Michelle Rhee - School Choice and School Vouchers

School Choice and School Vouchers

In 2008, Rhee's office released a statement that said, "While Chancellor Rhee hasn’t taken a formal position on vouchers, she disagrees with the notion that vouchers are the remedy for repairing the city’s school system." In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal on January 11, 2011, Rhee endorsed vouchers when she supported "giving poor families access to publicly funded scholarships to attend private schools," adding that "All children deserve the chance to get a great education; no family should be forced to send kids to a school they know is failing." In a February 2011 speech before Georgia's legislature, she indicated she had supported the DC voucher program as a supplement to the charter school alternative. She said that if a parent did not win the lottery to get their child into a charter school, then "who I am to deny them a $7,500 voucher to send their child to a great Catholic school."