Commentary on Wisconsin's Voucher Program

Chris Rickert

The funny thing about the whole loud, bitter debate over school vouchers in Wisconsin is that it's hard to argue with the goals of the most honorable advocates from both sides.

Honorable pro-voucher folks see the issue as one of choice: What does it matter if voucher schools don't do any better than public schools? Everyone knows that different children need different educational experiences, and if choice is intimately connected with freedom, and public education is a right, then parents should be able to choose which schools their children go to -- on the government's dime.

Honorable anti-voucher folks, on the other hand, see a strong and enduring network of public schools as kind of a great democratic leveler of playing fields: Here are institutions where children -- regardless of means and family background -- can go to get a good education, experience cultures and histories different from their own, and be molded into capable participants in a democratic society and lovers of the commonweal.

All of these values -- choice and freedom, democracy and community -- are distinctly American.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at November 4, 2013 12:05 AM
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