On School Choice

There are four types of school choice in Delaware:

• Parents can choice their children into the Vo-Tech School District for high school.
• They may choose to exercise inter-district choice and place their student in a school in a district other than the one in which they reside.
• Frequently, families utilize intra-district choice to send their children to their home district but to a school other than their feeder school
• Parents may also choose to send their children to Charter Schools which are public schools that are not part of the traditional or vo-tech school districts.

I support each of these methods of school choice. In fact, my family has been living school choice for years. I have utilized school choice to place my children into schools that I believe would best meet their unique needs. Currently, my daughter attends Glasgow High School. My son is a GHS grad. Glasgow was not their feeder school, but it offered the educational programs my family believed best suited our children. Seeing Justin succeeding in college with a goal of becoming a teacher confirms to us that our choice was the right one.

There's been a lot of discussion about school choice in the press and online during the last several months along with calls to revise Delaware's charter laws. I believe deeply in public education. For a Christina board member, that means making decisions that support all of Christina's children, including those who attend charter schools. I serve on a school board that is comprised of many diverse and highly-skilled members, including a teacher who works in a charter school and a parent who has a one child in a charter school and a second child in a traditional Christina public school.

During the recent heated debate on Newark Charter School, I did not participate in any organized effort to thwart the NCS expansion application: not one meeting, not one vote. Why? Because choice is important. Every parent deserves it for their child, just like me. I believe Christina needs to improve ourselves, not curtail the choice of others. The issues with Charter Law are for the state to decide, my job is focused squarely on Christina.

What we all have in common is that we are committed to improving educational opportunities across Christina. We are charged with making policy decisions that will promote our traditional public schools and improve student achievement. We must also educate the public as to the impact of school choice.

If you are looking for a candidate that fully supports choice and wants to make Christina better, I would sure appreciate your vote on Tuesday May 8^th!