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The last few years have seen dramatic expansion of school choice across the country, and Southern states make up the majority of recent adopters. 
 
Just last year, Virginia and Mississippi approved their first-ever private school choice programs. 2012 also saw the enactment of Louisiana's "Tax Credits for Donations to School Tuition Organizations," a program focused on private school choice options for low-income children. In 2011, North Carolina opened up new options for special needs students through a "Tax Credits for Children with Disabilities Program." 
 

In 2012, the U.S. Department of Education declared that 20% of American graduates were functionally illiterate. Nationally,  only 13% of graduating students were labelled "proficient" in U.S. History. The class of 2012 also scored the lowest average SAT reading scores of the last 40 years.
 
 The need for reform is evident, and people are eager to see it take place. A recent Gallup poll  found that 44% of Americans support the idea of real school choice, which is a 10% jump from the previous poll. 
 

School Choice is a proven and successfull way to differentiate instruction for every child. Scholarship programs in Ohio are working wonders for their students. Part of fulfilling the promise of a good foundational education in Ohio means allowing for real school choice, and the students recognize this. 
 

Michelle Rhee was chancellor of Washington D.C. public schools from 2007-2010, and she was once staunchly against school choice. Many of her arguments against school choice are quite familiar to South Carolinians with an eye on the debate. However, when she put faces to her arguments she realized that a caring parent with state and monetary limitations on their choice were more important than rhetoric and good intentions.
 

Florida public schools are seeing a dramatic reduction in the achievement gap between white and minority students as a result of school choice. 
 

The story below is from EAGNews.org. 

 For Racine parent Renee Solis, the new school choice program has been nothing less than a godsend.

Just a few years ago, Solis’ son, Brytton Hurd, was struggling in his Racine public elementary school. While Brytton brought home good report cards, Solis wondered if they accurately reflected her son’s progress.

“He had poor organizational skills and he never had homework, yet he was getting all A’s,” Solis tells EAGnews.

Click on the picture above to expand a very informative infographic from the Friedman Foundation's "ABCs of School Choice."
The graphic brings a meaningful answer to the people who dismissively approach the idea of school choice legislation with the question, "Why are we still talking about this?"

There are myriad ways to answer that question, but probably the most significant is, "Parents want choices." 

Pennsylvania's Commonwealth Foundation has created a new website (Freetoteach.org) to help teachers better understand exactly what they're getting into when they join a union. It's obviously Pennsylvania-centric, but there is a wealth of interesting (and troubling) facts about education union activities and expenditures that highlight why the education establishment in so many states is adamantly opposed to any reform or change. 
 
Here's some of those facts and figures:
 

Two Michigan school districts are shut down yesterday after many teachers "called in sick." The wave of apparent sickness coincidentally occured at the same time as rallies to protest the passage of "right to work" legislation.