Vouchers and tax credit scholarships are in line with Democratic Party support for social justice and equal opportunity, says Florida state Rep. John Patrick Julien, D-North Miami. And yet, he says, Democratic lawmakers in Florida who support those options risk getting "whipped" by party leaders who don't.

He says he's a perfect example.

He lost the August primary by 13 votes after the party establishment lined up behind his opponent, Rep. Barbara Watson, D-Miami Gardens. Julien, who strongly backs expanded school choice, challenged the outcome, alleging some absentee ballots were obtained fraudulently. But last week a Tallahassee judge dismissed the suit.

Democratic lawmakers who “care about educating the children, especially the poor children, they would want to support (vouchers and tax credit scholarships),” Julien told redefinED in the podcast interview attached below. “But they would get whipped out of it. … A lot of these folks, I guarantee you, if they try to push back, they’re going to be told, ‘Um, go talk to John Patrick Julien down there in Miami. And ask him how those votes worked out for him.’ “

Julien isn’t leaving quietly. He told Sunshine State News his family didn’t flee a dictatorship in Haiti so he could “be a slave” to Democratic Party leadership. He used similar language with redefinED: “If you want to sit down with me and treat me as a human being, and help me understand why my vote is wrong, I welcome it,” he said. “But what I don’t welcome are people that want to put the chains back around my ankles and my arms, and pull me in the direction that they want.”

Democratic opposition to vouchers and tax credit scholarships, Julien suggested, doesn't mesh with party values. “Democrats say that they want to educate people. Democrats say that they fight for the poor. Democrats say that their entire mantra is to be the voice for the voiceless. Democrats say that they are there for the sole purpose of fighting for the people,” he said. “What better fight is there than to fight to educate a poor child?”

The row in South Florida runs counter to long-term trend lines. Support for school choice among Florida lawmakers has grown over the past decade; in 2010, nearly half of them voted for a major expansion of the tax-credit program. Last spring, though, Democratic support dropped to about a third for a much more modest expansion. In the podcast, Julien offers one possible reason why.

Julien also suggests the Democratic Party should have a “big tent” on school choice. But as long as teachers unions remain a top financial contributor, he said, it’s not going to happen. “If you look at who my primary opposition was in this election cycle,” he said, “it was the teachers union.”

I was wrong.

For 15 years I have dedicated myself to empowering low-income families to choose the best school for their kids. I was the strongest advocate for parental choice you would ever meet.

But I was wrong.

For almost two decades I swatted away false arguments from choice opponents. "There’s no evidence students do well in choice programs."  No, the consensus of studies show they do. "Creams the best low-income students away from public schools." Sorry, studies show just the opposite.

But the scales have now fallen from my eyes. I have to leave the movement. Why?

I just learned that vouchers will mean the end of high school football. Yes, that's right - giving low-income parents choices will mean the end of that great American tradition - and I just can't tolerate that.

You see, high school football used to be the most important thing in my life. When I was 15 and my father told me our family was moving from Iowa to Florida, my only question was, "Does the high school have a good quarterback"? When I was 17, the only thing I wanted for my birthday was a case of Gatorade (three practices a day, in full pads, in the summer in South Florida). Some of my fondest memories are of taking the field for the Fort Lauderdale High School Flying L's. Yes, that was our team name.

Given this background, I hope my fellow choice advocates will understand my abdication.

A group called Save Texas Football has just come out with a video explaining how choice will kill high school football in Texas. As I watched it, I was so impressed by the quality of the message and the production, I said to myself, "There's no way a grassroots, amateur group did this." Sure enough, the group behind the video is Progress Texas, a 501C4 advocacy group that is run by veterans of Texas Democratic politics. C4s don't have to reveal their donors, but I'll buy you a hot dog at this Friday’s game if the major funder of this group isn’t the Texas teachers union. (more…)

Our preoccupation these days with a Florida amendment removing the state’s no-aid-to-religion clause may strike some redefinED readers as a touch obsessive, and we won’t argue the point. But the truth is that we agonize over whether to write at all, and we want to explain why.

At the end of the day, we are confident that Amendment 8, whether it passes or fails, will have no legal effect on school vouchers. And yet opponents so far have invested $1 million in a campaign that argues otherwise. They not only contend the amendment will open the door to new vouchers, but that those programs will be, to borrow the words of one elected Alachua County school board member, “the very death of public schools.”

So the quandary is obvious. We’re a blog built around the new definition of public education, run by an organization that administers private options to low-income students, and we think we can bring clarity to the issue. But how do we complain about a debate that we say is falsely about vouchers without being viewed as though we doth protest too much? How do we enter the volatile, polarizing world of political campaigns and not be viewed as an angry combatant?

This is shaping up as a most peculiar campaign. The pro- and anti-amendment forces are on two entirely different planets, one fighting against the scourge of vouchers and the other extolling the virtues of faith-based community services. And yet the legal landscape is unmistakable: The state Supreme Court overturned Opportunity Scholarship vouchers in 2006 through a public education uniformity clause that would be untouched by this amendment. In other words, the principle barrier to any new vouchers is not on the ballot. That’s one of the reasons, and this is important to note again, that no groups supporting parental choice are spending a penny on this campaign. They see it as legally irrelevant.

We admit taking offense at some of the liberties that have been taken so far with the legal truth. And we’re left only to speculate on why the opponents would spend so much on an amendment that means so little in the education world. (more…)

Tennessee: A task force appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam leaves no doubt that a private school voucher program is under serious consideration (Memphis Commercial Appeal). More here and here.

Florida: Teachers unions, school boards and media outlets are distorting the aim of a proposed constitutional amendment, claiming it's about private school vouchers (redefinED). A charter school task force appointed by the state Legislature considers a proposal to allow local school districts to levy additional property taxes for charter school capital costs (Orlando Sentinel). The Palm Beach County school district - one of Florida's biggest  - is beginning its public school choice application process for next year's seats this week (Palm Beach Post.)

Georgia: The NAACP, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and other civil rights groups are part of a coalition opposed to a charter school amendment on the November ballot. (Associated Press)

Louisiana: Private schools say their experience with the new voucher program has so far been good. (dailycomet.com)

Pennsylvania: Gov. Tom Corbett and Republican lawmakers want to address funding inequities for charter schools. (Harrisburg Patriot-News)

New York: A study finds charter schools are undermining enrollment at Catholic schools (Albany Times Union). Charter school applicants come under fire at a public hearing. (Utica Observer Dispatch) (more…)

Sad but true: The other day, one of Louisiana’s statewide teachers unions tweeted that the Black Alliance for Educational Options, the stand-up school choice group, supports “KKK vouchers.” It subsequently tweeted, “Tell everyone you know.” (Details here.)

Even sadder but true: This wasn’t an isolated event. In recent months, critics of school choice and education reform have time and again made similar statements and claims – trying to tie Florida’s school accountability system to young black men who murder in Miami, for instance, and in Alabama, trying to link charter schools to gays and Muslims.

But this is also sad but true: Reform supporters sometimes go way too far, too.

Late last week, the Sunshine State News published a story about two Haitian-American Democratic lawmakers in South Florida, both strong backers of school choice, who narrowly lost primary races to anti-choice Democrats. The story quoted, at length, an unnamed political consultant who sounded sympathetic to the arguments raised by school choice supporters. He made fair points about the influence of the teachers union in the Democratic Party; about racial tensions that rise with Democrats and school choice; about a double standard with party leaders when Dems accuse other Dems of voter fraud. But then he said this:

“It’s a kind of ethnic cleansing of the Democratic Party,” he said, according to the report, “centered on the interests of the teachers’ unions.”

School choice critics may often be wrong;  their arguments may at times be distorted and inconsistent. But to brand their motivations with a term that evokes Rwanda and Bosnia is more than off-key. It’s repulsive. It’s also a distraction and counterproductive.

I’m floored by extreme statements from ed reform critics. In the past couple of months alone, a leading Florida parents group accused state education officials of using the school accountability system to purposely “hurt children”; a left-wing blogger described John E. Coons, a Berkeley law professor and redefinED co-host, as a “John Birch Society type” because of his support for parental school choice; and other critics used fringe blogs and mainstream newspapers alike to shamelessly tar Northwestern University economist David Figlio, a meticulous education researcher who is not only widely respected by fellow researchers on all sides of the school choice debate but is so highly regarded beyond the world of wonkery that he was cited as a prime example of this state’s “brain drain” when he left the University of Florida. I’m further stumped by how such statements are rarely challenged by mainstream media, and by how more thoughtful critics simply shrug and look the other way.

Attacks like these make me want to say, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” But then, at less regular intervals, statements like the ethnic cleansing quote come up and knock reformers off the high road. I’m left with a less satisfying response: “Can’t we all just get along?”

Choice at the RNC: Mitt Romney drops a line about school choice in his big speech, while Jeb Bush and Condoleezza Rice say more (redefinED). A former voucher student from Florida joins Jeb Bush on stage, saying in an interview later, "Because I had choice in my education, I was granted a better life (redefinED). (Image from minnesota.publicradio.org)

Louisiana: A statewide teachers union accuses the Black Alliance for Educational Options and other school choice groups of supporting a pro-KKK educational curriculum. (Choice Media)

Washington: The political landscape around charter schools has changed as voters get ready to vote on a charter measure for the fourth time. (Seattle Times)

Florida: A powerful lawmaker and school choice supporter is puzzled by charter schools that want to set up in one of the school districts in his legislative district. (St. Augustine Record)

Ohio: Hundreds of special needs students are benefiting from a voucher program. (Cincinnati.com) (more…)

Louisiana: State education officials set accountability rules for private schools participating in the state's new voucher program (Reuters). More from the New Orleans Times Picayune. The state deems a troubled private school ineligible to receive vouchers (Alexandria Town Talk). Meanwhile, a law firm representing a state teachers union sends letters to participating private schools, threatening them with litigation unless they opt out of the program until a lawsuit is settled (New Orleans Times Picayune).

Wisconsin: A Milwaukee charter school gets help from a national fund co-run by tennis legend Andre Agassi (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Michigan: Speaking at the American Federation for Teachers convention, Vice President Joe Biden takes aim at vouchers and says teachers are under "full blown attack" from Republicans. (MLive.com)

Indiana: The state's year-old voucher program is becoming more diverse as it grows (Indianapolis Star). The mayor of Indianapolis tussles with parents over the future of a low-performing charter school (Indianapolis Star).

Florida: The school board in Pinellas County votes to allow an F-rated charter school to remain open after students and teachers plea for more time. (Tampa Bay Times)

Illinois: Charter school leaders in Chicago fear budget cuts because of uncertainty over the district's contract with teachers. (Chicago Tribune) (more…)

Louisiana: School choice groups join the state in defending the new voucher program against a lawsuit filed by the state teachers unions and school boards association. (The Advertiser) A judge denies an injunction sought by voucher opponents to suspend the program while the case plays out in court. (New Orleans Times Picayune)

Florida: In one South Florida city, 14,000 students are on a waiting list to enroll in one of the city's charter schools even though the city's traditional public schools have a good reputation. (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

New Jersey: The state teachers union and school boards association want education officials to hold off on approval of virtual charter schools. (NJ Spotlight) Celebrity Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, running for Congress, supports a federal school voucher program. (NJ.com)

Georgia: A state senator forcefully reiterates his support for vouchers during a debate with his election challenger. (Cherokee Tribune)

Tennessee: A pro-charter school political action committee donates the maximum to school board candidates it backs in Nashville. (The Tennessean)

Pennsylvania: State education officials authorize four new virtual charter schools after closing a different one last week. (Education Week's Charters & Choice blog) (more…)

If there were any doubt that Democratic presidential politics drove the Obama administration’s decision Monday to keep D.C. Opportunity Scholarships alive another year, Education Secretary Arne Duncan removed it with his tortured statement by way of public explanation.

“The President and I are committed to ensuring that the education of the children currently in the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program is not disrupted," Duncan wrote. “We remain convinced that our time and resources are best spent on reforming the public school system to benefit all students and we look forward to working with Congress in a bipartisan manner to advance that goal.”

Unfortunately, this has become the go-to talking point for the secretary when asked to defend his administration’s opposition to a scholarship that is helping struggling low-income students in the District of Columbia. Never mind that Duncan’s own agency has determined that the students who take the scholarship are performing at higher academic levels, that the program has strong support from parents, and that Congress has cushioned even any perceived financial impact on traditional D.C. public schools by giving them an extra appropriation. The president simply won’t cross the teacher unions on vouchers.

Rather than acknowledge the political pickle, Duncan is left tripping over his own words and basic common sense. (more…)

New York: 5,000 charter school parents rally to send a message in the mayor's race. (NY1) More from the New York Times and New York Post. (New York Times photo at left shows students and parents from a KIPP charter school who attended the rally.)

South Carolina: A proposal for tax-credit scholarships got traction in the state legislature this year, but ultimately came up short. (The State)

Louisiana: As expected, the state teachers union files a lawsuit to stop the new statewide voucher program. (New Orleans Times Picayune)

Ohio: The state is ending a once federally mandated program that allowed low-income children to receive free, private tutoring but raised concerns about fraud and effectiveness. (Columbus Dispatch) 

Michigan: State lawmakers get set to debate parent trigger legislation. (MLive.com)

Tennessee: A key state lawmaker says the legislature is likely to pass a voucher bill next year, limited to urban areas. (Memphis Commercial Appeal) The state plans to convert 10 struggling Nashville schools into charter schools. (The Tennessean) The state also okays the expansion of charter schools in Memphis. (Memphis Commercial Appeal) (more…)