A Slam-Dunk Win for the GOP: #SchoolChoice

Bill Smith, Ph.D., Editor.  Readers of the ARRA News Service have had a steady diet of articles advocating for School Choice.  I was pleased to join Kira Davis and others in Milwaukee, WI to discuss School Choice issues.  We toured different schools where parents had exercised their option under Wisconsin law to choose better schools for their children.  One of those schools was Hope Christian School which is mentioned in her article.  I added the video because I was impressed by Hope's last two graduating classes having 100% of their students "accepted to college."

We also heard from students who at first didn't want to leave their local friends and go to a charter christian school that their mothers had decided they must attend.  They described how their lives changed at the Hope Elementary and then at  Hope High Schoo..  They admitted to changed lives which became more disciplined and prepared to learn.  They were looking forward to attending college because they know they are prepared and ready for college and are very thankful to their teachers and for the commitment and sacrifice of their parent moving them from inner city schools to a charter school.

Davis' article addresses how the Republican Party has a win-win opportunity by openly and actively supporting school choice which the democrat party opposes.

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Kira Davis: The GOP has been pushing hard to lead the way on immigration reform. The conventional wisdom dictates that whichever party can stake a claim to legalizing millions of illegal immigrants will in turn secure the precious votes of those very same people.

Republicans seemingly threw away a victory when they recently caved on the government shutdown debacle. With mid-term elections less than a year away the establishment is increasingly sensitive to optics and polling. Immigration reform has been a sensitive topic on the right and stirring up support from the base has proven to be problematic. The GOP badly needs a win that will resonate in minority communities and the general population.

That win is sitting right in front of Republicans wrapped up in fancy box with ribbon on top. It’s a slam dunk in every sense. It unites Democrats and Republicans alike and will garner the coveted independent vote.

It's School Choice!

I recently had the opportunity to visit several schools in Milwaukee, a city that has been at the forefront of the school choice movement since the early ’90s. Hope Christian High School was my first stop where I discovered a school that served a 98% African-American student population and boasted a 100% college acceptance rate two years running…and 100% of its students are beneficiaries of Milwaukee’s school choice initiative.
Rotonda Smith is the director of communications at Hope and also the mother of a young student at one of Hope’s elementary academies. The African-American single mother says she decided to take advantage of the school choice options after witnessing her young niece’s success at Hope Christian’s elementary program.

“She was reading so well already in kindergarten, really grasping it and excited about learning. So when it was time for my son to go to school.” She says that without the choice system her son would be going to the local public school, an option she seemed less than excited about. “We love good schools. I was excited about the option of a Christian school. He’s already excited about college!”

With a high school graduation rate of less than 50% among African-American males the option of a private school education with an emphasis on college entry is a highly coveted opportunity in said community. African-American and Latino parents overwhelmingly support school choice when it is an option and pro-choice states consistently boast 90%+ parent satisfaction with choice programs.

If the GOP really wants to sway the minority vote school choice is a no brainer. Its strongly supported in minority communities, receives consistent bi-partisan support (Cory Booker, Chris Christie and Juan Williams all endorse school choice and many school choice organizations are headed by liberals). The real kicker is that the Democrat party is explicitly opposed to school choice.

This is a red line that deserves to be drawn. This is a golden opportunity to peel off a significant portion of the Democrat base while having that neat little side effect of actually benefiting the country. As a bonus, the Republicans don’t have to piss off their base by pursuing squishy immigration reforms. The school choice fight fits a variety of fronts in the GOP -

1. It is ripe with opportunities to tell emotional stories (something Republicans fail at time and time again).
2. It is a chance to highlight the abolitionist, civil rights history of the Republican party as school choice is most definitely the civil rights struggle of our time.
3. It offers an easy opportunity to distinguish Republican policies and intentions from those of Democrats.
   It is overwhelmingly supported in minority communities.
4. The optics of Democrats denying struggling families the opportunity to escape underperforming schools would be unparalleled to anything an immigration debate could yield.

Its a no-brainer. An aggressive media campaign and some good story-telling could piggy-back this fight onto the Obamacare fiasco and produce a momentum that might easily reach the level of the 2010 midterm “tea party” sweep.

But if there is anyone who can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, its the Republican Party.
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Kira Davis is an actress, writer, blogger and talker. She is also a mother, wife, proud American and black conservative who is concerned about the nation’s shift away from traditional American values and Constitutional principles. She wrote and first shared this article on the Independent Journal Review.  She is a School Choice activist standing in the gap for parent's right to choose a better education for their children. Follow her on Twitter and on Facebook.

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