'School choice was my lifeline': Advocate reveals how the program saved him from a 'rough environment'

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School choice is ‘personal’: Walter Blanks Jr.

Tennessee school choice advocate Walter Blanks Jr. joins ‘America Reports’ to discuss efforts gaining political momentum nationwide.

American Federation for Children spokesman Walter Blanks Jr. is praising school choice, saying the program "saved" him from a "rough environment" when he was a young child. 

"School choice was my lifeline," Blanks told Fox News this week. "If it weren’t for school choice, there would be no telling where I'd be. The principal at the public school I was attending told my mom, ‘If you just give us five years, we'll have the middle school turned around and the high school turned around’ and my mom said, ‘In five years, Walter will either be in jail or in a body bag.’ Now, I'm about nine days out from being a proud father to a young son, and I want him to have the same opportunities that I did." 

The school choice advocate told "America Reports" that it is very evident parents across the country want school choice, pointing to how Texas lawmakers that opposed school choice lost their seats in elections.

"It's very, very clear that parents and families across the country want other options," Blanks said. "They want more, and they're voting with their feet, and they're remembering that once voting time comes and so ... it's been a school choice wave< and we're continuing to ride that wave across the country." 

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(School choice has emerged as a hot-button election issue in some states. (Photographer: Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty Images))

Blanks received recent criticism from Rep. Antonio Parkinson, who suggested he was being used as a pawn on the issue.

"It's always predictable to me that they are going to find someone that looks like me to speak on their behalf, and I'm not saying that to ridicule you," Parkinson said. "I just say that to be cautious." 

After being called out on his statement, the representative apologized publicly a few seconds later. 

"Maybe I was out of line," he said. 

Blanks also had an exchange on X with Rep. Gloria Johnson, D-Tenn., who claimed the school he attended had worse outcomes than the school he was zoned for. 

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"The private school that I attended consistently outperformed the public schools in the area," he told Fox News. "For Parkinson, look, the schools in Memphis right now, 10% proficiency in math, 15% proficiency in reading. You would think him, of all people, would be willing to try something new for the students in his district and his city. But like I said, whether they join the school choice wave or not, we're going to get it done in Tennessee, and I'm going to be on the front lines of it."