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President promotes school choice

Based on these remarks, it appears President Bush is going to put quite a bit of weight behind the federal school choice bill:

I strongly believe that parental involvement is important for our school systems.

And I strongly believe a parent knows what’s best for his or her child.

That’s what I believe.

And therefore, when we find schools that are not teaching and will not change, our parents should have a different option.

If you want quality education, you got to trust the parents.

You know, an amazing thing about our society today is wealthier white families have got the capacity to defeat mediocrity by moving. That is not the case for lower-income families.

And so therefore, I strongly believe in charter schools, in public school choice. I believe in opportunity scholarships to be able to enable parents to move their child out of a school that’s not teaching for the benefit of the United States of America.

Some on the left are suggesting he’s pandering to the base with this bill.  A few things to consider:

  1. These remarks were made during a speech to the Democratic stronghold of the NAACP.  He may be looking to increase his profile among African Americans, but there are few places he could have found a chillier reception.  (Read the transcript–later in the address he got heckled by a protester.)  Upshot: this is hardly a gesture to the gun-toting religious right. 
  2. Politically, he’s never been more vulnerable.  It’s worth pointing out that he probably wouldn’t expend his increasingly scarce political currency on this if he didn’t think he could get it passed.
  3. A number of Democrats have voted for school choice this year, indicating a potential wind shift on this issue.  It’s possible he may have found the swing votes to get it done.

Parental involvement.  Providing options to low-income children.  This is what school choice is about, as much as critics try to claim otherwise.  It’s worked for tens of thousands of children in Milwaukee, Washington D.C., and Cleveland, among other areas.  And it’s about time low-income children in Chicago, Houston and Los Angeles had the same opportunities. 

After months of talk about this (he proposed it in February) and years of dreaming of it, this might actually become a reality.  (FYI: Our press release on this is here.)