Urban Innovator Award Winner

2003
Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams wins Urban Innovator Award

On July 8th the Center for Civic Innovation at the Manhattan Institute honored Washington, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams with its Urban Innovator Award for his support of school choice and for improving city administration in the District of Columbia. CCI Chairman and former Indianapolis Mayor Stephen Goldsmith served as the master of ceremonies at the event, held at the National Press Club. Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist, a CCI Advisory Board member, presented Mayor Williams with the Urban Innovator Award.

Mayor Norquist, a vocal champion of Milwaukee's school voucher program (the nation's oldest and largest publicly-funded school voucher program) commended Mayor Williams for coming to the 'conclusion that the consumers—the parents of D.C.—needed more power in the equation so that quality would matter.' Mayor Norquist observed that voucher competition in Milwaukee improved all schools, not just private schools. 'We have better public schools, we have better parochial schools, and we have better and more private schools' because parents and students have more educational options.

Mayor Williams gratefully accepted the Manhattan Institute award and said that his efforts to improve education were part of a long-term plan to revitalize the nation's capital. He said that he hoped to use education reform—including school vouchers—to draw D.C.'s depleted middle class back into the city. 'You can't have a city that's going to survive, let alone prevail, if you don't have a solid middle class,' Mayor Williams said. 'To me, introducing and injecting choice and competition [into the D.C. public school system] is the only way we're going to start reversing that tide and reversing that trend and bringing back on a long-term sustainable basis that middle class.'