Hundreds rally for school choice in Virginia

RICHMOND

Nearly 800 people, from children in plaid uniforms to legislators in pinstriped blazers, rallied outside the Capitol this morning in favor of greater school choice, including more options for charter schools, home schooling and faith-based private schools.

Parents, not the state or a ZIP code, should decide where their children go to school, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli told supporters, including Gov. Bob McDonnell, clad in yellow “National School Choice Week” scarves. Making that choice easier – such as by expanding charter schools and promoting tax breaks for businesses that create private school scholarships for low-income children – will make Virginia’s schools more competitive and ease budget constraints, he said.

The current system gives public schools a monopoly on educating children, Cuccinelli said. “And a monopoly means less performance for more money.”

The Family Foundation, a nonprofit group that supports applying faith to public policy, organized the rally. It also supports legislation allowing home-schooled students to participate in interscholastic sports and proposals to take charter school applications out of local school boards’ hands, said foundation President Victoria Cobb.

Since the creation of charter schools in Virginia two years ago, only four have opened, with a fifth in the works, Cobb said. Meanwhile, some states have hundreds, she said.

“Virginia’s woefully behind the rest of the country,” Cobb said. “We are finally catching up on charter schools.”

But proponents argue they take money from already cash-strapped local school divisions.

Rally organizer Amanda Chase said she understands the dilemma parents face, especially if they want faith to be a part of their children’s education. Private school tuition can cost as much as $2,000 a month for her four children, which can be tough for parents to afford, she said.

“The wealthy have the choice,” Cobb said. “They can move into the best school divisions. They can put their kids in private schools.”

But there needs to be better options for those who don’t have those resources, she said.

Having grown up in a low-income area of Philadelphia with a poor school system, Alberta Wilson, founder of the Faith First Educational Assistance Corporation, said she agreed.

“I was left to chance,” she said. “My parents didn’t have the choice. They didn’t have the money. We didn’t live in a good school district. ... We demand school choice, not chance.”