Hi, I'm Jeff Sickinga, executive director of the Ashbrook Center, and this is the American

idea, where we discuss the ideas, people, and events that have made America what it is today.

We believe that by understanding our history and our principles, we can better

live up to the promise of the American founding and preserve our ongoing experiment in self-government.

Welcome to the American Idea. I want to welcome everyone to this episode of the American idea. Today we're going to be

talking about a growing movement in the world of American education. We're going to be talking

about some of the contemporary aspects of this movement, but also the history and development

of this movement. We're talking about and development of this movement. We're talking

about the school choice movement today. We're doing that with Shaka Mitchell. Shaka is senior

fellow, the American Federation for Children. Prior to that post, he held a position as

associate director of policy and planning at the Center for Education Education Reform and also work with the Institute of Justice.

He himself has had experience, practical on the ground experience, in helping to open charter schools in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

So we're talking about with someone today who has studied this as a, lived it as a practitioner, studied it as a policy expert, and thought about it as a scholar.

Shaka, thanks for taking the time to be with us today on the American Idea.

Thanks for having me, Jeff. I'm really looking forward to it.

So school choice is, as you well know, and I think many of our listeners know, especially those

involved in education, definitely a growing movement.

And I think what people believe is that it is almost an entirely new phenomenon.

But we know from your writing, your substack, Shaka's substack.

I always want to make sure our listeners, if they want more of Shaka Mitchell, they can find your writing there.

But we know, and you certainly have made the case for the fact that school choice is not simply a new phenomenon,

that it has been around in the United States in one form or another

...