Fuller receives Fordham Foundation Prize for Valor
Released: 1-28-04

Howard L. Fuller, distinguished professor of education and director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning, has been awarded a Fordham Prize for Excellence in Education by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation. Fuller will receive the Prize for Valor, which is given to an individual who has made major contributions to education reform through noteworthy accomplishments, and a $25,000 cash prize.

"Over the last two decades, he has become one of the nation's most outspoken and effective advocates for educational choice and one of its impassioned and consequential practitioners," the foundation said of Fuller. "He has fought the war of ideas on the ground, advocating the expansion of voucher programs and other educational options, especially in Milwaukee. Today, thanks in part to his efforts, parents in that city have more educational choices than anywhere else in America."

Fuller founded the Black Alliance for Educational Options in 1999, an organization of community activists and leaders who promote a wide range of schooling options for low-income and minority children. The organization has more than 2,000 members, and boasts 18 chapters in 13 states and the District of Columbia. It recently won a $4 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to create 15 new high schools, and the organization has helped broaden the parental choice agenda to include not just means-tested vouchers but public-private partnerships, historic schools, cyberschools, charter schools, black independent schools, and homeschooling.

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, based in Washington, D.C., is a nonprofit organization that undertakes research and public policy programs that advance knowledge and reform in elementary and secondary education.