An interesting Op Ed in Saturday's WSJ, arguing that Utah's passage of a statewide voucher bill shows that the best approach to getting voucher legislation passed is to go for large-scale programs like Utah's rather than more limited ones such as in DC, the Urban Schools Scholarship Act Cory Booker is supporting in NJ, etc.  I disagree.  Even if you thought giving everyone a voucher was a good idea, it's a nonstarter just about everywhere except Utah...

The success of school choice as a method of empowering parents, raising student achievement and improving public education systems in those markets where it has been implemented is indisputable. The question now becomes how to achieve meaningful school choice for the benefit of all parents, not just a select few?

After this year's compelling school-choice victory in Utah, the methodology for successfully advancing parental options against the well-funded phalanxes of institutional opposition is crystallizing. Specifically, Utah's success has proven the efficacy of advocating universal choice initiatives as opposed to limited, means-tested pilot programs...

In spite of enormous resistance, Utah's victory is proof positive that a universal approach -- consistently advanced over time and leveraging every available grassroots and political coalition -- can succeed in securing the educational choices our nation needs to compete in the new millennium. The sooner we apply these lessons to other states, the sooner America can inherit its 21st century Manifest Destiny.

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School-Choice Strategy

By HOWARD S. RICH
June 16, 2007; Page A8, WSJ

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118195964720137475-search.html

The flattened borders of the 21st century have made networking faster, global trade freer and competition more rigorous -- meaning the premium we place on educating future generations is higher than ever before. Yet the nation's monopolistic approach to education remains a millstone around our children's necks, with America consistently lagging behind its industrialized peers in academic achievement.