(Guest post by Greg Forster)
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand that’s seven.
Gov. Daniels has just signed into law three – count them – three school choice “enactments” according to the terms of my notorious bet with the Washington Post‘s Jay Mathews.
- A new voucher program – bigger than any existing school choice program
- A new tax deduction for education expenses (including private schooling)
- An expansion of Indiana’s existing tax-credit scholarship program
Add that to the list of previous enactments this year…
- Utah’s Carson Smith voucher expansion
- Douglas County, Co. new voucher program
- Arizona new ESA program
- DC voucher expansion
…and that smells like a really fancy dinner at one of Milwaukee’s finest restaurants.
In the comments here, “allen” suggests that whether or not there’s an “end zone” in the war or terror, we should definitely seek to “run up the score.” I heartily agree – and I’m not above running up the score on Mathews, either.
A little bird tells me these states are still in play for enactments this year:
- Oklahoma
- Florida
- Georgia
- Wisconsin
- Ohio
- Pennsylvania
- Texas
- New Jersey
- North Carolina
- Iowa
I’ll take Texas with a grain of salt – sorry, Matt, but we’ve been promised a program in Texas too many times over too many years for me not to be skeptical. But hey, as you put it, 2011 is already setting a new standard for education reform. Why not Texas, too?
Fact: Chuck Norris can enact a Texas voucher in every state.
Kong & Mario image HT The Pitch
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Oklahoma senate just passed the concurrence bill meaning that the new Oklahoma tax credit scholarship bill now goes to Gov. Fallin.
Bacchus?
Congrats on the win!
Crikey, as the Australians say.
I’m not sure that list quite qualifies as a tsunami but if the public education status quo was the source of my daily bread I’d have a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
I just wonder when technological changes such as Khanacademy.org will combine with the results of these laws to really kick education reform into overdrive? Interesting times.
by reform do you mean making the bulk of the country more intellectually and economically impoverished?
No, that would be a pretty good description of the status quo.
Good question, Allen. I suspect the tsunami will begin kicking into overdrive quite naturally when middle class voters everywhere witness “what Indiana is having” and new appetizing hybrid innovations spring forth into prominent visibility. The tipping point will occur when the middle class voter finally sees what’s in it for him. At that point, fission reactions tend to take on their own lives and all predictions and controls become moot. We may yet live to see it! 🙂
[…] Indiana delivered the “Triple Play” (new voucher & tax deduction programs, expanded tax credit program) […]
Agreed…how do vouchers or charter schools that further concentrate dollars into a system of “markets” (education then serves markets, not humans) alleviate that idea of the status quo?
Let’s not forget, Doug, that markets are made up precisely of humans. You and me and the mom down the street ARE the markets — and in markets, customers call the shots. That’s what upends the status quo.
I’m sure you know that’s a facile argument. There is no “vacuum” called “market world”. Markets are a construction and constructions are always manipulated. “Customers” is a defining idea of “human” that I find more than objectionable. You seem to be “thinking” from within an imagined world with ideological purity.
Interesting. As a customer, I recently shopped out my dentist from half a dozen who vied to win me as a client. But perhaps I live in an objectionable imaginary ideological world after all. Maybe we’d better not let parents have that same experience with their schools.
It seems that one cannot imagine anything but the “best of all possible market experiences” when “talking” with mini-friedmans. You do understand that markets only serve money and that the overwhelming majority of humans on the earth have none.
Yes, Doug, markets only serve money. This is precisely why we strive to empower disadvantaged parents with real “education purchasing” capacity. You’re almost there! Connect that final dot and we will gladly welcome you aboard!
Again, “disadvantaged” parents don’t have money and won’t ever have money. Their options are a) private schools that cater to the wealthy and that won’t be affordable even with a voucher or b) parochial schools that have narrow curricular agenda or c) a public education funded to serve all equally.
Why do you think your condescension is a valid form of discussion?
If you would like you can offer real-world examples of this magical market that could serve the disadvantaged via the bottom-line motivation of educational corporations.
Can I assume you have personal experience of this benevolence?
Even just here on this blog you can find many real-world examples of private choice programs that have served the disadvantaged for many years. I’m a bit surprised you haven’t seen them, but I hope you’ll notice them while browsing around. Good luck.
Are you disadvantaged? What’s your call to this mission?