Educational Choice W hen legislators return from summer recess they will find the pathway to educational choice clearer and more broad than ever before. The nation's children now enjoy influential allies among the ranks of liberals and Democrats, and a plan is on the table.
Coons sees school choice as a question of justice and civil rights.
But spending is only half the plan. The author is dismayed that current choice programs in Milwaukee and Cleveland, along with private plans such as the Children's Scholarship Fund of John Walton and Ted Forstmann, amount to only about 0.1 percent of the nation's 52 million K-12 students. Add the 200,000 students in some 1,200 charter schools, who do not enjoy full choice, and the total increases to only 0.5 percent. He wants a plan that would touch 500,000 children. Jack Coons likes the plan, and so does Clint Bolick of the Institute for Justice, a tireless advocate of school choice and defender of Milwaukee's voucher system.