A gathering of school choice advocates is on tap for Tuesday, January 24 at Constitution Hall on the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) campus in Edmond. The event is intended, organizer Stuart Jolly said, “to support the future workforce of America.”
In addition to leading school choice advocates from Oklahoma, presenters at the event will include John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, and former U.S. Rep. J.C. Watts, a former member of Congress from Norman.
The event comes just a few months after national news stories pointed to Oklahoma as an apt metaphor for what advocates dubbed “The Year of School Choice.”
Context for the gathering, and some of the national attention it is gaining in advance of the event, comes from the Sooner State’s recent history.
Choice legislation was enacted both in 2010 — when then-Governor Brad Henry (a Democrat) supported and signed a bill benefitting special needs children – and in 2011, when Governor Mary Fallin (a Republican) supported and signed into law the Equal Opportunity Education Scholarship Act.
In an interview with CapitolBeatOK, Jolly, Oklahoma state director for Americans for Prosperity (AFP) said, “the core appeal, the central issue, is parental rights to choose. Parents simply have the right to select the school to which they send their kids. I’m looking forward to this conference, as we look back to celebrate and support what has already passed in Oklahoma, and what we have planned for the future.”
Americans for Prosperity is a national activist organization that works for limited government and free markets.
Another sponsor of the school choice event is the Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs, a “think tank” that focuses on economic liberty, tax policy and state governance issues.
Concerning this year’s likely or potential legislation at the state Capitol, Jolly reflected, “I expect to see a virtual school bill, a process to create a clearinghouse at the state Department of Education. I believe Senators John Ford [a Bartlesville Republican] and Gary Stanislawski [a Tulsa Republican] may both be pushing that idea. Another proposal is to relieve individual school districts from the burden of negotiating with virtual education providers.”
For the rest of the article, go to Oklahoma City to host Jan. 24 “town hall” during National School Choice Week
