National school choice week kicked off yesterday. What do you know about school choice?

Maureen Sullivan of Forbes writes:

Kicking Off School Choice Week With 9 Things You Need To Know

School Choice Week has grown from 150 events in 2011 to more than 11,000 events coming up this week around the country. They range from kids from Newark Prep Charter School ringing the bell to open the New York Stock Exchange Monday morning to thousands of kids doing the official dance with their yellow fleece scarves.

I spoke about the right of children to attend excellent schools at one of the first events four years ago – about 25 people at a bar in Hoboken, N.J. on a snowy January night. Some people in the community were shocked that I – an elected member of the school board – would speak at a school-choice forum. A few spies showed up to listen to the speech and report back. At the next school board meeting the president diverted from the agenda to announce that I had gone rogue and was not speaking for any of them, as if that were my plan. Since I left the board in 2013, the majority members have pressed a lawsuit against Hola Charter School, one of three charters in town, to keep it from expanding to seventh and eighth grades. Throughout the country, parents are fighting for the right to educate their children their way. And there remains a broad coalition of anti-choice advocates who want to reduce or eliminate education alternatives.

As School Choice Week kicks off, here’s a list of nine things that you need to know about education issues around the country.

1. The findings from the American Federation for Children poll released last week indicate that 69% of Americans support the concept of school choice, 63% support private school choice in the form of vouchers and 76% support public-school charters. “The findings of this poll reflect what we saw in the 2014 midterms and what I am seeing in communities across the country – a demand from parents for more options in deciding how their children are educated,” says Kevin Chavous, AFC’s executive counsel.