[lbo-talk] Vouchers Unspoken, Romney Hails School Choice

[Wojtek S]

His plans, presented in a recent speech at the U.S. Chamber of
Commerce, represent a broad overhaul of current policy, one that
reverses a quarter-century trend, under Republican and Democratic
presidents, of concentrating responsibility for school quality at the
federal level.

“I will expand parental choice in an unprecedented way,” Mr. Romney
said, adding that families’ freedom to vote with their feet “will hold
schools responsible for results.”

His proposals are the clearest sign yet that Republicans have executed
an about-face from the education policies of President George W. Bush,
whose signature domestic initiative, the No Child Left Behind law of
2002, required uniform state testing and imposed penalties on schools
that failed to progress.

Now Mr. Romney is taking his party back to its ideological roots by
emphasizing a lesser role for Washington, replacing top-down mandates
with a belief in market mechanisms. It is a change driven in part by
Tea Party disdain of the federal government. In the Republican
presidential nominating fight, candidates competed in calling to shut
the Education Department.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/12/us/politics/in-romneys-voucher-education-policy-a-return-to-gop-roots.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

[WS:] I cannot believe I would say it, but Romney's position on
education is superior to that of Obama and the Democrat party.  The
market-schmarket talk is obnoxious, to be sure, but he seems to be
moving away from federally imposed 'accountability' measures tied to
standardized tests scores.  That makes it easier for me to accept the
prospect of Romney 2012, which now seems very likely.

-- 
Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."