Education employees have their powerful lobbying interests representing them — to a lesser extent school board officials do, as well. So isn’t it about time we kids pay our dues and band together for a good education? That’s why I’m so excited about the brand new organization called the American Federation for Children.

Okay, well, it’s not exactly like that. It’s not like some union that I can join or that will automatically take hundreds of dollars in dues money each year. In fact, it’s not really a membership organization at all.

From yesterday’s press release announcing the new group:

The 501(c)(4) organization, which will focus its efforts on supporting school voucher programs and scholarship tax credit programs, will also work to strengthen charter school laws and expand public school choice. The organization, which hopes to build upon the success of America’s 18 successful publicly-funded private school choice programs, will focus on advocating for the creation of new private school choice programs and to protect existing programs from legislative attack.

“No child in America should ever be confined to a failing school when better options are sometimes just blocks away,” said Betsy DeVos, the organization’s chairman. “Political gamesmanship and special interests should never stand in the way of providing children with access to great schools. We know that it takes smart public policy—and political backbone—to bring about the types of school choice programs that provide families with better educational opportunities. That is why we have created the American Federation for Children.”

Okay, so I don’t need to join or pay any dues or fees. But I still plan to support the great work of an organization that wants to empower parents with more educational choices. Just like our wonderful School Choice for Kids website!