Look for the Union Libel

Wall Street Journal

When it comes to P.T. Barnum levels of cynicism, nothing compares to the deal by which Big City politicians sell out their own constituents by keeping choice out of even the worst public schools in exchange for support from the teachers unions.

But the free ride is getting bumpier. Arizona Republican Jeff Flake will today re-introduce essentially the same voucher bill for Washington, D.C., that passed Congress in 1997 but was vetoed by Bill Clinton. Adding some political oomph to Mr. Flake's effort is President Bush's just-released budget, which sets aside $75 million in new money for five pilot choice programs and explicitly targets the District of Columbia.

The moral argument for choice has long been won, and the constitutional issue was put to rest last year by the Supreme Court. But the hardest nut, the political one, remains. Choice initiatives almost never emerge from inner cities because those who would benefit most -- the minority poor -- are represented by Democrats in the pocket of the teachers unions. Meanwhile, Republicans elected from the suburbs figure, Why pick that fight?

Thus D.C. provides a perfect microcosm of the politics of school choice -- one of the reasons we are delighted to see the White House making an issue of it. Last week, for example, Education Secretary Rod Paige met with D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and City Councilman Kevin Chavous. But by the next day virtually every Capital City Democrat, including the mayor, had made it clear to the local papers that while they are happy to meet with Secretary Paige, he needed to understand their bottom line: No, never, over their dead bodies.

Remember, this comes from a city where the longer kids stay in school, the less they know compared with the rest of the country. And it is all presided over by a teachers union straight out of Enron central casting, with a recent FBI raid of three top officials yielding everything from furs to Tiffany silver sets allegedly purchased with dues money. The Washington Post reports that these federal agents are now investigating why this same Washington Teachers' Union paid $20,000 to cater a party for Mayor Williams' chief of staff.

But others will also find themselves on the spot. Senator Joe Lieberman will get the chance to reiterate his long conviction that vouchers deserve to be tried in the worst public school districts. And while Mr. Lieberman hasn't seen the Flake legislation, a spokesman told us yesterday that the Senator supports federal aid for choice experiments. We'll also look forward to the vote of Delaware Senator Joe Biden, another Presidential wannabe who said during the last choice debate that it was "legitimate to ask" if a stiff dose of competition is just what public schools need.

Opponents of D.C. choice make two arguments. The first is that a white Republican Congress ought not to impose school choice on a black District of Columbia. Second, a recent poll and a 1981 referendum prove that district residents don't really want it.

What opponents don't say is that D.C. wouldn't have even charter schools today had not a GOP Congress "imposed" it. Or that, only days after Mr. Clinton vetoed the last choice bill, the Washington Post released a survey showing that 60% of the district's African-Americans favored vouchers -- and that opposition came from whites and those making more than $50,000 a year.

In short, what we have now is a city full of black schoolchildren whose futures are being sacrificed to sustain the most corrupt political bargain in American life today. If nothing else, the push for D.C. choice will drag this hypocrisy into the open.

Updated February 11, 2003