(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)
Mere moments after recanting his Common Core opposition, Greg ran up the score on Jay Mathews even more with news that Ohio lawmakers have passed a new statewide voucher program for low-income students.
Don’t stop now Greg! Find something else to recant quick! Tell everyone that you think Firefly was the worst show in the history of television, and maybe we would get nationwide universal school choice!
Jay P. Greene's Blog 
Betray Firefly? Never, not even for nationwide universal choice. Even a shameless manipulator like myself has limits!
Ready to denouce Dark Knight then? It might need to hurt in order to work…
No pain, no gain, eh? A sort of substitutionary propitiatory atonement for edu-wonks? Hmm…could I get away with denouncing Star Trek?
I am all for school choice with the proviso people start reading the actual charters and not assume they foster academics. Frequently they do not if you know the technical ed meanings of the terms used.
And people begin to understand that frequently the vouchers just bring in the overview of the accreditors with their self-interested policies of destroying academics as John Dewey always envisioned. I say that with a copy of the relevant and misnamed AdvancED Quality Standards meant to go hand in hand with the Common Core implementation.
But right now NO ONE is more aware of what the Common Core implementation really is looking like in the classroom more than Catholic school parents. Who are getting hit with Tools of the Mind, learning tasks, no more spelling tests, etc on top of their tuition bills.
By pushing school choice without mentioning the drivers of education implementation the poisonous systems are simply expanding their reach.
Please be more careful. Blindly advocating school choice will destroy even more children’s lives as public ed continues its cultural and noetic assault.
Robin, keep in mind that there’s nothing to stop state governments from arbitrarily imposing requirements of any kind on private schools. Happens all the time. It also happens almost unchecked — and for only one reason: the voter constituency with a personal stake in private education isn’t big enough to stop such mischief at the state legislatures. Ultimately, there’s only one way to build that voter constituency to a critical mass that it can’t be ignored anymore. Help millions more families become stakeholders from their personal experiences in private schools. In the interim, government mischief will continue unabated, and regardless of funding sources. Meanwhile, think in terms of tipping points and critical mass and you’ll see the path to liberating all private schools and the families they serve. Hence, private school choice. Anything spooky along that path, however, has actually been there all along. The truth is that the only safety in public policy is having the largest number of vested voters.