Dan Gaby, a man I had the pleasure to know in his role as the Executive Director for E3 (New Jersey’s school choice organization Excellent Education for Everyone), passed away last week.

I didn’t know Dan well, but from the first we met when I was a grad student he was extremely generous with his time and knowledge, unfailingly kind and encouraging.

He and E3 have built a remarkably broad and bipartisan movement for school choice in an ossified and union-dominated state, and it is a shame that Dan won’t live to see this work completed. But he left the school choice movement in New Jersey on a solid foundation, with a governor who supports private school choice and great opportunity for change.

I’ll end with my condolences to Dan’s friends and family and this from Peter Denton and E3:

Dan was the best of us. He spent his great life tirelessly working to bring freedom and equality to the downtrodden, the lost, the disenfranchised. Truly he fought for those who had no advocate, and he did so proudly and unapologetically.

Dan gave the final years of his life fighting for the children of this state, and this nation. He believed that the fight for educational equality was a battle for the heart and soul of the Democratic party, and our country, which will not prosper or survive if so many of our children continue to suffer the wages of terrible schools.