The American Spectator

p> I voted for California’s school voucher initiative when it was on the ballot in the '90s. It went down to a 2-1 defeat. Since then, I have reversed my position because, as a parent of children then in private school, I realized that, through the forces of political correctness, the courts’ incessant drive for radical egalitarianism, and the ubiquitous government power of coercion, over time the private schools would become what the public schools are now. In the case of parochial schools, they would be forced to teach ideas contrary to their professed beliefs. To those who have refused to change the public school through political action I say, “I don’t want your riff-raff in my school.” br> — Now Resident of Arizona /p>

I was living in the upscale Birmingham school district of Michigan in 2000 when the voucher program was overwhelmingly defeated. It wasn’t hard to see why. Good school districts have high property values. Even if you maintain the high quality of the school district when outside students are brought in, property values will decline because the need to move to the district to get into the quality school no longer exists. With vouchers, a family that wants a quality public school education can live just about anywhere. Thus the distortion in home market prices that occurs wherever there is a quality public school system will cease to exist wherever there are vouchers available. Current property owners are left holding the bag, and they of course, don’t want that to happen.

p>Although the economic incentives provided by vouchers do improve school systems, you can’t get people to vote against their pocketbooks. br> — Paul Doolittle /p> p> IRAQ, ONE PIECE AT A TIME br> Re: John Connly Walsh’s Iraq in Late Summer : /p>