Another Break in the Levee. The Blum Center for Parental Freedom in Education. David W. Kirkpatrick on School Choice. No. 33, April, 1998. By David W. Kirkpatrick T he opposition levees blocking full parental choice continue to crumble across the nation.
Opinion polls show a growing majority of the public in favor of such programs.
Those polls also show substantial majorities of younger Americans and minority populations who, together, will constitute an irresistible majority in the not-distant future. American ingenuity is also being used to make such choices possible for all. In addition to direct student grants, or vouchers, there has been the development of income deductions for expenses for students in elementary and secondary education at public and private schools, as in Minnesota, deductible contributions to nonprofit scholarship organizations, as in Arizona, and the proposal for a Universal Tuition Tax Credit, which has appeared in Michigan and is being reviewed in Oregon, among other places. While the opposition challenges all options, first politically and, if necessary, in the courts, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Minnesota program in 1983. Other options, currently existing or to be created later, will also survive legal tests.