Lisa Snell spoke to the Illinois Coalition for School Choice on July 27, 2006.

Lisa Snell is director of education and child welfare at Reason Foundation, a nonprofit think tank advancing free minds and free markets.

Lisa Snell has testified before the California State Legislature and numerous government agencies and has written more than a dozen policy studies on school violence, charter schools, and child advocacy centers. Snell traveled California educating voters about the pitfalls of the recently defeated universal preschool measure. After winning the battle against all odds in California, Snell is moving to new battlegrounds in Illinois and Wisconsin, where she is already scheduled to testify.

Snell is a regular contributor to School Reform News and Privatization Watch. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Orange County Register, Los Angeles Daily News, Newark Star-Ledger, and numerous other publications.

Prior to joining Reason, Snell taught public speaking and argumentation courses at California State University, Fullerton. She holds a Master of Arts in Communication from that university.

Robert Enlow, executive director of the Friedman Foundation gives an overview of the school choice movement from "40,000 feet." Enlow spoke to the Illinois School Choice Initiative on Thursday June 15.

In 1996, Robert C. Enlow joined the newly established Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. Initially, Robert worked as the Foundation's Fundraiser and Projects Coordinator. In 1999, he was promoted to Vice President, Programs and Public Relations, where responsibilities include program management and development and media relations. In December 2003, Robert became the executive director of the Foundation overseeing development, program and communications activities.

Robert's editorials and quotes have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Manchester Union-Leader, Human Events, Indianapolis Star, San Francisco Examiner, Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, National Review, Indianapolis Business Journal and Evansville Courier. He also serves as a regular guest on local, regional and national talk radio shows. In addition, Robert has testified before several legislatures across the country and most recently before a U.S. Senate subcommittee.

!DVD available - call Gwen at 312-377-4000 or email carver@heartland.org for more info!

On May 18th, Rebeca Nieves Huffman’s speech, "And how are the children", addressed the education crisis and it how specifically affects Hispanic children. Noted by Hispanic Magazine as a "Top Latina Leader in Education," Huffman is the President and CEO of the Hispanic Council for Reform and Educational Options (Hispanic CREO). At Hispanic CREO, Huffman leads national efforts to improve the educational outcomes for Hispanic children by empowering families through parental choice in education.

!DVD available - call Gwen at 312-377-4000 or email carver@heartland.org for more info!

On April 20th, Lawrence Patrick III addressed the need for educational choice for Black parents and students. Described as a visionary leader, Patrick is a leading voice in the movement to increase educational options for black children. Patrick is passionate about ensuring children have access to high-quality education and information. He is a co-founding member of BAEO.

In a dynamic and engaging speech, Patrick told a room full of school choice supporters that if you "Get the Money, You Get the Power, and You Get the Respect," a phrase first coined by rap artist Lil’ Kim.

!DVD available - call Gwen at 312-377-4000 or email carver@heartland.org for more info!

Florida’s top school choice official, Virginia Gentles, addressed the Illinois School Choice Initiative’s March 16 luncheon at the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower. Gentles, executive director of the Florida Department of Education’s Office of Independent Education and Parental Choice, described the many school choice programs available to parents in the Sunshine State, how those programs have affected K-12 education in Florida, and how more choice would benefit students and parents in Illinois.

“In Florida,” said Gentles, “school choice serves two very clear principles: #1, making education about the student, not the system; and #2, empowering parents to make the best decisions for their children.”

On February 16, Kenneth L. Johnson, Milwaukee School Board president, spoke at the Illinois School Choice Initiative’s second monthly Educational Choice Speaker Series luncheon. The event was held in the Michigan Room of the Metropolitan Club at the Sears Tower.

In a speech addressing “Milwaukee Public School Reform: Rethinking of Parents as Our Customers,” Johnson made three main points:

School choice presented an opportunity for the Milwaukee Public School (MPS) system to change. MPS did not die. Public schools remain the primary educators of children in the urban school district, with the independent and religiously affiliated private schools existing alongside them. Milwaukee learned the schools can work together.

The public school system is not used to the word “customer.” But parents who are treated as customers will be more engaged in their children’s education and will demand that a school district perform better. A customer-driven education system forces the public schools to meet and try to exceed the standards of the choice schools.

School choice sparked a gradual transformation in the delivery of public education in Milwaukee. Public schools now have incentives to find ways to meet the needs of the students they serve. The school board empowered local schools to make decisions about how best to serve the students they enroll and their families.

On January 19, Clowes kicked off the new monthly Educational Choice Speaker Series with a talk titled, “Competition as an Effective Education Reform: What Works and What’s Ahead.” The luncheon event, held in the Michigan Room of the Metropolitan Club in the Sears Tower, was organized by the Illinois School Choice Initiative.

Clowes noted that while competition among providers of goods and services is an accepted feature in most sectors of the U.S. economy, there is little competition among providers of K-12 education, a sector with annual revenues in excess of $500 billion. However, recognizing other education reform efforts have yielded scant success at high cost, an increasing number of states have taken steps to begin the process of deregulating their K-12 education delivery systems to permit the creation of new types of schools--such as voucher, charter, and contract schools--and to help defray the cost of private schools with tax credit programs.

Research has consistently shown competition for students and education dollars produces beneficial effects, not only in terms of improved student achievement and parental involvement at choice schools, but also in prompting improvements in public schools that lose students to the new competitors. Competition also has the advantage of being a self-sustaining reform.

Despite the positive effects of competition, particularly in markedly improved high school graduation rates at lower cost, teacher union opposition to the deregulation of K-12 education remains fierce and unrelenting. The opposition that is most troubling, said Clowes, is in the courts, where judges, like those on the Florida Supreme Court, deconstruct the accepted meaning of constitutional texts and discern novel new interpretations that prohibit competition to public schools.