Is the Voucher Movement on its Last Legs?
In the newest issue of the Washington Monthly, Greg Anrig argues, in an article entitled "An Idea Whose Time Has Gone", that conservatives have all but given up on the idea of school vouchers.
[I]n recent months, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, the school voucher movement has abruptly stalled. Some stalwart advocates of vouchers have either repudiated the idea entirely or considerably tempered their enthusiasm for it.Well, 2 small reasons, really: 1) vouchers don't achieve any of their stated goals, and 2) nobody wants them.
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How did one of the conservative policy world's most cherished causes crumble so quickly?
Of course, I would love to believe him, that the drive to send taxpayer money to private schools, including religious schools - is drying up. Wouldn't it be nice to scratch that one off the list of threats to church-state separation? And, truly, what Anrig says is undeniable: research does indeed suggest that voucher schools have not improved student performance, and voucher programs have not lifted up the performance of school districts in a frenzy of competition. Even clearer is the result at the ballot box, where state after state has rejected voucher programs by hefty margins. Come to think of it, with all of that going against them, why wouldn't voucher proponents give up?
And yet, I still have the sneaking suspicion that this is one idea that will not go so quietly, a movement that won't be so easily deterred by pesky obstacles like facts, and the will of the people, not to mention - as we have seen - more than a hundred years of constitutional tradition.
Look no further than Florida, where a controversial committee has voted to add 2 voucher-related amendments (1, 2) to the ballot in November. Greg's piece looks like it was written before this development. Maybe they didn't get the memo about throwing in the towel?
Analyses like this one can feel promising, but frankly strike me with the same hesitance as do recent claims that the Religious Right is somehow in its final stages, and no longer a serious political threat. Whether the demise of voucher schemes is real or not will be evident soon enough. The outcome in Florida in November will go a long way toward telling that story. In the meantime, attitudes like the Washington Post's earlier this week, urging Congress to fully fund DC's voucher program, does not lend as much credence as I would like to the theory of the idea's self-destruction.