Parental Choice Forum Engages Leaders

Opportunity for All Kids (OAK) hosted a gathering of religious, non-religious, private and independent school leaders on Tuesday, January 27 at St. Croix Lutheran High School. Approximately 75 leaders from a variety of schools across Minnesota attended this event, including a number of pastors and school administrators from the Minnesota South District.

Keynote speakers at the event were Terry Brown, Vice President at School Choice Wisconsin and Tim Keller, Attorney at the Institute for Justice, a leader in defending parental rights in education across the country. Brown talked about the history of parental choice in Wisconsin and the initial successes that state’s voucher program has had.  He also offered suggestions to Minnesota’s school leaders as they begin to draft a parental choice strategy. 

Keller spoke broadly about the history of various school funding models and the relationship of religious schools to these funding models. In his time at the Institute for Justice, Keller has successfully argued parental choice cases in a variety of state and federal courts and provided forum participants with insights regarding the legal basis for parental choice.

Rev. Fred Hinz, Assistant to the President for Mission Formation and public policy advocate, explained how this gathering “represented the start of a new and determined effort on the part of a wide variety of different interest groups to bring meaningful school choice to the parents of Minnesota.”