U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is on a three-state bus tour in the South this week as part of his annual back-to-school outing. Duncan is making a stop in Chattanooga today to highlight the need to improve educational outcomes for minority students.
The secretary is scheduled to address two key initiatives of the Obama administration when it comes to public schools: Race to the Top, which offers more federal funds to the states for accountability initiatives in local school systems, and the newest initiative, "My Brother's Keeper," a $200 million program targeted at keeping young, at-risk youth in school so they don't add to the usual statistics of dropouts in jail, on welfare, unemployed or on the streets.
Unfortunately, Washington-driven policies alone will not solve the high youth unemployment rate -- particularly among minorities.
The president and his education secretary would find greater success in their initiatives to improve educational outcomes for minority students if they would honor the voices of parents and use the bully pulpit to promote school choice for all families.
Tennessee parents want the opportunity to choose private school education for their children, and their views on this are balanced. A 2012 survey by the Beacon Center of Tennessee and the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice found that 40 percent of Tennessee families prefer private schools -- the same numbers that prefer public schools. An additional 9 percent prefer to enroll their children in charter schools, while 8 percent prefer home schooling.
Yet 92 percent of Tennessee students are assigned to their neighborhood public school and don't have any other choice unless their family can afford private school tuition or can move to a better school district.
No government education program offers more hope and real freedom than the ability to empower parents with unlimited options to choose any educational opportunity for their child, whether that is a private school, charter school, home school, online learning or another public school.
Duncan's "Partners in Progress" tour is based on the old idea that if the government partners with other organizations to spend more money on public education, somehow the outcomes will be different. With dozens of successful school choice programs, small and large, helping parents in 24 states plus the District of Columbia, we know that the freedom to access any educational opportunity is what drives long-lasting achievement.
A 2013 report that examined gold standard research on school vouchers found that in 22 of 23 empirical studies, the resulting competition improved public school performance and improved student outcomes for virtually all students participating in choice programs.
African Americans (72 percent) and Hispanics (69 percent), many of whom have seen the consequences of being denied a choice of schools, support vouchers, according to a new national poll released by Braun Research this summer. Overall, 69 percent of parents said they support school vouchers.
If Secretary Duncan and the Obama administration want to save America's youth, they will use this bus tour to encourage state and local leaders to give parents many options so that all children may have a shot at developing to their fullest potential. No federal action or money required.
Leslie Hiner is vice president of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, the legacy foundation of Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman and his wife, Rose.