SCHOOL VOUCERS ARE PROVING THEMSELVES

The two major candidates for the 8th District congressional seat have recently weighed in on the subject of parental freedom to choose the schools their children will attend. On this issue Democratic nominee Tony Heckemeyer agrees with incumbent U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson: Moving toward any form of voucher system is the wrong way to go.

About the agreement between these two candidates several things can be said. First, we are frankly disappointed that in this congressional race no one is speaking up on principle for the right of parents to choose their children's schools. Once a fringe issue, parental freedom in education is going mainstream. It is really no answer to recite pieties about preserving the public system as it currently exists. The goal we should all be after isn't preserving the current arrangement, but responding to the genuine desire and moral concerns of millions of parents for a say in how their children will be educated. Under the current monopoly-financed system of government schools, parents have no real say.

Moreover, fears of destroying the public system are overblown. We have essentially a voucherized higher education system in America, and it is the envy of the world. Public colleges and universities -- far from being destroyed by competition -- are thriving precisely because they must prove themselves choice-worthy.

School choice is surging, proving itself in state after state across America. Given tendencies among Democrats to hew to the agendas of teachers unions, Republican candidates tend to be more likelier to support school choice. Still, some prominent Democrats are publicly supporting school choice, and more are likely to follow as early experiments in choice -- principally in urban areas with failing public schools -- prove themselves.

Second, we can say that notwithstanding this disappointment, the question of school choice isn't primarily a federal issue. A race for Congress isn't likely to turn on this issue. Schools and the policies governing them remain, fortunately, a state and local matter. It is mainly on the state and local levels, therefore, that the battle for parental freedom to choose any school must be waged. And it is there that choice advocates are making progress, albeit agonizingly slow progress. To them we offer encouragement and the hope that our two congressional candidates will take a second look at this step toward basic justice and fairness for all.