James M. Talent: “It is written by the Mayor, along with Councilman Chavous and the President of the District of Columbia Board of…”

“It is written by the Mayor, along with Councilman Chavous and the President of the District of Columbia Board of Education, in which they go into their reasons for supporting this measure. It is a rather passionate explanation of why they believe this measure is so important; in fact, not just important but absolutely necessary to thousands of kids in the District of Columbia who otherwise would have little hope of getting a good education. That is the feeling I have noticed in all of us who have encountered this issue over time feel. I encountered the issue of opportunity scholarships for kids when I first started working on community renewal, which is what our little group used to call urban renewal, and as some people call it. I got involved in that in the mid-1990s. As part of that involvement, I toured a lot of places in Missouri and in the country where people were revitalizing their neighborhoods. They were doing it by adopting the kind of measures that brought small business investment in their neighborhoods, working with the police and community policing, working with local organizations on substance abuse programs and on home ownership. It was all tremendously inspiring.”