The Post-Partisan Age of School Choice
Over at Cato@Liberty earlier today, Andrew Coulson commented on how school choice is becoming an increasingly post-partisan issue, as politicians from both sides of the aisle increasingly realize that allowing parents to choose the best schools for their children results in both better opportunities and better actual educational outcomes:
Christopher J. Christie just decisively won New Jersey’s Republican gubernatorial primary, but had to veer away from his middle-of-the-road plan and venture into some traditionally conservative territory to do it, according to news accounts. Will that be a problem for him in the general election? Not necessarily. As NorthJersey.com’s Charles Stile observes, Christie’s ardent support for private school choice is not the polarizing stance it once was: these programs “once championed by conservative ideologues, are being embraced by urban Democrats.”
As we’ve been saying at the Center for Educational Freedom for some time now, the post-partisan age of school choice is well within sight, and draws closer every day. The last politicos to see that will find themselves on the wrong side of history, and the wrong side of voters in both parties.
We’ve seen this same phenomenon in Missouri, with prominent Democrats like Kevin Chavous (who is a partner at a law firm with offices in St. Louis and Kansas City) and Rodney Hubbard leading the charge to bring real educational choice to Missouri’s children.
Here’s an interview with Chavous, in which he explains how school choice became such an important issue for him while serving on the D.C. City Council:
And here’s part two: