The Politics of NJ's "Voucher Bill"

My post this week at WHYY's Newsworks looks at the politics of NJ's embattled school voucher bill, which has  evolved from a  sprawling overreach to a (potential) timid pilot. And, of course, how the strong feelings aroused by this bill erupted into a particularly nasty exchange between Gov. Christie and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver:
New Jersey's education politics have, once again, gone viral: from The Huffington Post to U.S. News and World Report, Americans are reading about the kerfuffle between Gov. Chris Christie and N.J. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver over an oft-proposed voucher bill called The Opportunity Scholarship Act (OSA). In short, at a town hall meeting in Paterson last Tuesday, our mellifluous governor lumbered into dangerous territory when he criticized the Speaker for refusing to allow the Assembly to vote on the controversial bill.

OSA would award tax credits to corporations that provide scholarships to private and parochial schools for some poor kids in failing districts. These scholarships are often referred to as "vouchers" because they allow families to exchange them for tuition at a school other than the state-assigned public school.
Read the rest here.

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