“I could bury my head in the sand. I don’t have kids, so why should I care? But I do.”

“Education has been a passion for me since I was a child. I ended up in foster care, and I struggled with learning. I was always saying I hated school – that’s how somebody who’s younger verbalizes it instead of saying ‘my brain doesn’t work that way.’ But I was determined to finish school, and I did.”

“School choice would have absolutely been a game changer. Now, all I want to do is see how I can help make that better for somebody else.”

“Education has been a constant theme throughout my life. It is time that I put my experience both good and bad toward helping the future generation. The way I look at it, the cycle can be complete. Education is everything to me.”

“You can’t do one-size-fits-all for education. In my idea of a perfect system, I would sit down with the parents and say, you know, tell me about tell me about your son, what does he like? What doesn’t he like, then sit down with the son. Make a plan for every child.”

“COVID and virtual education forced certain changes that have been needed for so long. They were like ‘how can you expect the whole system to come to the person?’ I really, honestly believe that we could have always met kids’ needs.”

“People are resistant to change. Part of it is big dollars. They say, ‘you’re robbing children, you’re robbing schools, and you’re taking the money.’ Families should be able to take that tax funding and go wherever they want as long as it adheres to what the family wants.”

“If families could take that money and use it on the best form of education for the child, our society is going to be better because we have better workers and better people. So I don’t get the argument against it.”

“School choice is the future – it has to be.”

“They say it takes time. I graduated over 40 years ago – that’s not just giving it time. It has to be now.”

Elizabeth Perry
Glen Allen, Virginia