There are three million children in America condemned to attending failed schools. Republicans are trying to do something about it. Sometimes even Democratic governors lend a hand.
In Arizona this year, the legislate is “enacting four new or expanded programs allowing disadvantaged children to attend private schools,” according to Clint Bolick of the Alliance for School Choice.
Bolick presents the Arizona gains as representative of a new strategy for the school choice coalition.
Instead of taking the unions and their massive resources head-on, advocates are adopting toe-hold strategies, pursuing small programs addressing specific problems that are difficult for politicians to oppose.
And so inch by inch, school choice is moving the chains up the field.
But what about those three million children in failing schools? Under the No Child Left Behind Act they are supposed to be allowed to transfer to another school within the district. Only there typically aren’t enough places.
For Democrats who truly believe in social justice, that presents a terrible dilemma: Either forcing children to remain in schools where they have little prospect for a bright future, or enlisting private schools in a rescue mission.
Which is, Republicans would say, exactly where we want them. And it is part of the Republican grand strategy: forcing Democrats to choose between social justice, helping kids and poor people, or hanging onto their power and their sinecures.
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