Americans for Prosperity Foundation – South Carolina, in conjunction with The Foundation for Educational Choice, hosted a very successful event in honor of Milton Friedman on Saturday, July 30, 2011, at the Holiday Inn Express in Greenville.  The room was packed, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the program.  Milton Friedman was a Nobel Prize winning economist, who was a vocal supporter of the free market.  According to Friedman, “A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither.  A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both.”

Friedman advocated capitalism and deregulation, which continues to make him an important voice in the school choice debate.  Milton Friedman stated, “Education spending will be most effective if it relies on parental choice and private initiative – the building blocks of success throughout our society.”

We presented two videos.  The first was from the Foundation for Educational Choice and the second was a 30- year old interview between Friedman and Phil Donahue.  The interview is on Youtube at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWsx1X8PV_A. Our attendees got a big laugh watching a capitalist, in a calm and factual manner, put a liberal in his place!

We were fortunate to have two champions of educational choice as our speakers.  State Senator Lee Bright has long been a strong supporter of school choice.  He supports the freedom parents should have in choosing their children’s education.  Chad Connelly, Chairman of the South Carolina GOP, and also a strong supporter of school choice, presented a very informative power point on this issue.  Many of our attendees asked for copies of this power point presentation.  We have posted it on our Americans for Prosperity – South Carolina Facebook page. Many people, who are against school choice, do not understand the issue.  This power point clearly shows the need for educational choice.  It shows that in other states school choice has been proven to save taxpayers money and increase student achievement.