Virginia Walden Ford was one of the first black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock after desegregation. Years later, she says, “as a mother living in Washington, D.C., I became involved in the fight for school choice in our nation’s capital. A private scholarship became a lifeline for my son, and I wanted other families to have the same opportunity.

“Rereading ‘I Have a Dream,’ the speech that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered on August 28, 1963, I thought of my days at Central High and how that option made such a big difference in my life. It was an incredible school that offered the tools I needed to move forward successfully. In the years I have fought for educational freedom for American children, much of Dr. King’s speech has resonated in my mind.”

She’s not alone. None other than Dr. King’s own son, civil-rights activist Martin Luther King III, once told OCPA that “it is no secret that public education in this country is in trouble. For poor children and children of color the problem of equal access to quality education is magnified. ... America's educational systems are wholly lacking in preparing our youth for the 21st century, and accordingly, must be born anew." He supports tax credits for donations to K-12 scholarship organizations because he believes we must “increase equal access to private education.” (Happily, some philanthropic organizations in Oklahoma are doing just that.)

“Education is the key to freedom and opportunity,” Mr. King said. “We basically have one supplier, the public education system, and it has become a huge bureaucracy. This bureaucracy has to be challenged. Fairness demands that every child, not just the rich, has access to an education that will help them achieve their dreams.”