Kokomo Herald - Lafayette to Kokomo Car Cruise Drives Home School Choice

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By the Kokomo Herald

Hoosiers for School Choice took to the streets in classic automobiles to join Rep. Todd Rokita for a Car Cruise on Friday. Staging their convoy at Faith Christian School in Lafayette, they heard the Congressman praise their local success and explain his efforts to take it nationwide.

"School Choice is an important foundation supporting our Hoosier and national economy," said Rokita. "As Chairman of the Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Elementary and Secondary Education, I'm helping to make sure every student makes his or her unique contribution."

Indiana's former Governor Mitch Daniels signed the state's School Scholarship Act in 2011, dramatically expanding parents' choice of schools. Rokita thanked Indiana State Senators Ron Alting, Brandt Hershman and Jim Buck, as well as State Representatives Tim Brown, Randy Truitt, Heath VanNatter, Mike Karickhoff and P. Eric Turner, for their support of Daniels' bill.

Secretary of State during Daniels' time in office, as U.S. Representative, Rokita has authored bills that would steer federal grants to states to bolster their School Choice programs, streamline education research and also identify and replicate the best charter schools.

At Redeemer Lutheran School in Kokomo, whose success Principal Ruth Lavrenz attributes to School Choice, Rokita told the audience his second stop of the day was "not the last on our journey but a marker of our progress in the 4th District, the state and the country." Lavrenz said she always embraced her school's role as a school reform "guinea pig."

"Without Indiana's program, our school would not be able be to offer affordable tuition to families looking for better options," she said. Earlier, Faith Christian's Director of Development Arvid Olson said School Choice brings diversity of thought to academia. "There is more than one voice in education. School Choice allows talented students in unique situations to pursue their goals at religious schools, as well."

Rokita emphasized that Olson's K-12 school is graduating needed STEM graduates -- studying science, technology, engineering and mathematics --to Indiana's public university system, including Lafayette's top-ranked Purdue, which feeds Indiana's advanced manufacturing industry. "The freedom of parents to choose their children's education is a right not only reserved for high-income brackets. It's our American heritage and part of our Exceptionalism," he said.

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