Judd Gregg: “Tried and tested programs, that is a fairly unique way to describe a program that has left literally hundreds of…”

“Tried and tested programs, that is a fairly unique way to describe a program that has left literally hundreds of thousands of children behind. The average low-income child in this country today, in a fourth grade class, reads at two grade levels less than their peers. Only half of those kids even graduate from their high school. They have been left behind. That is the whole point. That is why parents in inner-city schools want to have the opportunity to have some options. That is why when the Children's Scholarship Fund put up some money and asked if there was anybody out there who wanted to go to a different school, you had literally thousands, actually 1.3 million children applying for those 40,000 slots which were limited to low-income kids. That is why the Milwaukee school system has found it to be so successful. That is why Florida has found it to be so successful. Because it is the low-income children--specifically, the children of parents who in many instances are single moms--who have been locked into schools that have failed year after year after year, who have no options because the schools will not improve. No matter how much money we put into the schools, they simply will not improve. That is why those parents want another opportunity.”