Are We Heading Into a New Era of School Choice?
Advocate and educator Dr. Steve Perry will keynote an event in Detroit for National School Choice Week.
It’s National School Choice Week. To mark the occasion, the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Great Lakes Education Project, and other groups are holding an event at 1:30 Friday afternoon at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History in Detroit.
Dr. Steve Perry will be the keynote speaker. He’s the founder of Capital Preparatory Magnet School in Hartford, Connecticut, and a best-selling author who advocates for more school choice. Perry tells WDET’s Jake Neher it’s a personal mission for him.
“My specific commitment to the African American community forced me to call into question what I’d seen,” says Perry. “I’ve always been led to believe that only rich kids got good schools.”
Perry sharply criticizes teachers unions and says the national conversation around the subject of charter, private, and magnet schools has become “esoteric” and ignores the needs of individual families.
“(Parents who send their kids to those schools) say, ‘I’m going to do what I’ve got to do right now for my kids.’ That’s what I support. That’s what parents who understand the system support. And that’s what everyone who’s working very hard in the school choice space is working for.”
Click on the audio player above to hear the full conversation.
