Cascade Wins Friedman Grant Awards

Published on Tuesday, October 21, 2008
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Cascade Policy Institute won the fourth annual Friedman Foundation Grant Award for Innovation in School Choice. The announcement was made at the Sept. 10 K-12 Education Reform Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, co-sponsored by SPN, the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice and Alliance for School Choice.

Cascade received the grant for its proposal to host a video contest. The contest will solicit short videos from Oregon parents who tell their story about how school choice did - or how it could - change their lives for the better. Cascade will publicize the best videos as well as award cash grants to the winners.

The 2008 Friedman Foundation award program sought ideas related to "new media and marketing, particularly the use of social media and networking." Proposals were received from 15 groups, ranging from social networking through website development to online video testimonials to blogging.

CPI president John Charles stated, "We're honored to be in the good company of previous winners - the Commonwealth Foundation, Maryland Public Policy Institute and Grassroot Institute of Hawaii - and intend to leverage this contest to produce similar positive results."

The Friedman Foundation reports, the Commonwealth Foundation's proposal "led to a successful effort in Indiana to revamp its property tax system in relation to school funding," MPPI's "helped lead to the establishment of a foster care voucher program in Arizona," and the Grassroot proposal "recently led to a recommendation by the Department of Defense to institute a voucher program on military bases."