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School Choice Momentum: Florida Scores a Major Victory. Are Georgia and Texas Next?

Guy Benson
Guy Benson  |  March 28, 2023 1:05 PM

On Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping school choice package into law in the Sunshine State.  The GOP legislative majorities in Tallahassee passed the legislation in recent days, then the governor implemented the new policy at a celebratory ceremony, with a stroke of the pen.  The law expands eligibility for school choice scholarships.  "The scholarships previously had income caps, but priority will still be given to students who are low-income. Students whose household incomes are less than 185 percent of the federal poverty level, or roughly $51,000 for a family of four, will be taken care of first," National Review reports. "The funds can be used by parents for an array of education-related expenses in addition to tuition."  In case you missed it, here are the governor's full remarks at the bill signing event in Miami:

Teachers union bosses like the slow-witted and dishonest Randi Weingarten, who inadvertently quasi-endorsed school choice earlier this month, had been on the warpath for weeks trying to demagogue this bill.  They failed.  School choice proponents are applauding a string of major policy wins across the country.  The momentum is real:


Other states are actively considering a new paradigm in which students, rather than systems, are funded.  One such debate is happening in Georgia, where a Democratic legislator recently stated the quiet part out loud, demeaning less-educated parents as too stupid to understand the interests of their own children:


According to her hypocritical, elitist thinking, parents who lack certain diplomas should be regarded as morons who can't be trusted to decide if their kids deserve options other than failing or under-performing government schools.  The option for private education is wide open for affluent people, of course, but many Democrats adamantly believe less fortunate people's children should have no recourse beyond the union-dominated monopoly they defend for political reasons.  Ironically, many of the people responsible for locking kids out of schools for more than a year during COVID (based on tribal superstition masquerading as "Science") are the same people who want to lock disadvantaged kids in poor-performing schools.  A harmful lose-lose.  But it's all for progress, you see.  Thankfully, it's not always a partisan issue.  Civil rights shouldn't be partisan, as this flashback clip powerfully demonstrates:


The powerful and wealthy people who oppose school choice on cynical political grounds aren't opposed to choice for their own children, of course.  Just other people's.  That's how the racket works.  That profound unfairness -- might we also call it a problematic lack of 'equity'? -- is now getting mitigated and rectified across the country.  In Georgia, where Ms. Glaize is busy looking down her nose at the poors, conservatives were waiting on an indication from GOP Gov. Brian Kemp about where he stands on a bill under consideration.  He gave that indication on the same day DeSantis signed the school choice expansion to his south:

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That was news. Momentum is building. The Overton Window on this issue set has well and truly shifted. School choice may also be coming to Texas soon, with Gov. Greg Abbott's blessing.  Coming full circle, I'll leave you with this education policy update out of Florida: