Vouchers would help the schools preserve a shared national culture by letting parents opt out of the radical multiculturalism now taking over government classrooms. A voucher system would convert state and local education dollars from huge lump sums controlled by district bureaucrats into individual scholarship certificates for parents to spend at any school of their choosing. When the idea was petitioning for a place on the Colorado ballot in 1990, those same bureaucrats warned of its dangers, and a governor who had paid to send his own seven children through private schools argued against giving such a choice to parents of lesser means. When legislators tried again to place vouchers on the ballot in 1991, they were outmuscled by lobby groups and unions representing employees on the government education payroll. But this was still too threatening to the NEA monopolists, who brandished their electoral and financial power to peel away nearly half the House Republican majority in a decisive floor vote after the bill had prevailed in committee.
Vouchers are already the subject of experiments in Wisconsin, Indiana, and New Hampshire.
They have the support of President Bush and of Education Secretary Lamar Alexander. Yet scare propaganda continues to mislead many Coloradans and other Americans about their likely benefits. Independence Institute asked Tom Tancredo, a leading expert on school performance and school reform options in the Western states, to prepare this primer on the issue. Since education is the topic here, we will start by taking a test. Read the following quotes and guess the subject to which they pertain.