenged and encouraged to excel will the horrible results we have experienced in the recent past end.

Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina is another resource to help our parents win this battle.

Check them out.