Vouchers in DC and Florida

I've been collecting a number of articles about vouchers (below) – in particular the programs in Washington DC and Florida.  This is what I wrote about the topic earlier this month (see: http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/02/carefully-targeted-vouchertax-credit.html):

 

A lot of what I write about relates to charter schools, but by no means do I think charters are THE solution – they're one of the 100 1% solutions that are necessary.  In many cities and states, there are few/no charters schools and the public schools are terrible, so what alternatives are available?  In many cases, the answer is Catholic schools.  I think it's nothing short of insane to, for example, spend nearly $20,000/student for a NYC public school that's failing miserably, while a Catholic school right down the block shuts down due to lack of funds despite achieving real success with the same students spending only $5,000/student.  Thus, I am a big supporter of carefully targeted voucher/tax-credit scholarship programs like the ones in Florida which my friend John Kirtley has been instrumental in championing.

 

And in this email (http://edreform.blogspot.com/2010/01/reactions-from-my-recent-emails.html), I wrote:

 

I support targeted voucher programs – still the third rail in the Democratic Party – not only because I think they help kids, but also because if you can put vouchers into play, the unions are willing to compromise in a lot of other areas.