For more than a year, the Legislature has been prodding and poking at a bill that would provide a lifeline to poor students in failing districts by giving them a voucher to attend private schools.

Enough. This is a small pilot program that will affect about 5,000 students in a public school system of nearly 1.4 million. It will be restricted to the worst districts in the state, where most of the opponents of this bill would never send their own children.

To block this experiment in light of the persistent failure of these schools, and the demonstrated desire of so many parents to find better alternatives, is to deny the basic civil rights of these kids. Read more.