The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice released the following:

CNBC to highlight Milton Friedman’s legacy July 31

The “father” of school choice to be remembered at events around the world.

Milton Friedman’s legacy will be showcased on CNBC tomorrow morning on what would have been the late Nobel laureate’s 101st birthday. The segment will air on the “pre-market” news show “Squawk Box,” July 31, at 7:50 a.m. ET, featuring Robert Enlow, president and CEO of the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice.

The CNBC piece will run during an annual, worldwide celebration to remember Milton Friedman, who founded the Friedman Foundation along with his wife, Rose, to advance school choice. “Friedman Legacy Day” is held every July 31, Milton Friedman’s birthday. This year, the Friedman Foundation is marking Friedman’s 101st birthday with the slogan “Milton101.”

“School choice advocates, and supporters of liberty, need to get back to the basics on why our cause is needed,” Enlow said. “Milton Friedman showed these ideas are really simple. We just have to give people the freedom to choose what’s best for them and their families.”

The Friedman Foundation is encouraging “Friedman Legacy Day” participants to join in a worldwide conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #Milton101. Organizations celebrating Milton Friedman will be posting photos to the Friedman Foundation’s Facebook and Instagram pages.

Although Friedman is credited with popularizing tax reform, prompting the development of an all-volunteer armed forces, and highlighting the importance of monetary policy as it relates to inflation, he and his wife wanted their legacy attached to school choice. In 1955, Milton’s essay titled “The Role of Government in Education” first established the voucher idea, encouraging public education funds to follow students to the schools of their parents’ choice.

Today, 23 states and Washington, D.C., have implemented some form of Milton Friedman’s school choice idea.

A list of “Friedman Legacy Day” events can be found at edchoice.org.

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