The Wall Street Journal editorial on Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s proposed education reforms is today’s must read. Here’s a snip:
Mr. Jindal wants to create America’s largest school voucher program, broadest parental choice system, and toughest teacher accountability regime—all in one legislative session. Any one of those would be a big win, but all three could make the state the first to effectively dismantle a public education monopoly.
Louisiana is already one of 12 states (including Washington, D.C.) that offer school vouchers, but its program benefits fewer than 2,000 students in New Orleans. Governor Jindal would extend eligibility to any low-income student whose school gets a C, D or F grade from state administrators. That’s almost 400,000 students—a bit more than half the statewide population—who could escape failing schools for private or virtual schools, career-based programs or institutions of higher education.
Funding for these vouchers (“scholarships” is the poll-tested term) would come not from a new fund, as in New Orleans, but from what the state already spends on public education per capita. So every student leaving a failing school would take about $8,500 (on average) with him, hitting the bureaucracy where it hurts. This is called competition, that crucial quality missing where monopolies reign.
Virginia’s constitution effectively bars the use of vouchers, but it does allow for the use of education tax credits. Legislation that would kick-start such credit programs generally manages to pass the Republican House, only to die, sometimes spectacularly, in the Senate.
With Republicans controlling the upper chamber, there’s no longer any reason or excuse for that scenario to repeat itself. At least three bills have been introduced that would make a tentative start on wider educational choice in Virginia. While none of them is as wide-ranging as the reforms Gov. Jindal has proposed in Louisiana, they are better than nothing. These bills, tentative as they may be, will still serves as litmus tests for Republicans and their school choice rhetoric.
Otherwise, we’re left with the dithering on when to start the school year — an intellectual and political cul-de-sac that ignores the larger issue of how to improve schools.
The real action is on the school choice bills. And we’ll be watching them closely.
