Release #464-00

 

Contact:	Sunny Mindel / Lynn Rasic (212) 788-2958
	Lindsay Young (Manhattan Institute) (212) 599-7000

MAYOR GIULIANI AND MANHATTAN INSTITUTE CO-HOST
NEW YORK CITY CONFERENCE ON SCHOOL CHOICE

Conference Brings Together Elected Officials, Education Experts, and Community Leaders to Discuss School Choice

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani today opened the New York City Conference on School Choice, sponsored by the Mayor and the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a New York City-based research organization. The conference brings together elected officials, educators, parent activists, researchers, and legal scholars-proponents as well as opponents of school choice-to discuss the growing movement to increase educational choice.

"The idea behind school choice is simple," Mayor Giuliani said. "Parents, rather than the government, should be able to decide where their children go to school. Most children who attend public schools go to their assigned school. If the family doesn't like that school-if it happens to be a bad school, a dangerous school, or just not the right school for that particular child-unless the family has enough money, that family has no choice. That child has no options.

"This conference is about options-about exploring ways to provide more parents and more children with more options. Not only do parents and children deserve choices, I strongly believe that the competition choice would engender is key to invigorating the public schools, to spurring them to be creative and responsive. I'm grateful to the Manhattan Institute for co-sponsoring this event, and to all of the conference participants for helping explore this important issue."

Manhattan Institute President Lawrence Mone said, "It is exciting for the Manhattan Institute to see the progression of the school choice movement. It is clear that with the support of mayors like our own Mayor Giuliani, the school choice movement will continue to grow."

Among the current and former government officials who delivered remarks at the conference were Governor Frank Keating of Oklahoma, Governor Gary Johnson of New Mexico, Mayor John Norquist of Milwaukee-home to the largest and most prominent publicly-funded voucher program in the nation-Mayor Bret Schundler of Jersey City, Pennsylvania Secretary of Education Eugene Hickok, former Massachusetts Governor William Weld, and former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich.

Panels included a discussion of the evidence of choice's effectiveness and a debate on the constitutionality of vouches. Panelists came from as far away as Florida, Wisconsin, California, Michigan, and Pennsylvania.

www.nyc.gov