Pro-Choice

‘VOUCHERS were thought of as a white, Republican type of issue,” says Louisiana state representative Austin Badon Jr., a Democratic member of the legislature’s black caucus.

Indeed, in the half century since Milton Friedman started pushing vouchers-the idea of giving parents, especially those with children in underperforming public schools, money to spend on private education-they’ve been mostly a project of conservatives and libertarians, two relatively Caucasian groups. To make matters worse, teachers’unions, which hold a lot of sway in the Democratic party, hate the idea of the government’s helping their private competitors.

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Robert VerBruggen

Robert VerBruggen is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

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‘VOUCHERS were thought of as a white, Republican type of issue,” says Louisiana state representative Austin Badon Jr., a Democratic member of the legislature’s black caucus.

Indeed, in the half century since Milton Friedman started pushing vouchers-the idea of giving parents, especially those with children in underperforming public schools, money to spend on private education-they’ve been mostly a project of conservatives and libertarians, two relatively Caucasian groups. To make matters worse, teachers’unions, which hold a lot of sway in the Democratic party, hate the idea of the government’s helping their private competitors.