Thousands of students, parents, teachers, and community leaders from all around the state – including school boards, chambers of commerce, and parenting groups – are expected to celebrate school choice on Friday, January 29, in Phoenix.

The event will take place at 10 a.m. at the Arizona State Capitol and will feature Governor Doug Ducey, along with speakers representing all types of schools, from traditional public and public charter schools to magnet, online, private, and home schools.

The goal of the event is to celebrate a banner year for Arizona as the largest school choice state in the country and one of the fastest improving, academically.

“Hispanic CREO is proud to call Arizona home as one of the leading states in the nation when it comes to school choice,” said Denise Ceballos-Viner of Hispanic CREO. “We have so much to be proud of as a state when it comes to the educational options available to parents. There’s no better time to celebrate that than National School Choice Week."

“It’s rare to see such a diverse group of organizations working together to celebrate something positive,” said Dr. Tim Ogle of Arizona School Boards Association. “We are committed to continuing to raise awareness among parents about the diverse programs within our public schools.”

The celebration is timed to coincide with National School Choice Week (January 24-30, 2016), which will be America’s largest-ever celebration of opportunity in education, with more than 16,000 events being planned.

Organizations working together to plan this event include A for Arizona, Arizona School Boards Association, Arizona Charter Schools Association, Arizona School Choice Trust, HCREO, LaBella Q Dance Studio, American Federation for Children, Parenting AZ, Chicanos Por La Causa, Institute for Better Education, Hill Advocacy, and Arizona Chamber of Commerce.

Held every January, National School Choice Week is an independent public awareness effort designed to shine a positive spotlight on effective education options for every child. Through thousands of independently planned events across the country, National School Choice Week raises public awareness of all types of educational choices available to children. These options include traditional public schools, public charter schools, public magnet schools, online learning, private schools, and homeschooling.