Michelle Rhee explains why she came to support vouchers:

When I first became chancellor of D.C. Public Schools in 2007, I was skeptical about the city's parental choice scholarship, or "voucher" program. I'm a lifelong, card-carrying Democrat. In my mind, private school funding for low-income kids took money from traditional school systems.

But as I got to know D.C. families, a number of mothers approached me and asked what they should do. They had checked out their neighborhood schools, and what they discovered was startling. In some cases, a mere 10 percent of kids were working at or above their grade level. That wasn't encouraging. So, they tried to win spots in better schools across town or in high-performing public charter schools. But, more often than not, there were no spaces, and it was then these mothers would come to me and say, "Now what?"

After facing this question a few too many times, I concluded that if I couldn't offer them a spot at a public school where I would send my own kids, I also couldn't possibly tell them to pass up a voucher for a good private school. Simply put, I was no longer willing to look these parents in the eye and say, "You know what? Give me five more years to make your school better." I wasn't willing to ask families to accept anything less than I'd want for my kids.

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