Free Congress Commentary

By Paul M. Weyrich
March 4, 2003

The year was 1973. Richard Nixon had just been re-elected by a landslide. Also, elected in 1972 was Meldrim Thompson, the Governor of New Hampshire.

Already, Thompson was convinced that our public school system was in trouble and suffered for lack of competition. He persuaded the Nixon Administration to permit him to operate a small experiment with vouchers. He put his executive assistant, Bob Monier, who later would become one of the leaders of the state Senate by putting together a coalition of conservative Republicans and Democrats, in charge of the project.

Our little think tank, now the Heritage Foundation, was just getting started and Monier turned to us for help.

The teachers unions were so outraged at this experiment that they worked on the Nixon Administration to the point that so many regulations were issued for this voucher experiment that, as we told Gov. Thompson, it was bound to fail. Indeed it did. And the unions breathed a sigh of relief. They had defeated vouchers through lies for years. We always contended that if we could just start one voucher experiment then we would put those lies out to pasture.

But it wasn't until nearly two decades later that Wisconsin state Rep. Polly Williams, a black Democrat, crossed over and voted with the Republicans to deliver to Gov. Tommy Thompson (now HHS Secretary) a very targeted voucher bill for inner-city Milwaukee kids. Later, Gov. George Voinovich (now U.S. Senator) of Ohio successfully pressed for a somewhat larger voucher bill. It was challenged in the courts and the U.S. Supreme Court, in a ringing 5 to 4 decision, said vouchers for elementary and secondary education are constitutional.

Here we are thirty years later and the Colorado legislature is on the verge of passing a much larger voucher bill. In fact, the measure has passed both houses of the legislature already, it is just that each was in somewhat different form and thus the two bills must be reconciled by a Conference Committee. Gov. Bill Owens (R), anxious to build a national reputation, is eager to sign the legislation.

Republicans control both houses of the legislature in Colorado but they have in the past as well and a voucher bill could never get through both houses of the legislature because the teachers unions would buy off enough legislators that vouchers would always go down to defeat. Apparently, Colorado has at last elected enough principled Republicans that passing a voucher bill has become feasible. The voucher bill only passed the State Senate by a single vote, and that vote was by a Democrat at that. Often what was enough to scare off enough votes was the threat of a primary. Legislators who aren't sure who they are and what they believe would be scared of such a prospect. On the contrary, today's legislators are more focused on their own beliefs and what they want to accomplish. The unions find it almost impossible to buy off legislators who have a good sense of self.

Indeed, this may finally be the session in which Colorado's legislature passes a right to work law. Gov. Owens tried for passage during his entire first term. He had a partial Democrat legislature during that time and the unions owned enough legislators that he had no chance. Now that he has a Republican controlled legislature (Republicans control the State Senate by a slim 18 to 17 margin), and one which appears not to be totally owned by the unions, right to work, which won most recently in Oklahoma by a vote of the people, just might prevail here as well.

But back to vouchers. While the Wisconsin and Ohio the voucher legislation is really targeted to the inner-city areas of Milwaukee and Cleveland, the Colorado bill would go into effect when any school fails to meet standards in Denver, Colorado Springs and Pueblo. Once a school failed to meet standards, every child would, through his parents or guardian, be eligible for enough funds to pay tuition at a private or religious school. So the reach of the Colorado school voucher system is potentially much wider. And thankfully so because failing public schools are not just confined to predominantly black neighborhoods, but can also be found in Hispanic communities and even in largely white communities. Under Colorado's plan, many more children who had been trapped in failing public schools will have the opportunity to leave them to find better educational opportunities.

There are several other states with voucher proposals pending. Now that the highest court in the land has settled the question of constitutionality, it would appear that at long last the campaign of lies and distortion may finally have reached the end of its effectiveness. Vouchers have not destroyed the public school systems, they have made them better. The cream of the crop hasn't been lured away from the public schools. They were gone long ago. Instead, everyone is being given a chance at a better education.

The unions will continue to lie and distort. What else can they do? They don't have the facts on their side. But now that there are more and more examples of vouchers programs that work the unions can't scare citizens any longer with the supposed horrors of a voucher system. What a terrible thought. Giving parents a say in the kind of school that they send their children to. Watch Colorado and watch around the nation. The era of vouchers is at hand.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress Foundation.