Introducing and discussing Texas and local politiciansTed Cruz was born on December 22, 1970 in Calgary, Alberta, to Eleanor Elizabeth Wilson Darragh and Rafael Bienvenido Cruz. Shortly after Ted Cruz was born, the Canadian oil industry collapsed forcing his parents to sell their seismic data processing company. At the age of three, Ted Cruz's father divorced his mother and moved to Houston. It wasn't until six months later that Eleanor moved to Houston with Ted and remarried Rafael. Despite marital problems with his parents, he still maintained a close relationship with both. Cruz considers his mother “a best friend” and an “incredibly caring and loving person” (Bureau). At a young age Ted Cruz was strongly interested in religion and education. His father read him the Bible every day and made declarations of the word of God. While his mother would try hard to put him in more than one private school, these included the famous Awty International School, Faith West Academy, and Second Baptist High School , where Cruz later graduated as Valedictorian. Because Cruz talked about God with his father every day, it helped shape his views on religion that would later influence his career as a politician. As Cruz grew up, he became increasingly involved in conservative politics. In high school Cruz was part of the Free Market Education Foundation, as part of the foundation he learned about "Milton Friedman and other free market economic philosophers" (Mackey), and also the ten pillars of economic wisdom. While Cruz was at the Free Market Education Foundation, the school organized the constitutional corroborators. Cruz and a group of five other teens toured Texas to speak at the Rotary Club and other civic events...... middle of paper ...... Training was critical to his success as a politician and lawyer . For this reason, Ted Cruz believes deeply in school choice. In January of this year, at a National School Choice Week rally, Ted Cruz announced that “school choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century.” (Hassan). Cruz and other Democratic lawmakers like U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee are both pushing for reforms that give all classes access to attend more charter schools, private schools and public schools. Before election to the U.S. Senate, Cruz was not particularly active in education policies such as No Child Left Behind; however, he said at the 2012 Tea Party Express Rally that he had expressed the need to eliminate the Department of Education Cruz said that “education is too important to be controlled by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats in Washington.