It's big enough news that Indiana is creating what will be the largest school voucher program in the country. The bigger news is that we're part of a nationwide trend representing the resurrection of school choice as one tool in efforts to improve education. In Washington, House Republicans managed to restore the school choice program in D.C. killed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. And voucher plans are being implemented or debated in a growing number of states:
When congressional Democrats killed D.C. Opportunity Scholarships in 2009, the word in education circles was that school choice was passe and that the wave of the future was Obama's Race to the Top program. No one is saying that any longer. The resurrection of school choice may not be The Greatest Story Ever Told. But for the children who will be liberated from failing public schools, it's a life-changing story nonetheless. And that is something worth celebrating this Easter season.
Voucher plans, like the charter school concept, have a defensible premise, that freeing schools from regulatory restraint will produce better teaching and learning and that competition will improve public schools that want to keep per-pupil tax dollars. But there are legitimate objections, too, and I don't think the evidence is in yet on how effective such efforts will really be. When they're compiliing studies, educators shouldn't just concentrate on how well students do in the new school environment (which seems to be the focus of most research now) but also pay attention to whether the public schools in the affected districts really do get better or not.
