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“So you want to put the money in each kid’s backpack?” she asked.
“No, not literally,” I said. “It’s just a clever metaphor, a catchy phrase.”
“You’ve got a lot of catchy phrases,” she said.
“Right?!” I enthused. “We’ve spent a lot of time working on them.”
“Here’s something I’ve wondered about,” she said. “Those Republican types worry about how people use food stamps because some of them won’t be responsible. And I definitely know some people in my family I don’t trust to make good decisions. So how come that’s not a problem here?”
“Granted, when you give parents choices, you’re going to disagree with some of those choices,” I said. “Look, if there’s a microschool that lets kids play with kerosene, we’ll have to address it.”
“Speaking practically, that’s not super reassuring,” she said.
“But, darn it,” I said, “I’m talking about education freedom. Remember the backpack. And the zip code deal.”
We drove in silence for a minute or two until I added, “And families need to be able to escape woke public schools that are bent on indoctrinating their kids.”
“I get that,” she said. “Some of the stuff about privilege and 57 genders is nuts. But it’s not just public schools. My neighbor’s kid is in a KIPP charter school, and she told me they dumped their ‘Work Hard, Be Nice’ slogan because it’s racist. That’s pretty crazy, and that’s at a choice school.”
“That’s why it’s important to have options,” I said. “It creates a market full of choices, you see.”
“Okay, but around here,” she said, “a lot of the charter and private schools seem crazier than the district schools. So, practically speaking, I’m not sure your market is working like you say.”
I took a deep breath. “Think of it like higher education,” I said. “You know how students can use public grants or loans to pick from lots of colleges? This is like Pell Grants for kids.”
She laughed. “Are colleges really a good example? I mean, talk about nutty! And I don’t know many folks out there who say colleges are a model we should be imitating.”
I sighed.
She paused. “I don’t mean to tell you your business. And I like school choice. But maybe you should spend less time on slogans and more on explaining whether my kid can still go to school close to where I live or how to make sure the choices families have are good ones. Otherwise, you might pass a lot of laws only to wind up with parents and politicians upset they didn’t get what they expected.”
I gave up. It’s tough for a layperson to understand the fine art of advocating for education freedom.
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