Corey Turner

He says he's not going anywhere.

Jones wakes up at 2.30 in the morning to load cargo planes at the airport.

And when he's done, around 7, he goes home

helps his kids get ready for school, and then he goes with them, Aisha, because he works during the day as a paraeducator at Cleveland for kids with disabilities.

I told Jones what we were talking about earlier, some parents saying they left the public schools because they felt like they'd gotten too disruptive and distracting, even unsafe.

But Jones pushed back on that.

He's Black.

He told me he grew up in Chicago and said he remembers moving into a suburban neighborhood when he was in middle school and watching white families leave.

And it turns out, again, you look at the data, the share of white students in the district has dropped a lot over the past decade, while the district's share of students with disabilities and kids living in poverty has increased.

And this isn't unique to Cedar Rapids.

I've seen this in other cities, too, with school choice.

Going back to Principal Allred, she got really emotional when she talked about the old public school way, you know, serving the common good.

I don't think the takeaway from my trip to Cedar Rapids is school choice is unequivocally bad.

Because it's not.

For the Cays Veras and Stephanie King, you know, it got their kids into schools where they are happier and doing better.

I don't think what's happening in Cedar Rapids is that unusual either.

We've seen many states in recent years really go all in on school choice, especially private school choice.

The takeaway for me, Aisha...

is public schools are still vitally important and they need protecting.

They are not businesses.