School Choice: A National Education Reform Initiative Set by President Bush

“During the State of the Union address, President Bush announced his plans to reintroduce and improve the No Child Left Behind NCLB Act by emphasizing giving parents more parental options. Even though the complete details of the plans were not revealed, President Bush is committed to strengthening and advancing our children’s education.

In his blueprint to provide better educational options to low-income families, the President has suggested the following improvements to the five-year-old law:

— Offer competitive grants through the “Opportunity Scholarship Program” to help local communities expand school choice options for low-income parents and students
– Require persistently underperforming schools to offer “Promise Scholarships” that allow economically disadvantaged students to transfer to higher performing public or private schools
– Empower parents with the option for students to receive after-school tutoring
– Improve communication channels to provide parents with timely information regarding their children’s educational options

“The President’s comments arrive at a time when graduation rates continue to be dire and Hispanic student achievement has shown slow progress. However, further significant achievements must be made in their performance. On behalf of our members and Affiliates, with a combine reach of more than one million Hispanics, we applaud the President’s efforts to finally place parents in control of their children’s education and not bureaucrats,” said Rebeca Nieves Huffman, President and CEO of Hispanic CREO.

Hispanics have made educational gains in the past 20 years, but despite this, a crisis in Latino education persists with gaps in academic performance and graduation rates between Hispanic and White students. National scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show 8th grade Hispanic students lag in math and reading by over 24 percentile points in comparison to White students.

“We can eliminate the crisis in Latino education by following the leadership of proactive states such as Arizona, Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin that have successfully implemented school choice programs. Seven school choice studies have been conducted and all the results demonstrate school choice works to improve student achievement,” adds Huffman.

Based in Washington, D.C. and supported by a growing membership, Hispanic CREO’s mission is to improve educational outcomes for Hispanic children by empowering families through parental choice in education. Hispanic CREO’s purpose is to be a national voice for the right of Hispanic families to access all educational options and to be an agent for equity and quality in education. For more information, please visit http://www.hcreo.org.”

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