I was fortunate enough to be in attendance for the keynote address at the National Charter School Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.  It was an all-star line up concluding with a presentation from former President Bill Clinton.  President Clinton was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Alliance of Public Charter Schools (NAPCS) for his ongoing support of charter schools.

He graciously accepted the award and spoke for almost 40 minutes on how he became an advocate for charter schools, his involvement in shaping alternatives to public schools, and his present foundation work in both schools and poor communities around the world.

The central theme was America needs to “get back into the futures business.”  He is concerned about the quality of the debate in Washington and around the country.  “When you ask a question sometimes you may not get the right answer, but if you don’t ask the right question you will always get the wrong answer,” stated Clinton.  He provided numerous examples on how the problems being addressed are being approached poorly because we are asking the wrong questions.  He believes the success of the charter school movement demonstrates that we as a country can put schools and our country “back into the futures business.” "This is not about ideology, it's not about theology. It's about what we can do to give our kids a brighter tomorrow," stated Clinton.   

Clinton talked about spending most of his time in very poor places where the problems are mostly related to not having systems in place that we take for granted. “Throughout human history success breeds complacency and an irrational desire to hang onto the present.  We have the systems, but we want to hang onto ideas that no longer work. He discussed the need to provide opportunities for students at any income level to achieve a college education and called the recent changes to government student loans revolutionary. It was clear that former President Clinton continues to support opportunities that improve education for students and for those who are unemployed and require new training to rejoin the workforce.

Let’s accept the mandate to continue to champion education. Let’s continue to examine our systems and be willing to make changes. The future of America depends on it.