As an activist, voter and resident who leans way to the left, I read the news daily and find myself asking, out loud and with more than a bit of frustration:
“Can I get a left-leaning candidate for governor who knows something about educational choice in Florida?”
Is that too much to ask?
I run the Florida Parent Network – a dedicated team of organizers who travel this state listening to thousands of parents about why they choose something other than district-run schools. We listen … to hopes and dreams, triumphs and tragedies.
We see our parents’ love for their children shining through in every choice they’ve ever made.
We help them protect and defend those choices.
I am officially inviting candidates running for governor in this year’s Democratic primary to step outside their neighborhoods, circles and worlds of privilege and meet some of our parents too.
Maybe they’d learn something.
The candidates routinely characterize scholarship programs and charter schools as nameless, faceless programs. They’ve threatened to cut off funding and shut them down with zero regard for the hundreds of thousands of children – mostly minority, mostly low-income – who would be displaced. It bears mentioning that none of these children were “assigned” these educational options. These are children with involved parents and caregivers who chose them.
When candidates for public office, especially white candidates, who’ve benefited from an unfair system, threaten those who have suffered from it, who are mostly minority, those of us on the left must call them out. If we don’t stand up and admit that our privilege keeps those “without” forever on the have-not side, who will?
These candidates seem to support educational choice – for themselves and their friends.
When Gwen Graham worked as an attorney for the Leon County School District, she negotiated a settlement to benefit her friend, now Superintendent Rocky Hanna. Back then, Hanna was a principal accused of harassing a teacher with whom he’d had an inappropriate relationship. Part of that deal forced the woman to leave the school where she worked, but allowed her to send her son to the kindergarten of her choice.
What a twist on school choice that is.
Philip Levine doesn’t seem to know the difference between vouchers, charters and scholarships. Yet he hates all of them. When his son reaches school age, Levine will probably send him to whatever school is best, as he should.
Why doesn’t that give him pause or fill him with compassion when railing against several hundred thousand families who, like him, want what’s best for their children?
Jeff Greene believes in choice, too. After all, he saw a need for his own kids to have more options and opened his own private school. Not exactly LeBron James, Greene’s school, with tuition from $20,000 to $28,000 a year, doesn’t serve the underprivileged and underserved. Meanwhile, he threatens to shut down scholarships and charter schools that work for the rest of us.
Recently, someone asked him about McKay Scholarships, a program serving students with special needs. His response: “What’s that?”
I’m not surprised these so-called progressives don’t have the first clue about communities in need of more educational options. I am surprised they’re so blatant about it.
We must never allow so-called leaders to disparage parents, ignoring their agency and ability to determine a better course for their children’s lives. We must never allow candidates for our state’s highest office to get away with threatening options for the less fortunate.
TJ Butler can help them better understand the McKay and tax-credit scholarships – since he’s utilized both – and how these programs helped him get past a rough childhood and circumstances our candidates can hardly imagine. #SayHisName
Zoe Jenkins is overcoming PTSD and on her way to Florida State University, thanks to a Pasco County charter school and teachers who believed in her potential. #SayHerName
Orlando Rivera thrived at Heritage Christian School, despite a disabled mom and a dad in prison, thanks to a ton of grit and the tax credit scholarship program. He’s now in college, studying aeronautical science. #SayHisName
#SayTheirName, candidates.
We won’t stop until you do.
