In the 60 years since the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, the mission to offer every student equal access to a free and quality public education has made great strides. But there’s more work to do, say education advocates gathering this week for National School Choice Week.

More than a dozen groups representing everything choice - from charters to religious schools to district virtual schools – will meet Jan. 30 in Coral Springs, Fla., for a panel discussion reflecting on the historic Supreme Court ruling and whether its vision is being fulfilled.

Brown was an important part of the struggle to end legal discrimination but today "we have a different problem," longtime school choice supporter Howard Fuller said in an email to redefinED. "Children of low income and working class Black families are trapped in schools that are not providing them with a quality education. Integration is not the lever of power that is needed at this point in history."

The Florida event is one of 5,500 taking place during the fourth annual celebration of educational opportunity.

Speakers include Fuller, a distinguished professor and board chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options; Georgia Rep. Alisha Morgan, a Democrat and school choice supporter; T. Willard Fair, a civil rights activist and the youngest chapter president in the history of the Urban League; Julio Fuentes, president of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options; Rabbi Moshe Matz, director of Agudath Israel of Florida; Vincent Boccard, mayor of the city of Coral Springs; and Jonathan Hage, founder, president, chairman and chief executive officer of Charter Schools USA.

The event is hosted by Florida Alliance for Choices in Education (FACE), a roundtable of school choice and parental empowerment organizations that work to expand and strengthen educational options. Partners include Step Up For Students, the nonprofit that administers the Florida Tax Credit Scholarship (and co-hosts this blog); Florida Charter School Alliance; PublicSchoolOptions.org;  Charter Schools USA; Coral Springs Charter School; Florida Virtual School; McKay Coalition; HCREO; Agudath Israel of Florida: StudentsFirst; Pasco eSchool; National Institute for Educational Options; and K12 Inc.

The event will be held at the Coral Springs Charter School, 3205 N. University Drive, Coral Springs, 33065. The reception starts at 5:30 p.m. with the discussion at 6:15 p.m. For more information, email FACE director Wendy Howard, wendy@flace.org

You’ll be able to watch a live webcast of the event here on the blog. You can also follow via Twitter @redefinedonline. Search for #SCW and #FLchoice.

Mississippi: State lawmakers are expected to try again this year to pass charter school legislation, but some suburban Republicans continue to have concerns (Desoto Times Tribune). Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves says there's bipartisan support for charter schools (Associated Press). More from the Memphis Commercial Appeal. At least one lawmaker is talking about the possibility of tax credit scholarships (GulfLive.com)

Florida: Jonathan Hage, CEO of Charter Schools USA, is named Florida Trend magazine's Floridian of the Year for 2012. A new state lawmaker works in public schools as an assistant principal, but supports publicly funded private school choice options (redefinED).

Arizona: The state's education savings accounts program expands to include students from the lowest-performing public schools (Arizona Republic.)

Oregon: The founders of a charter school chain are accused of racketeering and money laundering and charged with scamming $17 million from the state (The Oregonian).

Washington D.C.: Charter schools in the district expel students at far higher rates than traditional public schools (Washington Post).

Indiana: Lawmakers will look at expanding the state's voucher program during the upcoming legislative session (Associated Press).

Louisiana: The legal challenge against the state's voucher program heads to the state supreme court (New Orleans Times Picayune). (more…)

Jonathan Hage, CEO of Charter Schools USA, is Florida Trend's 2012 Floridian of the Year. The influential business magazine notes the strong growth of charter schools in Florida and nationally and says, "Hage's 15-year-old company has staked out a leadership role." In the piece, Hage advocates for more funding charter schools, but also says he supports tougher regulations to crack down on wayward charters. Full piece here.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's visit to a new charter school yesterday was not only noteworthy because it reaffirmed his commitment to parental school choice, but because of who was by his side: former state Sen. Al Lawson, a Tallahassee Democrat now running for Congress.

“Throughout my 28 years in the Legislature I always wanted education reform for our young people. I had the opportunity to tour the state on many occasions to look into what was happening with our public schools. And I was always excited about the opportunity to help with public charter schools in the state," Lawson said after the visit to Governors Charter Academy, a K-8 school run by Charter Schools USA. "This is a great addition, not only to the state but to Tallahassee. And we have kids here that I’m really excited about. I’ve never seen kids act so well with all this media, so it’s already starting here. This is the kind of thing we want to improve education. That’s what it’s all about, whether you’re Democrat or Republican, about how we train our future leaders, because they have to take our place.”

Lawson was among the first black lawmakers in Florida who broke ranks with traditional allies to vote for vouchers and tax credit scholarships. (more…)

Florida Gov. Rick Scott will attend the grand opening of a charter school in Tallahassee Wednesday.

The Governors Charter Academy, a K-8 school, is run by Charter Schools USA. Its president and CEO, Jonathan Hage, is a one-time adviser to former Gov. Jeb Bush.

Scott has just wrapped up a week-long education "listening tour" across the state. Along the way, he vowed to seek stable if not increased funding for K-12; wrote that "we cannot declare war on teachers and simultaneously ask them to drive our students toward success"; and said school choice and competition need to be done "the right way."

On a related note, from the News Service of Florida:

Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday he will create a group of five school superintendents to make suggestions on reducing requirements that take teachers away from classroom time. Scott said the idea came from last week's tour of school's around the state. "One of the things our teachers talked about was that they wanted to spend their time in their classrooms teaching," Scott said after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting. "They don't want to spend time doing a lot of paperwork on things such as how much recycled material are we using."