As a Rabbi in training, I had the opportunity to travel and live in countries around the world, such as Argentina, France, Israel and Ukraine. What I saw was greater emphasis on preparing the youth to succeed in life. Kids were being given the skills necessary to grow and become successful adults who can find work and support themselves and their future families. In the U.S., we are definitely falling short of this goal.

As the most prosperous country in recent history, we owe a great deal of our success to free markets and the excellence that competition breeds. The ability to choose where you live, work and play has forced the marketplace to create products catered to our society.

Education should be no different. The more options we have for schooling our children, the more focused schools will be on providing the best experience possible. This means supporting a successful public and private school system, so parents can find the right environment and system that caters to their individual child's needs.

The reality is many children have been removed from this marketplace by the cost of tuition at private schools. Even with scholarships available, it is still too costly for many of our middle-income families, thereby excluding them from making the right choices for their children.

Floridians are truly fortunate that our state has seen this challenge and acted to overcome it. (more…)

Texas: State lawmakers talk vouchers and hear about expanded learning options in Louisiana and Florida (KVUE.com).  A judge rules that a charter school support group's concerns can stay in a lawsuit over state education funding. (Austin American Statesman)

California: A local school board won't allow a school to be converted into a charter school, even though that's what parents using the state's parent trigger law wanted. (Education Week)

Florida: The superintendent of the state's biggest school district says the educational environment is now driven by choice.  (redefinED)

Indiana: The state's public school districts are marketing themselves with billboards and door-to-door campaigns in an effort to persuade parents to steer clear of vouchers and private schools. (Associated Press)

New Hampshire: The state's "Blaine Amendment" becomes an issue in the race for governor. (Concord Monitor)

Michigan: A community debates as a charter school operator begins to run all of its schools. (Detroit News)

Missouri: An appeals court rules that a judge was wrong in ordering charter schools to pay millions to the Kansas City School District. (Associated Press)

Pennsylvania: A private foundation will manage 20 financially struggling Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. (Education Week)

Washington D.C.: Despite growing enrollment, charter schools are overshadowed by traditional public schools in funding and other matters. (Washington Post)

Last fall, Arlene Ackerman, the former schools superintendent in Philadelphia, made a stunning announcement for someone of her status. In a newspaper op-ed, she forcefully came out in favor of expanded school choice options, including more charter schools and yes, even vouchers. "I've come to a sad realization," she wrote. "Real reform will never come from within the system."

In this redefinED podcast, Ackerman talks more about her evolution.

For years, she pushed change from the highest perches in K-12 education. Before Philly, she headed the school districts in Washington D.C. and San Francisco. She led the latter when it became a finalist for the prestigious Broad Prize, annually awarded to the best urban school district in the country, in 2005. But the kinds of sweeping reform needed to help poor and minority kids, she said, too often met with resistance from unions, politicians, vendors and others who benefited from not budging.

A key turning point came a few years ago. Given current trend lines, her staff told her, all students in Philadelphia won't be proficient in reading and math until the year 2123. “It became real to me that it was important to include as many options as possible for parents,” said Ackerman, who now lives in Albuquerque, N.M. to be closer to her children and grandchildren. She said she began thinking, “What would I want for my children if my children were trapped in a school? What options and alternatives would I want available to me?”

Before the op-ed was published, Ackerman wrote a heads-up email to hundreds of friends and colleagues. Some said they understood. Some said she was almost a traitor. Most didn't say anything.

"I hope it provided an opportunity for people I know and respect to think about why somebody like me, who spent so many years within the traditional public school system fighting for radical change, would embrace charters and vouchers for low-income families," she said.

“If it changes the life of one child, it’s to me worth the effort,” she also said, referring to expanded choice. “The other thing it will do is force the traditional public school systems to change. It will put pressure for real reform to take place because there’s competition. Let’s face it: This country is built on competition. And it’s good.”