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Betsy DeVos

Monday, February 1st, 2010

ACE was proud to host Betsy DeVos for a special businesswomen’s luncheon on February 1, 2010 at the Denver Country Club.

A special thanks to the Host Committee and our Luncheon Sponsor A. Line Boutique.

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Host Committee

Betty Arkell, Kendall Bailey, Judy Cain, Cathy Carpenter Dea, Debbie Donner, Sidney Gates, Emily Keimig, Laurie Leprino, Michelle Livingston, Anne McCarthy, Susan Morrice, Heather Mulvihill, Diane Padalino, Laurie Richardson, Jeanne Saunders, Janice Sinden, Michelle St. Pierre, Jennie Virgilio, Bonnie Vivian, Kristi Wells, Krista Wolf


Betsy DeVos

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As a leader in both the political arena and the national school reform movement for over two decades, Betsy DeVos combines a passion for equal opportunity in education with significant political experience.

As a board member of the Advocates for School Choice, a national advocacy organization for the school choice movement, and as a board member of the Education Freedom Fund, a Michigan-based scholarship organization she has led with her husband, Betsy has devoted significant time and energy to ensuring that children from disadvantaged families have educational options and hope for a brighter future.

She was also instrumental in bringing about the emergence of political action on behalf of school choice when, in 2001, she founded the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), a Michigan-based political action committee which was the precursor to All Children Matter and which led the fight to build a bi-partisan coalition of supporters for charter schools in Michigan’s legislature.

Betsy has been deeply committed to working with both Democrats and Republicans to ensure that every child has equal access to a quality education. Betsy’s vision for All Children Matter is to continue building and expanding a bi-partisan political coalition that advances education reform and equal opportunities in education for all children.

Experienced in the private sector, Betsy DeVos is Chairman of The Windquest Group, a privately held small business founded in 1989.

Betsy is also very active in the community and currently serves on a number of national and local boards, including the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, Kids Hope USA, The Acton Institute, and Compass Arts.

A graduate of Holland Christian High School, Betsy received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Political Science from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Betsy and her husband, Dick, have four children, aged 25 to 16.  They reside in Ada, Michigan.

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Posted in ACE Events, National News | No Comments »

Denver Takes Step Backwards

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

Yesterday, education reform in Denver suffered a significant setback.

In three competitive Denver School Board races voters elected two union-backed candidates - Andrea Merida and Nate Easley Jr. The only reform candidate to win was Mary Seawell, who won the at-large seat.

As the Denver Post reports today:

The seven-member DPS board, heralded nationally for pushing academic and administrative reforms, now is effectively split 4-3 along ideological lines, with the minority supporting reforms pushed by Superintendent Tom Boasberg and his predecessor, U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet.

It seems clear that the increasingly popular charter school movement will suffer most. During the campaign Merida and Easley expressed concern about the growth of charter schools, as well as the general pace of reform - as if hundreds of thousands of childrens futures aren’t at stake. The board is charged with approving charter applications, and could significantly impede the growth of the charter movement.

The Post continues:

Charter-school advocates had framed this election in stark terms: If union-backed candidates were elected, the district’s momentum toward improvement would suffer and that could ruin Colorado’s shot at a share of the U.S. Department of Education’s competitive $4.35 billion “Race to the Top” fund.

It is also important to note that many charter schools in Denver specifically serve low-income communities; impeding charter school growth reduces the options for low-income students.

So today ACE is more important than ever. We continue to provide the only alternative for hundreds of low-income parents who are tired of the status-quo and seek to provide a quality education for their children.

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Posted in Colorado News, DPS | 1 Comment »

The Results Are In

Monday, August 10th, 2009

School choice works.

When given the opportunity to attend the school of their choice, children - including low-income, at-risk kids - can be successful. Take ACE’s 2009 results as proof:

Higher Graduation Rates

ACE Graduation Rate – 86%

Colorado Low-Income Graduation Rate – 59%

Denver Public Schools Low-Income Graduation Rate – 45%

Better Prepared for College

ACT Average Composite Score – 19.4

Colorado Low-Income ACT Average – 15.7

Denver Public Schools Low-Income ACT Average – 14.4

Take that, achievement gap.

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Posted in ACE Kids, DPS | 1 Comment »

Mayor Booker on the Challenge of our Generation

Monday, June 8th, 2009

Newark, NJ Mayor Cory Booker joined ACE supporters in Denver today to talk about education reform and how providing educational equality to all children must become the defining issue of this generation.

We have not been called to the “blood-soaked beaches of Normandy,” or to register voters in the segregated South, but, Booker said, “our generation’s epitaph, a century from now,” could be that we provided every child with the opportunity to attend a quality school, obtain a quality education, and put them on the path to a successful life.

Booker talks before a packed audience of ACE supporters

Booker spoke passionately about the challenge of this generation to provide every child with equal access to a quality education.

“We can make this happen not in 25 or 15 years, but sooner than we think, if we show the courage our ancestors did,” Booker said.

More than 300 ACE supporters packed the X-Jet hanger at Centennial Airport early on a Monday morning to hear from the Mayor, who has quickly risen to national prominence within the Democratic Party for his passionate and eloquent defense of educational equality in the country.

ACE trustee Steve Farber set the tone for the event in his opening remarks. “I am a Democrat. I’ve raised money for Democratic candidates and the Democratic Party.

“And yet I sit on the ACE Board which is predominantly Republican and our keynote speaker today is a Democratic politician from the East Coast. He speaks today about an issue that is not always popular within his own Party.

“The point is that this is no longer a partisan issue. It affects each and every one of us, regardless of our political views,” Farber said.

Alex Cranberg with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Alex Cranberg with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper and Newark Mayor Cory Booker

Farber was joined at the podium by ACE founder Alex Cranberg who introduced Mayor Booker to an audience that included Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as well as business leaders and ACE trustees Charlie Gallagher and John Saeman.

ACE was founded to provide low-income children with equal educational opportunities through privately-funded scholarships. Since 2000, ACE has provided more than 6,000 scholarships totalling over $13M. ACE seeks to exert pressure on the educational bureaucracy to initiate long-lasting and meaningful reform.

The educational status quo is “unacceptable…an affront to the dignity of people…” said Booker.


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