Nation's largest organization promoting school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs launches a new, interactive Web site designed to provide information to parents and policymakers.
(PRWEB) February 14, 2008 -- The Alliance for School Choice -- the nation's largest nonprofit organization promoting school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs -- today announced the launch of its new Web site, www.AllianceForSchoolChoice.org.
The Alliance's new site features details on school choice programs throughout the country, with an interactive map offering facts and figures about the quality of education in each U.S. state. The site also provides a portal where parents can sign up to become supporters of school choice. Parents can also request more information on how to promote school choice in their communities.
Supporters of school choice can make a fully tax-deductible contribution to the Alliance for School Choice online. Every dollar contributed is matched by a 50 cent donation from generous donors. The Alliance's board covers the entire cost of staff salaries and administrative expenses, so donors receive a significant return on investment. Individuals interested in contributing can visit www.allianceforschoolchoice.org and click "Make a Donation."
The new site complements the Alliance's recently redesigned publications, the research-oriented School Choice Digest magazine and the School Choice Activist, a newsmagazine. The Alliance will publish its annual signature publication, the School Choice Yearbook, in February. As the year progresses, the Alliance will add video segments, audio interviews, and interviews with families and children who benefit from school choice programs to its new Web site.
Journalists and policymakers can download news updates and fact sheets about school choice. For example, the new www.AllianceForSchoolChoice.org features fact sheets with information including:
- By a margin of two to one, Americans support allowing students in failing schools to transfer to private schools. Even 51 percent of public school employees support giving these students private school choice, compared to 29 percent who oppose it (Education Next-PEPG Survey, 2007).
- More than 1.2 million students failed to graduate from high school in 2007. (Education Week, 2007)
- Dropouts from class of 2007 will cost the country nearly $329 billion in lost wages, taxes and productivity over their lifetimes. (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2007)
- Today, only 17 percent of low-income fourth graders are proficient in reading, while 50 percent are below basic. And, a mere 15 percent of low-income eighth graders are proficient in math, while 45 percent are below basic. (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2007)
- Under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), it is estimated that more than 10,000 schools have failed to meet state reading and math standards for at least two years, and more than 2,300 have failed for at least five years. (U.S. Department of Education, 2007)
- This school year, approximately 150,000 children are benefiting from 16 school choice programs in nine states and the District of Columbia. There are a record number of students in a record number of programs operating in a record number of states.
- Over the last five years, we have seen a growth of more than 80 percent in the number of students participating in school choice programs, a 130 percent growth in the number of school choice programs, and a growth of 100 percent in the number of states with choice programs.
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The Alliance for School Choice and its companion organization, Advocates for School Choice, are America's largest organizations promoting school vouchers and scholarship tax credit programs. The mission of Advocates for School Choice and the Alliance for School Choice is to improve our nation's K-12 education by advancing systemic and sustainable public policy that empowers parents, particularly those in low-income families, to choose the education they determine is best for their children.
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