Heidi Alexander: “today, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and I have introduced the School Choice Now Act, which does two things: It…”

“today, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and I have introduced the School Choice Now Act, which does two things: It protects students who have been attending private schools from the heartbreaking loss of scholarships, and it gives families more options for their children's education at a time that school is more important than ever. I have been working to find ways to help parents pursue the education that best meets their child's needs for a long time, since 1979, when I began to be the Governor of Tennessee. In 1986, we Governors got together in something called Time for Results. I was chairman of the National Governors Association. The vice chairman was the Arkansas Governor, Bill Clinton, and we devoted the Governors' attention for an entire year to one subject--education. There were six points. One of those points way back then was to find ways to give parents more choices of schools for their children. Then, later on, in 1992, when President George H.W. Bush was in office and I was Education Secretary, I helped the President develop something we called the GI Bill for Kids, which was Federal funds for a $1,000 scholarship to work with cities and States, like Milwaukee in Wisconsin, that were trying to give low-income families more choices of good schools for their children. Then, my last act as Education Secretary was to notice what they call start-from-scratch schools in Minnesota, created by the Democratic- Farmer-Labor Party.…”