Bob Schaffer: “Absolutely. This element of choice is really key to the whole proposal. The reality that our standing, when compared to…”

“Absolutely. This element of choice is really key to the whole proposal. The reality that our standing, when compared to our international peers, is being diminished over time in math and science in particular, is a real problem. Not all schools in America are culpable in that regard. Some schools do, in fact, a very, very good job. It is a big country. We have lots of schools, lots of approaches, lots of managers. Most of them are competent and, in some cases, we find that they are not. They tend to be isolated in urban inner city areas, these schools that are failing to give children a decent education. In those cases, Americans really, the rest of us in America need to be quite concerned. We need to find ways to reach out to these kids. In every single State in the Union, these scholarship organizations have popped up that provide, that collect private money by way of donations to try to provide scholarships to some of these kids trapped in the worst schools. In fact, I have a map that was produced by just one of the organizations. It is called the Children's Scholarship Fund, and the Children's Scholarship Fund, again, it is just one organization that provides scholarships. They raise private money to provide scholarships. This blue area, everywhere we see blue on here tells us where they have received applications for scholarships. It is basically all across the country.”