SACRAMENTO, CA -- It seemed like a scripted foregone conclusion. A state legislative committee stacked with historic opponents of school choice hearing and voting on another school-choice bill. A ho-hum, what’s-the-use, slam-dunk loss for school-choice supporters, right? Well, not really, and therein lies a most interesting tale with
potentially huge ramifications.

First, the background. In February, the Pacific Research Institute released a major study entitled
Developing and Implementing Academic Standards. In response to the study, State Senator Ray Haynes
proposed a number of bills based on ideas contained in the PRI report. One of Sen. Haynes’ bills (SB 882)
would have held low-performing public schools accountable for implementing the state’s new rigorous
academic standards by giving state-funded opportunity scholarships to students at those schools so that they
could attend another public or private school of their choice. The scholarship program would have applied only
to low-performing schools that failed to improve under the requirements of Governor Davis’ recently enacted
school accountability law.

The letters of opposition to the SB 882 were predictable. The California School Employees Association dispensed with any substantive or empirical argument and simply said they "are opposed to any expenditure of public funds for private schools." The ACLU wrongly claimed that "providing public funds to [parochial] schools violates the doctrine of the separation of church and state." (In a line of recent cases, the U.S. Supreme Court has found that there is no constitutional problem as long as government aid is disbursed to private individuals who then independently decide whether to use the aid at a religiously-affiliated institution.) The California Teachers Association relied on their standard argument that more tax dollars would solve everything: "We would
not need school choice measures if all schools were adequately staffed, equipped, and funded."

Yet, when SB 882 was heard in the Senate Education Committee, an amazing thing happened. When the
education-establishment representatives started to testify against the bill, they were immediately dressed
down by Senator John Vasconcellos, one of the Senate’s noted liberals. Senator Vasconcellos criticized the
establishment organizations for defending the status quo at the expense of helping students in the state’s
worst public schools. Even more eye-opening was Sen. Vasconcellos’ statement that he would be willing, in a
year or two, to consider voting for some type of targeted school choice program if students fail to improve their performance under Governor Davis’ education plan.

Senator Vasconcellos’ remarks were echoed by maverick liberal Senator Tom Hayden, who said that significant
numbers of parents in his district were taking their children out of the public schools and placing them in
private schools because of the poor performance of the public schools.

Although SB 882 was eventually voted down by the Committee, the fact that two liberal Democratic senators voiced a willingness, albeit in the future, to consider a school-choice option demonstrates that the wall protecting the government school monopoly is cracking. The education establishment may have won another battle, but school-choice supporters are edging closer to winning the war.

--Lance T. Izumi