School Choice as a Model for Political Success
A single success can either be a happy blessing, or something around which further successes can be planned. To rejoice over a win is proper, and right, but to analyze what conditions made that victory possible, then to replicate those conditions, is the work of prudence.
Besides pro-life, second amendment, and pro-children victories (Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia have all banned genital mutilation, billed as “gender transition surgery” of children), the strongest legislative front for the right has been school choice.
“So far this year, lawmakers in 14 states have passed bills establishing school choice programs or expanding existing ones, and lawmakers in 42 states have introduced such bills, according to EdChoice, a nonprofit that tracks and advocates for school choice policies, and FutureEd, a Georgetown University-based education policy research center. Six of the 14 states—Arkansas, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Oklahoma, and Utah—have passed school choice policies making programs universal or near-universal over the next three years. They join Arizona and West Virginia, which in recent years either established or expanded education savings accounts and made them available to virtually all students. That brings the total number of states where virtually all students will be able to use public funds for private schools to eight.”1
Some have called 2023 “the year of universal choice”, as the model has shifted towards allowing every student access to private, or charter schools, via the utilization of government funding. What was already allocated for a student to attend public school, is being placed in the hands of families to spend on the school of their choice. If that sounds like the 45K Plan, that is because it is. Your humble blogger’s chief policy proposal, dear gremlins, is sweeping the country. Students are getting access to quality education, and, from a cultural-political standpoint, they are being taken out of an institution that has, in large part, become little more than a propaganda machine for the left. A generation who grows up reading Plato, Homer, and Dante, will live, vote, and form communities very different than one raised on anti-Christian, anti-American propaganda. Educational content, and quality, is of the utmost importance, as it will strongly affect the country’s culture, and will either ameliorate, or solidify, the professional competency crises.
How is school choice sweeping the country, when it clearly goes against the interests of the hegemonic left? Some will bend over backwards and say that school choice, through some Qanon style 4D chess, actually helps the left. These voices have been my bane, turning every victory into a loss, possessed, at best, by despondency, or, at worst, are implicated in a demoralization campaign. I simply ask them to show me on the doll where my child receiving a good education, and being taught virtue, rather than self-hatred, and degeneracy, is actually a “trick” by sneaking, shadowy, figures who, like the Augustinian theodicy, either wills all things, or, if they do not will it, allows it for their greater good.
Identifying the conditions which made the school choice movement so strong, strong enough that democrats are being encouraged to propose school choice bills of their own (limited to charter schools, however).2 The first answer is that it is overwhelmingly popular among voters of both parties. 88% of republicans support school choice, in comparison to the 83% who are pro-life,3 and 73% of democrats are favorable to (at least charter) school choice4. Quoting from USA Today,
“As consistently high polling numbers indicate, the debate between school choice and no school choice has been settled: School choice won. As Democrats, we must acknowledge the basic reality that school choice resonates with voters. If we do not fully embrace it, there is a good chance we will continue to lose voters to Republicans on this issue and, as a policy consequence, we will end up with their version of private school choice.”5
Despite the dirty tricks inherent to politics, there is a threshold when a politician needs to appease his/her base to get elected, or re-elected. There is a necessity to appease your base, and when the demand for a policy comes from a majority in both parties, there has to be some action, and this has been born out in passed bills. Whatever our theories about political power may be, and whatever backroom influences exist (and they do exist), we are seeing concrete proof of the voter’s will being executed.
Why is school choice popular? First, even the most hardline public-school advocates acknowledge their decline. Reading, math, and history scores are at an all-time low, and the prevalence of bullying, and suicide, in public schools have become an accepted reality. Second, as public schools become more explicitly anti-white, and anti-Christian, teaching that Christianity is the religion of oppression, and that if you have white skin, even if you moved to America five years ago, you are somehow responsible for both slavery, and the holocaust, republicans are quickly getting very nervous about sending their kids out. Third, while not said out loud for obvious reasons, as schools get more racially diverse, the desire for exit increases. This third point is not just among republicans, but democrats too. Knowing many wealthy families who are yellow dog democrats, I have observed exit for the same reasons. Finally, there was Covid, which kept kids at home…most parent’s nightmare. Sadly, school is seen as daycare by many parents, and the idea that a school might close down will send many parents into the arms of any school promising to keep doors open.
Abstracting these points we can say that a policy becomes law if it:
I.) Has majority support from both parties
II.) Promises to fix acknowledged institutional failure
III.) Makes the voter’s life more convenient
A fourth point, or perhaps an addendum to point one, is that a policy cannot be perceived as a threat by a large voter base. Not enough democrats see school choice as a threat for energy to be spent fighting it. Banning child genital mutilation or baby murder, while done in red states, is possible because those in favor of such things do not constitute a large enough voting block to threaten a politician’s election. Policies in swing states can have serious impacts, but cannot be overtly threatening.
Detoxifying our food, water, and air, would significantly lower the LGBT+ population, as environmental factors which adversely affect the youth (estrogen, and mycoplasma in particular) would be undone. While not a silver bullet, it would start the process. No one would see this as homophobic, however, and almost every democrat would vote for a clean water act.
Strengthening small businesses would create economic independence for the middle class, which is the economic base of the right, and with economic independence comes voice. Political opinions, especially radical ones, are dangerous to say out loud when you have a boss…he might fire you! If you own your own business, or work for someone who shares your views, then you can express your beliefs in a way that could lead to collective organization, and, from there, lobbying. Again, everyone loves small businesses, and no one would see giving cash to mom-and-pop as a political threat.
Let us learn from the school choice wave, and make concerted pushes for policies which share the conditions which made this wave popular.