I just found who I want for President of the United States in ‘08, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft.
The Friedman Foundation reports:
Ohio Gov. signs budget creating statewide school voucher program
In the 50th year since the school voucher’s introduction, school choice shows remarkable momentumINDIANAPOLIS – In the 50th anniversary year of when Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman introduced the school voucher idea, Ohio Gov. Bob Taft signed the state’s budget bill implementing one of the country’s largest statewide school voucher plans. The bill also expands the state’s two current programs providing thousands of children the chance to receive a quality education at a school of their parent’s choice.
“Ohio is moving to the forefront in giving families greater educational freedom,” said Gordon St. Angelo, president and CEO of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation. “These advancements are a testimony to Ohioans’ belief that families should be free to choose a school based their on child’s needs, not their address.”
The new Ohio Educational Choice Scholarship Pilot Program will be available to 14,000 children across the state. Children in schools under “academic emergency” will be eligible for the program, which would allow their parents to use a voucher to choose another school – public or private. The vouchers will range from $4,250 for K-8 to $5,000 for grades 9-12. Under the budget bill, the current Cleveland program will expand to include students in grades 11 and 12, and increase the maximum voucher amount to $3,450 from the current maximum of $3,000. The legislation will also remove the pilot status of the state’s school voucher program for autistic children, increase the voucher amount from $15,000 to $20,000 and eliminate the cap on participation.
The passage and expansion of Ohio’s programs come during the 50th anniversary of the school voucher idea Friedman proposed in the 1955 book “Economics and the Public Interest.” In this historic year, Ohio becomes the fourth state to either create a new school choice program or expand an existing one. A total of 33 states introduced school voucher or tuition tax credit legislation in 2005 with nearly 50 percent of the bills passing through committee or at least one legislative chambers.
“It’s fitting that in the year of its 50th anniversary, we’re seeing school vouchers achieve unprecedented levels of momentum,” said St. Angelo. “This year, more states introduced legislation and advanced it further than ever before. A breakthrough is approaching.”
I agree on the voucher idea. I have not researched it a great deal, but the system as it currently exists does not work, why not give vouchers a try. My concern is that the poor performing public schools will get worse. How can this be addressed?
As far as Taft. He will have to overcome the coin collection investment in the Workers Comp plan scandal.
Yeah, I don’t know much about Taft, that was more of a off the cuff remark. Vouchers to me is so damn important, that even if a politican was likely to get vouchers across, yet completely go against my views on every single other issue, I’d probably still vote for him.
As far as poor performing public schools, the experience seems to be very positive. In fact, vouchers seem to cause the most improvements to precisely those very schools.
Caroline Huxby, an economist at Harvard University, writes this: