Will Vouchers Be Part of Campaign Battle?

Last Friday, presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani argued for taxpayer-funded vouchers. Reiterating that the concept of school choice has worked for colleges and universities, Giuliani cast his firm support for vouchers for both private elementary and secondary schools.

As the mayor of New York, Giuliani stood fully behind the vouchers concept for private and parochial schools even in the face of stiff opposition from those he entrusted New York city school leadership. Should Guiliani earn the Republican nomination, the topic will likely be a front and center campaign issue for 2008.

Meanwhile, the dirty tricks phenomena in regards to promoting vouchers appears to be underway way as well. Promoters of vouchers have apparently been using a phone poll to link those who oppose the concept to those who support same-sex unions.

Parents involved in the group known as Choice in Education, a group that promotes vouchers within the state of Utah, is sponsoring a telephone survey that appears to link opponents of vouchers to advocates of same-sex unions. The Parents for Choice survey approach is an example of what has been given the name push poll. “Push polling” is a technique that utilizes leading and loaded questions in the hopes that those questions will trigger a certain response.

Opponents of the pro-voucher movement insist that the only way that proponents of vouchers can win the talking points battle is to link the opposition to vouchers to other negative polling data. Those who see the voucher movement as wrongheaded believe that if these folks focus were to be just on the voucher concept and not on linking the topic to other behavior deemed questionable, there would be little in the way to support the voucher idea.

While Congress attempts to reauthorize NCLB, keep an eye on the voucher debate. It could be one of the key issues in the upcoming presidential election, especially for Republicans hoping to keep the White House.