Friday Interview: New Choice Group

The John Locke Foundation’s Donna Martinez recently spoke with Darrell Allison of Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina, a new school-choice organization. (Go to http://carolinajournal.com/cjradio/ to find a station near you or to learn about the weekly CJ Radio podcast.

Martinez: So tell us, why a new group? Why did you think that a school choice group needed to be formed?

Allison: Well, it wasn’t just me, it was a group of individuals, a part of a board that consists of Democrats, Republicans, Independents — politically speaking — African-American, white, male, female, a group of us coming together. Various backgrounds, but all coming together, really concerned with the current situation we have here in education in K-12, when you consider the dropout rates ranging from 20,000 to 22,000 that drop out each year. That has been the case for several years now. When you look at the graduation — the overall graduation rate in North Carolina is in the 60th percentile. When you look at it even more, take a step further, a particular group such as your African-American male, their graduation rate is around 42 percent, 43 percent.

Martinez: Terrible.

Allison: And so when you factor all that in, bring all that together, we say, look, it is time to really take a hard look and see how we can truly look at solutions outside of the box. And we think our approach, our mission, our vision, is one that people are eager to hear more about and get behind.

Martinez: Well, Darrell, one thing that critics who do not support more choices in the education system say, is that if you are for choices, that somehow you are anti-public school. How do you address that concern?

Allison: Well, first and foremost, Donna, what I like to say when I am meeting with various groups throughout the state is that Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina is not an anti-public education organization. We believe that public education is important. It is going to be here. The majority of our children will be educated publicly and we, however, are just here to help. And we think that by having more options for parents — charter schools, home schools, private schools, the ability for parents, say, to be able to exercise the ability of a tax credit that will make it more financially feasible for them to send their children to private school, which doesn’t currently exist in North Carolina. We think that all of these options, on the whole, help education, and we think it helps public education significantly.

Martinez: You mentioned tax credits. Tell us about that because I understand that is a particular area that you are going to be focusing on — that you hope to be able to achieve in North Carolina. What is the program all about?

Allison: Well, generally speaking, Donna, there are various states that have various forms of tax credits, whether it be individual like Pennsylvania — let’s highlight Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania has what you call a corporate tax credit. The state has to pass a law there allowing corporations to, instead of paying all their taxes to the state, they are able to defer a portion of their taxes to what you call scholarship and grant organizations. And those scholarship and grant organizations are responsible, then, for directing those funds to the children that are neediest depending on the standards there, and the curriculum that is set out there for that scholarship grant organization. We had one of the leaders there just speak to us, to educate us a little bit more on the great success. There are over 22,000 corporations that have jumped on board. We have children approaching 40,000 that have benefited as a result of having something like a corporate tax credit in place. We are still at the stage of exploring various options. We haven’t focused in on one. We are just kind of educating the public, our elected officials, on just the idea of choice.

Martinez: Darrell, you know some people say that what will happen if we go to more of a choice system, is that kids from low-income families somehow will suffer, that somehow money will be taken out of the public system and that it will be either low-income or minority kids who end up getting the short end of the stick, so to speak. Address that for us.

Allison: Well, you know, that is a real concern. And one of the things we have just published — and individuals and listeners will be able to obtain a copy by visiting www.pefnc.org. We have what we called “School Choice Facts versus Myths,” and it focuses in on that particular issue. That being, when you look at the 11 states that have school choice currently operating, and you look at the children that benefit the most, those children that benefited the most are mostly minority, mostly low-income children.

Martinez: That is interesting.

Allison: Yes. And to take it a step further, one of the leading organizations, national organizations of School Choice, the Milton Friedman Foundation — by the way we were just awarded a grant by the Milton Friedman Foundation — they did a study in Cleveland. Now, interesting, Donna, they found, as it relates to this issue of public education and minorities, they found that there was more diversity. Those children that were in private school, there was more diversity in private schools in Cleveland than there was in the public schools.

Martinez: Now that would be quite unexpected to a lot of people to hear that.

Allison: That’s right, that’s right. And on the national scope, again, the children that benefit the most are those that are the most needy, those in the low-wealth, minority, mostly minority communities. And we plan on really bearing the facts out here in the state as we meet with the community leaders and parents throughout the state.

Martinez: Darrell, one issue of choice that is getting more and more attention in North Carolina has to do with charter schools, which are public schools. The State of North Carolina caps the number of charters at 100 and there have been some efforts by various organizations to try to have that lifted or raised. Is your organization going to get involved in that discussion of public charter schools?

Allison: Well, I will say this, Donna, that we as an organization, we are very, very — it is part of our mission — we are very supportive of all of the various programs that we have in the state, not just public schools but charter schools, home schools. Our home-school association that grew up here in North Carolina consists of 33,000 families that currently home-school their children. And so we are very supportive of charter schools, home schools. We are particularly focused on an option that is not currently available for families — that being the opportunity to attend private school through tax credits or publicly funded scholarship programs.
.