After she accepted a scholarship* to enroll in a private school, Denisha Merriweather changed the course of her life. She wound up becoming the first in her family to finish high school and college. Now a graduate student at the University of South Florida, she said her success has inspired others in her family to go back to school, or pursue a GED, or encourage her younger siblings to do well.

Merriweather has told this story before, including before Congress, and this morning she took her message to Cleveland, where she joined U.S. Rep. Luke Messer, R-Indiana, and Betsy DeVos, the chairwoman of the American Federation for Children, on a panel discussing school choice and innovation at the Republican National Convention.

Messer, who chairs the school choice caucus in Congress, said waves of anger and insecurity are sweeping through American politics, and have animated some supporters of Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and erstwhile Democratic contender Bernie Sanders.

"You're seeing an uprising of everyday people, who somehow in their hearts know that they're not being well-served by existing institutions," he said, adding: "To be able to take your shot at the American dream, you have to have access to high-quality education. We are falling far short of that as a nation." (more…)

When it comes to politics, I'm not alone. Many members of my generation don't align with either major political party. Our views don't always fit the traditional left-right mold. But we also aren't tied to the status quo. We are willing to break from tradition to make a difference.

Our willingness to embrace change is one cause for optimism that Jeb Bush said he found in this crazy political season. In a new interview, we talked about education politics, the importance of creating new educational options, and what politicians might learn if they spent more time in the classroom.

The former Florida governor says that on the campaign trail, he saw a backlash against some aspects of education reform. The solution, he said, is to use a bottom-up approach that puts more power in the hands of parents by giving them more choices and better information.

"If you start with the premise that this about educating children, and families are the most important political jurisdiction for their child - to be nerdy about it - the money would follow the child, not the school system," he said.

One promising way to do that, he said, is to give parents education savings accounts, which will allow them to send their children to public schools or private schools, or to teach their children at home, or hire tutors and therapists, or even (my favorite) save for college. (more…)

All parents should have access to "consumer reports" on schools in their area — public or private, magnet or charter — and be able to choose among them. Once their children are enrolled in a school, they should get meaningful updates on how well they're doing.

It might seem simple, but for too many parents, that's not how the school system works, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says in a new interview.

The former Florida governor has returned to his role as chairman of the Foundation for Excellence in Education, and has recently begun outlining a national education agenda.

He sat down recently in his Miami office with Denisha Merriweather, a former tax credit scholarship student, who is now seeking a master's degree in social work at the University of South Florida. (Step Up For Students, which publishes this blog, helps administer the scholarship program.)  (more…)

by Denisha Merriweather

As a school choice graduate turned education advocate, I’ve shared my experience with legislators before, but never in the halls of Congress. That changed last month, when I had the honor of traveling to Washington to tell the story of my academic turnaround.

At the Rayburn Building on Capitol Hill, I gave a piece of myself to the 30 members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce who had set a hearing to discuss school choice.

Just a couple months after passing the Every Student Succeeds Act, federal lawmakers are exploring the prospect of creating more options for students across the country. As Chairman John Kline noted in his introduction, “The committee has worked to improve K-12 education and has been guided by the belief that every child, regardless of where they come from or how much money their parents make, should receive an excellent education.”

Kline encouraged his colleagues to ask how they can support efforts in state capitols and local school districts to help more children receive the education they deserve. One member, Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina, asked what I think is the crucial question: “How much work would have to be done to truly give all students and their families choice?”

Many members of the committee didn’t doubt that students needed options, and if they had criticisms of school choice, they focused on the importance of holding charter and private schools accountable.

I was listening for someone to outline a vision. How do we get from where we are to where we want to be?

In 1990, Milwaukee enacted its pioneering school choice program. Now, 22 states offer some variation of private school choice, and more could soon join the ranks. Meanwhile, Congress is preparing to decide the future of another program, the one it controls directly: The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. (more…)

Magnet schools. A Pasco magnet school principal tells students it's OK to fail, as long as they learn from it. Tampa Bay Times. A Palm Beach magnet school celebrates its 25th anniversary. Sun-Sentinel.

Charter schools. A successful conversion charter elementary may grow into the middle grades. Bradenton Herald.

School choice. Tax credit scholarship recipient-turned-grad-student Denisha Merriweather writes in the Tampa Tribune that she's living proof school choice can work. Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog and employs the author of this post, helps administer the program.

Failure factories. Pinellas schools officials are working to address problems in South St. Petersburg, and parental choice may be part of the answer, Superintendent Mike Grego writes in the Tampa Bay Times.

Weather. Hendry County closes schools Monday amid flooding concerns; other districts remain open. Fort Myers News-Press.

Testing. A testing validity study is expected this week, after a delay. Sentinel School Zone. Gradebook. Orlando Sentinel columnist Beth Kassab weighs in on lawmakers considering changes.

TFA. The organization's new Orange County operation brings 18 recruits to schools. Orlando Sentinel.

Back to school. A school with lots of low-income students gets help with supplies. Bay News 9. A Methodist church extends a helping hand in Brevard. Florida Today.

STEM. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune profiles a teenage science whiz.

Safety. A Tallahassee high school student works to improve relations between students and police. Tallahassee Democrat. A woman under the influence tries to pick children up from school. WKMG.

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The founder of the organization that helps administer the nation's largest tax credit scholarship program, as well as one of its most prominent graduates-turned-advocates, were honored Monday for their contributions to the school choice movement.

John Kirtley, who helped start Florida's scholarship program, and Denisha Merriweather, a former scholarship student now headed to graduate school, received this year's John T. Walton Champions for School Choice Award during the American Federation for Children's annual gathering in New Orleans.

Kirtley founded the Tampa-based organization that evolved into Step Up For Students in 1998, and advocated for creation of the state's tax credit scholarship program three years later. It has since grown to serve nearly 70,000 low-income students. The organization also co-hosts this blog and employs the author of this post.

Merriweather has become a leading voice against the lawsuit filed last summer to end the program. Over the past year, she introduced former Gov. Jeb Bush at his education foundation's summit in Washington, told her story in the Wall Street Journal, and appeared on local TV stations in her hometown of Jacksonville. (more…)

Nearly 2,000 students and parents packed Jacksonville's Florida Theatre to start the largest-ever week-long celebration of school choice.

National School Choice Week officially starts Jan. 25, but Friday's rally was part of the first round of more than 11,000 planned events. The events aim for a celebratory tone, with music, dancing, celebrity guests and tributes to the range of educational options: district, charter, private, virtual and home education.

Desmond Howard, a former Jacksonville Jaguar and Heisman Trophy winner, told the capacity crowd that some students benefit from options beyond the schools that are assigned to them.

"I don't believe your potential should be limited because of your ZIP code, because of your assigned school, because of an antiquated system that limits families from accessing quality schools," he said. "As a parent, I know this first hand. Every child is unique."

Denisha Merriweather, who grew up in Jacksonville and has become a prominent advocate for school choice, helped set the stage for figures like Duval County School Board member Jason Fischer, state Board of Education member Gary Chartrand and Jeanne Allen of the Center for Education Reform. Others, like U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, made video appearances.

Merriweather attended Esprit de Corps Center for Learning with the help of a scholarship funded by Step Up For Students, the non-profit that administers the scholarship program and co-hosts this blog.

Public school options — especially those that emphasize the arts — got a shout out from Florida's Teacher of Year, Christie Bassett, who leads the art department at Highlands Grove Elementary in Polk County.

"When parents have more say in where their children go to school, everybody wins," she said, adding: "We love having choices in every area of our lives. Education should be no different."

Step Up For Students Chief Storyteller Lisa Davis contributed reporting and photos to this post.

Gov. Jeb Bush offered the opening address at his foundation’s annual education conference last week. But the former school choice student who introduced him may have stolen the show.

Denisha Merriweather has been doing that a lot in recent months.

Since May, the former tax credit scholarship student and now college grad from Jacksonville, Fla., has been featured in a video for the American Federation for Children;  been spotlighted in another video that ran on TV during breaks in Florida’s gubernatorial debates; penned an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal; and sat down for interviews with local press in Jacksonville. Each time, she moved a debate too often stuck on myths and abstraction on to concrete ground: Her life.

Don’t let school districts and teachers unions kill the scholarship program, she told attendees at the Bush conference. (The program is administered by nonprofits such as Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog.) Don’t let them throw nearly 70,000 scholarship recipients out of schools that are working for them.

“You can't see them but you can see me,” Merriweather said. “And so you can see what is possible when you give a kid a chance at a quality education.”

Here are her remarks in full.

Good morning. My name is Denisha Merriweather.

This year I graduated from the University of West Florida with a bachelor's degree in interdisciplinary social sciences.

I specialized in children and society, which led me to work in a Dominican Republic orphanage over the summer.

And there I learned how truly blessed we are to live in America.

Next year I will enter the University of South Florida's joint master's program in social work and public health.

After that I will let passion and opportunity be my guide.

Maybe instead of just being the first member of my family to have a college degree, I'll be the first to have the title Doctor in front of her name.

You would hardly have guessed such an outcome from my childhood.

I was born into poverty in Jacksonville, Florida.

My life was disrupted by constant moves.

I was held back twice in school and felt out of place in classrooms with kids two years younger.

I was disruptive and often got into physical fights with the other kids.

I was failing in school because I hated school.

All too well, I could see my future. 

I would drop out and spend the rest of my life trying to make ends meet.

But that didn't happen because of something my godmother discovered called the Tax Credit Scholarship Program.

It provided tuition for me to attend the Esprit de Corps Center for Learning.

That changed everything. (more…)

Switching to a different school didn’t just make dreams come true, “it allowed me to have dreams I didn’t know I could have,” writes a former school choice scholarship student in an op-ed published today in the Wall Street Journal.

Denisha Merriweather of Jacksonville, Fla., says by fourth grade, she disliked school so much she thought she’d eventually drop out. But at the urging of her godmother, and help from a tax credit scholarship for low-income students, she enrolled in a private school, graduated with honors and became the first member of her family to attend college. A few months ago, she earned a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary social science and is now headed to graduate school.

“This didn’t happen by chance, or by hard work alone,” she writes. “It happened because I was given an opportunity.”

Merriweather’s piece notes the lawsuit that the Florida teachers union, Florida School Boards Association and other groups filed Aug. 28 to end the 13-year-old scholarship program, which is administered by non-profits like Step Up For Students, which co-hosts this blog. The program serves nearly 70,000 students this fall, more than two thirds of them black or Hispanic.

Merriweather is also featured in a new TV ad, paid for the Black Alliance for Educational Options, which encourages the teachers union and school boards association to drop the lawsuit. In the Wall Street Journal, she said she hopes people who care about disadvantaged children pause to hear stories like hers. Read the full op-ed on the Wall Street Journal here.

(more…)

Former Step Up For Students scholarship student Denisha Merriweather, now attending the University of West Florida, received a standing ovation last night after speaking at the American Federation for Children school choice summit in Washington D.C. Here is the text of her prepared remarks. (Full disclosure: Step Up co-hosts this blog.)

Good evening! Thank you, Mr. Chavous, for your kind introduction.

My name is Denisha Merriweather, and I just finished my junior year at the University of West Florida in Pensacola right near the tip of Florida’s Panhandle. I am so proud to stand here before you today knowing that this time next year, I will be graduating college.

The truth is, when I was growing up, college was a dream that I didn’t even know I had. And if it weren’t for an educational option Florida gave me nine years ago, I wouldn’t be here today.

If you were to rewind my life back to my childhood, you would see someone very different. You would see someone who got in fights with her classmates. Someone destined to drop out before she made it through high school. Someone who didn’t even know what college was.

But thankfully, I did not become a statistic. Because of some help I received when I was 12 years old, my life has changed tremendously. (more…)