Good evening, CharterFolk.
What a day it’s been in Washington.
A day when more than a thousand CharterFolk from communities across the United States …
… came to our nation’s capital …
… to make their voices heard.
From the US Department of Education …
… to Lafayette Square …
… to the US Capitol.
Parents from California …
… and from the Secretary of Education’s hometown in Connecticut …
… from Chicago …
… to Boston …
… from Texas …
… to Memphis …
… and Rochester …
… and everyplace in between.
CharterFolk …
… in all our splendor …
… one and all.
The morning started out with the Journal’s editorial page suggesting that something was afoot.
A full page advertisement in the New York Times gave greater confirmation.
By the afternoon other media were picking up the thread.
Little wonder the tweets started coming in from the Department …
… saying that they’d heard CharterFolk …
… and were starting to distance themselves …
… from their own darn regs!
By the end of the day, this story had come out from the Washington Post.
They said they were “clarifying”. Our parents call it…
“… backing off.” A message they have now brought …
… to the highest office in the land.
CharterFolk, I’ve spent a lot of days in charter school advocacy, but I’ve never seen a day like the one we saw today, a day when charter school parents made a difference for our movement at whole new levels of impact.
To every single person who travelled across the country to make this amazing day happen, and to all the organizations and dedicated people who supported them in doing so, I say thank you.
We have made great progress, and we should all feel great about that.
But we should also remember that there is so much further yet to go. Not just on these terrible regs which still remain a grave, grave threat. But on all the other impediments that stand in the way of all our nation’s kids finally accessing the fantastic public education they deserve.
So just keep going, CharterFolk.
Forging on together like we did today, there is absolutely nothing that can stand in our way.