Rumblings On School Choice

Yesterday’s Wall Street Journal posted an article on the growing school choice movement among both Democrats and Republicans.  South Carolina state Senator Robert Ford says that the new civil rights struggle is about the quality of education in public schools, he feels that in order to receive a quality education, African-American children need school choice.  He states, “We need choice like Obama has. He can send his kids to any school he wants.”

The article points out:

“The danger for Democrats still opposed to school choice is that Mr. Ford represents widespread frustration among black voters who see Mr. Obama in the White House and now expect real change to occur in their communities. Black voters could come to support conservative education policies (if not GOP candidates).

Typically, school-choice fights involve Republicans and a handful of Democrats pushing vouchers for a limited number of poor kids in inner cities. That’s fine as far as it goes. But, as is evident in Washington, D.C., it doesn’t go far. With just a few thousand families receiving vouchers, congressional Democrats are confident that they can kill the school-choice program in D.C. without provoking a voter backlash.”

South Carolina is looking at a program of tax credits to allow lower and middle income familites access to better schools.  Let’s hope this program catches on in other states.