Conceived by Marshall in 1995, the award is named after Alexis de Tocqueville, who toured the United States in the early 1830s, before the advent of compulsory state schooling.  Tocqueville was amazed at the extent and level of education and political engagement of the American people.

Here is the 2006 Alexis de Tocqueville Award given to Dr. James Tooley.  Many acknowledged it as the most beautiful award of its kind they had seen – including Dr. Tooley!



This beautiful wood box, personally picked out by Marshall, is lined with velvet.  On the inside of the hinged lid is a brass plaque with an inscription honoring the recipient.  A copy of Tocqueville's Political and Moral Thought: New Liberalism by M. R. R. Ossewaarde, a Dutch professor of philosophy, nestles on the velvet lining.

The inscription on the plaque reads:

The Alliance for the Separation of School & State
Presents the
2006 Alexis de Tocqueville Award
for Advancing Educational Freedom
Professor James Tooley

For his success in discovering and promoting for-profit free-market schools serving the poor in India, China, and Africa.  His scholarship has thrown into question dependency of the poor on government and demonstrated that free markets provide genuine accountability where it counts most, to a child's parents.

Presented by Alan Schaeffer and Marshall Fritz at the
World Congress of Families IV Warsaw, Poland May 11, 2007.