E Pluribus Unum

Vouchers are in. John Fund and Dean Esmay (among lots of others) are cracking open the champagne, and rightfully so. They, and their cohorts, have worked long and hard for this day. It was a lonely, uphill battle against the Dark Side. Ok, so that last part was a bit of an exaggeration. Actually, I'm not interested so much in revisiting the merits of the case; I don't care much about the dissenting opinion of the losers, er, minority Justices. It's history. Nor do I care much for examining the majority opinion. All of that is a look backward in time; let's look forward now and see if there might not be a set of unintended consequences here. For example.... Jonathan Rauch wrote an interesting article in the National Journal about 18 months ago, right after the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals threw out the Cleveland voucher case. Now that the Supremes just reversed that decision, Rauch's words are worth re-visiting. They were interesting then and they are just as interesting now, perhaps more so:

In almost every sphere of life, liberals have championed the notion that competition is good for consumers. Education can't hold out against this notion forever.

That's the part that got me thinking. He goes on:

My guess is that not long after vouchers established themselves, they would be as controversial among liberals as food stamps, student aid, and housing vouchers are today.

Hee hee! It gets better:

My further guess is that, after a shakedown, public schools would compete vigorously and successfully with private schools, just as public universities do. Tomorrow's liberals would wonder what today's liberals were so worked up about.

Stranger things have happened. Slate's William Saletan makes pretty much the same point. But let's not get distracted. Rauch was on a roll:

If you happen to be a New Democrat, say, or some other variety of government-friendly pragmatist, vouchers are a great idea. Increased competition in the education sector as a whole will delight you, and the increased regulation of private schools won't bother you much. The Right's unalloyed enthusiasm for vouchers is a bit harder to justify. Conservatives want to get the state out of public education; they may succeed at getting the state into private education. Twenty years from now, they may be slapping their foreheads and saying, "What were we thinking when we crusaded to hook private schools on public money?" And the teachers unions, which by then may have extended many of today's anticompetitive public school rules to the private realm, may be saying, "Boy, were we ever lucky we lost that fight. Now all schools are public."

Is this so far-fetched? Somewhere out there is a New Democrat itching to run for President. This (so far hypothetical) candidate understands how to be more pro-voucher than the conservatives. After all, the Dems' historic constituency is the same voter "block" that is said to benefit the most from vouchers. Remember what we said about Dems being the War Party? This is the same thing. Tell me what you think. I look forward to your comments.