David Weldon: “Clearly, the gentleman makes a very important point, which is that you cannot blame it all on the schools, and you…”

“Clearly, the gentleman makes a very important point, which is that you cannot blame it all on the schools, and you cannot blame it all on the teachers. Indeed, I have to say, maybe I am partial to teachers, my mother having been a schoolteacher, most of them are great, most of them are very sincere, most of them are very hard working, there are some elements to the problems that we have in our schools that transcend the school, and it does require more parental involvement. Your example is an excellent example of how parents get involved. I know with my little girl, Katie, when she was in the first grade she was struggling with reading. My wife started to work with her with reading and tried to help her. At the end of the first grade, she was reading at about the third grade level, but she started out struggling. That is an example of very intense parental involvement. A lot of parents, single moms, do not have the time for that. There are problems that go beyond our schools, and parental involvement is one of the keys. I will tell you, I think one of the best ways to get parental involvement is to get school choice, where parents are looking at the schools in their school district, looking to see which ones are good, and then getting their kids enrolled.”