National School Choice Week

National School Choice Week launched in 2011 with funding from the Gleason Family Foundation.[3] As an organization it maintains that it does not promote one form of educational choice over another, but the idea that parents should have choices around education.[1]

National School Choice Week consists of events in schools, state capitals, and other public meetings featuring the movement's signature yellow scarves. According to the National School Choice Week website, "more than 170,000 NSCW events have been planned across the country" since 2011.[4]

Examples of National School Choice Week events include appearances by former WNBA basketball player Lisa Leslie and U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor at Friendship Chamberlain Elementary School in Washington, D.C. in January 2014.[5] In 2013, the Jonas Brothers performed at the National School Choice Week kickoff in Phoenix.[6] In 2015, National School Choice Week opened with a nationally televised event in Jacksonville, Florida, including speeches by NFL player Desmond Howard, Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, and a video greeting by U.S. Senator Marco Rubio.[7]

The President of National School Choice Week is Andrew Campanella. He has served in this capacity since 2012.[8] The Gleason Family Foundation has continued to support the organization, providing several million dollars in funding.[3]

National organizations that have participated in the week's events include the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools,[9] Magnet Schools of America, the Council on American Private Education, the National Coalition for Public School Options, the Home School Legal Defense Association, the American Federation for Children,[10] the Association of American Educators,[11] the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the Children's Scholarship Fund,[12] Choice Media, Education Reform Now, Families Empowered, the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and the 50 State Campaign for Achievement Now.[13]

Many politicians have issued resolutions and proclamations in support of the movement.[14] Governors include Bobby Jindal, John Hickenlooper, Scott Walker, and Martin O'Malley and mayors include Marty Walsh and Kevin Johnson.[15] In 2018 and 2019, the US Senate passed resolutions recognizing School Choice Week,[16][17][18] and U.S. President Donald Trump issued similar proclamations in 2017, 2018, and 2019.[19][20][21] In 2018, then U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos spoke at a National School Choice Week event on Capitol Hill.[22]

Historically, school choice was used as a means to avoid integrating racially segregated school districts during the Civil Rights era. Following the Supreme Court's ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, some politicians created tuition vouchers or grants to allow white students to transfer to private “white-only” schools.[23] After the Little Rock Nine enrolled in their local public high school, Governor Orval Faubus of Arkansas shut down all public schools for more than a year to allow private schools to be created for white students to attend.[24][25]

School choice has also been criticized for exclusionary practices. Charter and voucher-recipient schools are not required to accept all students, unlike public schools, and can remove students with poorer academic performance.[26][27] It has been argued that this creates a greater burden on public schools by reducing funding and by extension, schools and teachers' ability to meet the needs of students.[28]

In terns of labor efforts, school privatization has been seen as weakening workers rights because most charters and other private schools are not unionized.[29] The Gleason Foundation, a funder of National School Choice Week, has also funded several lawsuits against teachers' unions as part of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, where Stefan Gleason served as vice president from 1999-2010.[30]

• Official website