School Choice: Why You Need It--how You Get it

David Harmer

ene 1994 · Cato Institute

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School choice is the hottest and most controversial idea in educational reform today. As dissatisfaction with the public schools continues to grow, more and more people are turning to choice to provide real reform. Milwaukee has implemented a voucher plan that gives low-income students state-funded vouchers to attend inner-city private schools, and Wisconsin state representative Polly Williams and Mayor John Norquist, both Democrats, are pushing to widen the program. In Minnesota, 15 percent of the state's public school students participate in choice programs, and 11 states now have state-wide public school choice. School choice has also been on the ballot in Colorado as well as California. The author, David Hanger, explains why the public schools no longer work, why they resist reform, and why choice is the reform that will work. He also gives us the inside story of California's pioneering 1993 Parental Choice in Education initiative and the education establishment's successful $16-million campaign to defeat it. Hanger explains how other states can adapt the initiative to their needs and what lessons can be learned from its defeat. For taxpayers concerned about rising costs, for employers and educators concerned about school quality, and especially for parents concerned about their children's future, School Choice is must reading.