Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s support for universal vouchers

Yesterday's email about Sen. Elizabeth Warren's support for universal vouchers elicited lots of feedback (goodness how I love stirring the pot!), including (from a friend in Massachusetts) "No one I know is sure where she stands on charter schools." and plenty of skepticism, such as: "Oh, c'mon  Whitney. Senator Warren probably also supports letting people use different branches of the U.S. Postal System. This is not reform. These are not vouchers. This is not serious."

 

So, let's acknowledge that she hasn't been much of an ed reformer (so far) and her view of vouchers only gives parents choices within the public school system – but I still think it's a big deal when someone as prominent and progressive (read: far to the left) as Elizabeth Warren: a) acknowledges the vast and outrageous inequalities among our public schools (and, of course, that the poor and minorities are almost always the ones getting shafted), and b) favors empowering parents by giving them more choices (rather than the current status quo, in which poor parents have only one choice: send their children to the nearby public school, even if it has been dismally students for decades)…