This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Tuesday, April 30th, 2019. I'm Caleb Brown.

No parent cares more about the performance of a school or a school system or a state's educational

ranking than they care about the educations of their own children.

At the Cato Institute's Benefactor Summit, Steve Perry, the founder and head of schools for capital prep, described his experience as an educator and defender of school choice.

So we're going to have some fun this morning. You guys look like a fun crowd. I know you looked at yourselves in the mirror and you thought we look like a fun crowd I know you looked at yourselves in the mirror

and you thought we feel like a fun crowd so let's start with a children's book right

because you guys look like big fans of children's books.

Older places you will go, right?

Congratulations.

Today is your day. You're off the great places. You're off in a way, it says.

It's something that I think a lot about.

Because being born on my mother's 16th birthday, third generation in poverty, in public housing.

And then ending up at an Ivy League school, I often wonder about the journey.

What I think of what it is that we do. It feels like a journey.

This week started with me at one of our schools in Harlem,

but we had had a fight among two middle school girls.

Now if you are unfortunate enough,

I mean fortunate enough to have middle school girls in your life,

you know that they are the meanest human beings on earth.

Sincerely, like Rattlesnake mean and so the day was as it typically is where you're

just trying to get to the bottom of why she looked at her and she looked back at her and

why looking is so much of a problem at this age. At the same time on this journey to here, I find myself working to engage African-American

...