SACRAMENTO — On May 18, Georgia became the 14th state to allow publicly-funded private-school scholarships. Unfortunately, California is not among the progressive 14.

For much of the 20th century, parents entrusted their children's education to "the experts." When Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed into law the Special Needs Scholarship program, it became the latest example of growing national momentum to put parents back in charge. An estimated 4,000 students will participate this year using vouchers averaging $9,000, the state per-pupil disability-funding amount.      “This legislation will allow the parents of special needs children to ensure that their children receive the education they deem most appropriate,” said Gov. Perdue. Senate sponsor and President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) concurred:

I believe that parents are in the best position to know their children and their unique needs and deserve the right to make the most appropriate decisions for their own children...This is especially true for parents of children with special needs. They struggle daily with health care, child care, feeding, and transportation challenges. These families have so many hurdles – the ability to choose the most appropriate education for their children will no longer be one of them.

Aside from programs in Vermont and Maine, which have used vouchers since the late 1800s, the number of parental-choice programs has grown to 20 since 1991. Most are targeted tax-credit scholarships and vouchers that enable students who are low-income, special needs, or in failing public schools to attend private schools.

Today, parents of 770,000 students nationwide use those programs. So far this year, more than 40 tax credit scholarship and voucher laws have been introduced in 19 states. Five of those laws are universal voucher proposals.

In February, Utah adopted the country's first universal voucher program, the Parents for Choice in Education Act, making students eligible for private-school tuition vouchers worth up to $5,000, depending on family income. Opponents know that freedom is contagious, so they challenge virtually every parental choice plan no matter how small-or large in Utah's case.

The state's biggest teachers union, the Utah Education Association, along with the Utah PTA, and the NAACP, successfully filed a referendum against the original Parents for Choice in Education legislation (HB 148) last month. Consequently, that law is on hold until November. However, another version of the program (HB 174), an amended bill introduced largely at opponents' insistence, passed unchallenged.  The Utah Attorney General's Office ruled this month that it be implemented immediately.

Just last week the Nevada Senate passed a special needs voucher proposal (SB 158) introduced by Sen. Barbara Cegavske (R-Las Vegas). It passed unanimously, despite fierce opposition from the education establishment.

Meanwhile, the California state legislature has quashed parental rights in education for more than a decade. Lawmakers killed nearly a half-dozen scholarship programs in the mid-1990s. Then they shot down a scholarship program for low-income students in April 1997. Similar legislation hasn't been introduced since because the climate under the dome is simply too toxic for parental choice to survive.

As word spreads about the education options parents in other states have, don't expect parents here to tolerate California's growing opportunity deficit. Families being priced out of communities with decent schools are migrating to more hospitable states like Arizona. There parents can enroll their children in any public school regardless of where they live or use tax credit scholarships and vouchers to send their children to private schools.

If legislators in Sacramento want to join the forces of progress, they should establish full parental choice in education for all Californians as a matter of basic civil rights. Or, they can keep up their reactionary opposition and wave goodbye to a growing number of California families.