Author: <span>Griff Wigley</span>

I’m voting for Barack Obama but I disagree with his opposition to school vouchers for low-income families. (I don’t blame Obama for playing it safe on education or moving to the center on other issues for the general election. The guy wants to win.) In his recent speech to the AFT, he said (prepared remarks):

Now, I’ve been a proponent of public school choice throughout my career.  I applaud AFT for your leadership in representing charter school teachers and support staff all across this country, and for even operating your own charters in New York.  Because we know well-designed public charter schools have a lot to offer, and I’ve actually helped pass legislation to expand them.  But what I do oppose is using public money for private school vouchers.  We need to focus on fixing and improving our public schools; not throwing our hands up and walking away from them.

Yesterday’s AP article describes John McCain’s reaction: McCain depicts Obama as too close to teacher’s union and against school choice for the poor.

Strib editorial writer Lori Sturdevant did a piece in late June on former state legislator and Humphrey Institute professor John Brandl titled:  The professor of policy: ‘What’s your agenda for Minnesota?’ We need more people like John Brandl answering that question.

It was 25 years ago this year that he began talking up vouchers to low-income families, to allow them to choose private as well as public schools for their children. The idea met fierce opposition and went nowhere. In the years since, the achievement gap between rich and poor children has widened.

“More than a whole generation of poor kids have been lost,” he said. “I’m struck at how horrified we are [of his voucher idea], struck to the point of wondering whether there isn’t a certain bigotry behind it. That may be too strong a word, but it shows how strongly I feel about this. We’ve got to be trying things different from what we’ve been trying for those kids.”