How Arnold can honor Milton Friedman

The governor who once gave his friends Free to Choose could carry on his mentor’s work by giving California school choice.

Milton Friedman, who recently passed away, was the greatest economic thinker of the 20th century. His technical expertise, consistent philosophy of freedom and liberty, courage and determination, plus the ability to communicate his ideas to ordinary people, made Friedman a giant not only in his field, but in politics and public policy worldwide. Milton Friedman was also a Californian, by choice, and it would be a tribute to this great man if his friend, newly re-elected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would honor his memory by championing Friedman’s best-loved cause: school choice.

Friedman’s influence on the governor, as the governor himself describes it, has been profound. “When I was first exposed to his writings about money, free markets, and individual freedom,” Schwarzenegger has said, “it was like getting hit by a thunderbolt.” As a young man, he gave his friends copies of Friedman’s 1979 bestseller Free to Choose. He would eventually do the introduction to Friedman’s Free to Choose television series on PBS. After Friedman’s death, the governor said that Friedman and his wife “were not only my dear friends” but “have been heroes to me for much of my life.” Nice words, but how much more meaningful would it be if the governor, in his upcoming State of the State address, advocated a school-choice plan as one of his priorities.

The governor could point to the powerful case for school-choice vouchers that Friedman made in his Free to Choose book. He could quote Friedman: “Discontent with schooling has been rising. So far as we can see, greater parental choice is the only alternative that is available to reduce that discontent. Vouchers keep being rejected and keep emerging with more and more support.” The governor could say that Friedman was prescient.

The people are discontented with California’s public school system that fails to graduate three out of 10 students and that can only produce four out of 10 students proficient in English and math. More than half the freshmen entering the California State University system must take remedial English or math. With too many public schools not performing, too many children not achieving — and with powerful special interests blocking change — the governor can say school choice is the only alternative for children stuck in bad schools.

True, Schwarzenegger can say, voucher initiatives have lost in California, but as Friedman predicted, school choice has emerged stronger and with more support. Indeed, another of the governor’s prominent friends, Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein, voted for the Washington, D.C., voucher program after the California initiatives’ defeat because, she said, “Based on the substantial amount of money pumped into the schools and the resultant test scores, I do not believe that money alone is going to solve the problem. This is why I believe the [District of Columbia] should be allowed to try this pilot [voucher program] Ð particularly for the sake of its low-income students.”Ê

The governor can say that if disadvantaged children in Washington deserve vouchers, then so do California’s kids. He can then propose a pilot voucher program in one of California’s lowest-performing school districts.

The Milton and Rose Friedman Foundation publishes an annual survey of the status of school choice nationally. In the latest report, school choice is blossoming: from a new Ohio voucher for students attending failing schools to a special-education voucher program just enacted in Utah, to an expansion of school-choice tax-credits in Arizona.

Now that Arnold Schwarzenegger is starting his final term, he will be thinking of his place in history. One thing, certainly, is true: he will not leave his mark simply by pouring more tax dollars down the rat hole of the current system (see, i.e., the current state budget). Governor, ensure a bright legacy by honoring your mentor Milton Friedman. Bring school choice to California.