Just as we released our new study on special education vouchers in Florida, Marc Thiessen and Michael O’Hanlon have a piece in USA Today advocating for the policy, specifically to help students with autism.
Thiessen is a Republican and fellow at the Hoover Institution and O’Hanlon is a Democrat and fellow at the Brookings Institution. Special education vouchers clearly appeal across party lines. And since disabilities are distributed roughly evenly across all racial and economic groups, the programs can have a broad base of political support to be adopted and protected from destructive regulation or roll-back efforts. One thing we are learning from urban voucher programs targeted at disadvantaged populations is that they are very hard to sustain politically. The targeted groups are also the most politically powerless.