(AP) President Donald Trump declared during his speech on Tuesday that "education is the civil rights issue of our time" and called upon Congress to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth.

Trump said the measure would help "millions of African-American and Latino children" and said that families "should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them."

The president, a proponent of charter schools, singled out a Florida woman named Denisha Merriweather, who was one of his invited guests to Tuesday night's speech to Congress.

Trump says Merriweather, who failed third grade twice, was able to enroll in a private center for learning with the help of a tax credit scholarship program. She later graduated from high school and college.