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The obvious ones that are tainted by hysteria and extremists are immigration, police reform and common sense gun control and you can throw in the proper way to address climate change without crippling our economy or layering on overdone regulations.

Conceptually I agree with some level of school choice but my concern is we are going to offer vouchers to parents who want to send their kids to private school. Inevitably with tuition being subsidized these schools will only continue to raise the cost of tuition ala the way colleges have the last 20 years. Government subsidies will not be able keep up with these prices so the vouchers will only cover a portion of the tuition and there is a large segment in our population that can’t afford to pay ANYTHING toward k-12 school. That means poor people will have to send their kids to public school that will be gutted because they have no money to work with, and thus the educational and economic divide in this country will only accelerate which is rapidly approaching an unsustainable situation.

So maybe I’m not fully grasping the plan. Like I said I’m conceptually in favor of choice, but only if this doesn’t leave the less well off in our society to fall further behind.

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Fair point. But school choice doesn't only mean private school vouchers. It can also means trying school funding to children so that they can go the public school of their choice. Some states are limiting options to just other public schools. At least let's agree that's good as a first step...

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Thank you

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In Sweden, that have a substatial number of “free schools”, including for-profit ones, a school that accepts “vouchers” can’t charge additional fees. It’s not a perfect system, but it guarantees that tax money doesn’t go to subsidies to schools out of reach for anyone.

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Unless it's simply not possible to provide education at the price provided by the voucher (the existence of public schools suggests that it is possible), then there will be schools that only charge what a voucher pays for.

Yes, obviously they would like to charge as much as possible, but the number of students whose parents can afford to pay extra money in addition to what the voucher provides is limited. As long as there's money to be made by serving the voucher-only students, there's a powerful incentive to set up schools that operate at that price point in addition to those operating at higher price points. Otherwise they're just leaving money on the table for no reason.

Also, public schools won't be "gutted because they have no money to work with." They'll have the voucher money from any students who attend. Assuming that the voucher is equal to current per-student funding, they'll have the same funding per student that they have now.

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For many years, libertarians & conservatives tried and failed to implement school-choice reforms in many states. Then, Corey DeAngelis succeeded in getting school-choice reforms passed in many states. It appears that his approach to getting GOP legislators to pass school choice reform was literally the only way of doing it that succeeded. If you can't point to any successful alternative, then you can't claim he did it the "wrong" way, especially when you have no public-policy achievements of your own. I have drafted a few state code sections and CFR sections. Have you ever drafted any, or gotten any laws enacted? If you haven't, what basis do you have to criticize him? It is worth noting that critical race theory was not criticized only by conservatives, but also libertarian think-tanks like the Competitive Enterprise Institute, well over a decade ago.

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Fomenting panic and using bigotry to advance your cause are indecent tactics. They win short-term battles but lose the war as they squander goodwill of potential allies while also coarsening our discourse and debasing/eroding our institutions. But I don't expect red-pilled libertarians to understand that anymore. They are too far gone.

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He won the war for school choice by convincing the only lawmakers who were potentially open to passing school choice legislation -- Republican legislators -- to pass it, by (1) pointing to how the teachers unions closed the schools even though that did nothing to prevent the spread of COVID and caused huge learning loss, see, e.g, https://libertyunyielding.com/2024/06/19/fauci-concedes-school-closings-were-a-mistake/, and

(2) by pointing out how the schools were promoting critical race theory rather than useful skills (yes, they were teaching critical race theory, according to Reason Magazine & the Goldwater Institute, see, e.g., https://libertyunyielding.com/2022/01/31/hispanic-students-were-forced-to-learn-critical-race-theory-they-hated-it/).

Democratic legislators weren't open to passing school choice legislation, because they are politically indebted to the teachers unions, who oppose school choice, and will be defeated in primaries if they support school choice because of the power to the teacher's unions. The only way to get GOP legislators to pass school choice was to rely on what you call wedge issues (but which were in part, very legitimate issues, like not teaching race-baiting nonsense to children -- GMU law professor David Bernstein notes that the critical-race-theory books in schools are historically inaccurate).

So hardly any Democratic legislator was going to vote for school choice, even if they privately saw the benefits of it, because it would be suicidal for a Democrat who is indebted to the teachers unions to vote for it.

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He himself admits he went "rogue" and cynically exploited the culture wars. Not all criticism of CRT and Covid mismanagement are cynical. His are. When you sit next to a NewsMax host and nod your head as he peddles accusations of "groomers" you have forfeited your claim to decency. Or praise a totally noxious, explicitly anti-gay outfit like Moms for Liberty, which is anything but pro-liberty. He is Chris Rufo's comrade-in-arms. Fundamentally dishonest in how he discusses his opponents and dishonorable in the tactics he deploys. His "wins" don't matter. He is destructive for this good cause. This is the Rothbardian strategy not Milton Friedman's. And certainly not Hayek's. Your failure to see his tactics for what they are indict you too.

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Considering how reactionary culture warriors in MAGA-states are trying to force public schools to adapt a pro-slavery, theocratic, anti-gay and -diversity agenda, the real argument for school choice is to provide enlightened parents and children a loop-hole to evade a Hand Maiden’s Tale-society.

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Corey DeAngelis correctly exploited discontent about divisive left-wing policies in the public schools to pass school choice laws. For example, he was right to criticize critical race theory. The teaching of critical race theory (CRT) and CRT-influenced books to children like my daughter has resulted in kids being taught historical inaccuracies and hatred of capitalism. A book assigned to my daughter by the Arlington public schools was by an author who is pro-racial discrimination and anti-capitalism -- that author has written that “To love capitalism is to end up loving racism. To love racism is to end up loving capitalism…Capitalism is essentially racist; racism is essentially capitalist” and that “The only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination. The only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination." To depict opposition to such nonsense as "moral panic" is truly outrageous and shameful. The book assigned to my daughter was historically inaccurate, as GMU law professor David Bernstein -- a leading legal historian of the Jim Crow period -- has noted: https://libertyunyielding.com/2021/06/23/amazon-donates-racist-inaccurate-book-by-critical-race-theorist-to-public-schools/

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This is pathetic propagandism.

When you write, "Corey DeAngelis correctly exploited discontent about divisive left-wing policies...", you conveniently restrict yourself to a word, "exploited," that suggests DeAngelis merely availed himself of a discontent that was already there and didn't meaningfully exacerbate it. That's why, in our roll-out of the video, we used the combination of "exploited and exacerbated"—the latter being critical to a correct evaluation of the effects of DeAngelis' advocacy. Because he didn't merely use but also significantly *stoked* culture war fires himself. That's precisely the point we're making. It's not that he neutrally harnessed the power of divisions that were already in place and kept himself hermetically sealed off from them and managed to keep the social divisions on this point at the same level they were at when he started ... it's that he has taken an important social issue, one that had some partisan dimensions to it but was also cross-partisan to a significant degree, and fully submerged it in the culture war acids. This has had the effect of situating it as a distinctly red-pilled prerogative and has required making common cause with some of the worst reactionary personalities around—we're talking bad-faith actors that are doing tangible harm to the body politic. Is getting school choice passed in a few states worth becoming a Trump enthusiast? Is raising awareness about school choice worth promoting the limitlessly vile LibsOfTikTok account? Is that a positive for the prospects of education reform over the long haul?

This is to say nothing of how comically discrediting it is for you to present an anecdotal case about a single book being historically innacurate as a justification for the subject of the video contributing to a widespread panic about an entire academic field of study. I'm really sorry that your daughter was assigned a dumb book. That doesn't make the LibsOfTikTok style campaign against CRT any less of a panic.

You're one of the worst commentators we've had in a while. Congrats, I guess?

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The staggering moral rot involved in thinking that to fight anti-capitalism in CRT it is OK to ally with an anti-capitalist/fascist like Trump and hate oufits like Moms for Liberty and Libs of Tik Tok.

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If you think that progressives or mainstream Democrats (who are basically funded by teachers unions whenever they run for reelection - they do GOTV and lots of mail in a number of states) are going to get on board with school choice because of the quality of the arguments, I don't know what to tell you other than... Look at how Democratic legislators voted on school choice before Corey DeAngelis. They're still voting the same way 🤷‍♂️ is the concern that they're even more intensely against the policy change they were already against?

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"I have drafted a few state code sections and CFR sections. Have you ever drafted any, or gotten any laws enacted? If you haven't, what basis do you have to criticize him?"

What a pathetically unserious reply. The idea that a person can only criticize someone else for exacerbating cultural divisions only if they themselves have "enacted laws" is ridiculous.

It also begs the question against the very position we're advancing: that there are some tactics, some strategies, that can be harmful even if they're proximately or prima facie successful. That there are some approaches that can be corrosive in a deeper sense even if they're somewhat legislatively successful. One of our positions is that tethering school choice to the culture war harms more than it helps, even if some states end up passing desired legislation in the short term. Rufo, which I'm quite sure you're a fanboy of, is in the same boat. Red-pilled rejects will always be able to point to Ws of his or whatever, but the harm his approach is doing in other respects is considerable—and obvious to anyone of good faith.

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"Critical race theory, gender-inclusive policies, trans issues, and Covid-related closures have fueled a moral panic that is poisoning our politics." Such government in-your-face deserves backlash. Privatize education please.

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Interestingly I cannot find a single “anti-gay” or “anti-same-sex” comment this man has made. GLAAD in the spirit of defamation they claim to be against seems to be defaming a gay man.

I may set up some robots to search but all my usual go-to tools bring up nothing.

It unfortunate that we’re at the point that institutions like GLAAD which should be dismissing his porn work, appear virulently anti-gay.

Being against Drag Story Hour and trans nonsense in school is not even remotely anti-gay.

Sad.

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Well. As usual. You are on the opposite side of an issue which has clearly delineated lines. I lived in Charlotte North Carolina 20 years ago. It was the origination of race based bussing in the early 1970’s. When we lived there the gangs were so pervasive down to the middle schools that plain red and white shirts were banned, due to them representing the Bloods and the Crips. The entire argument in the schools were about feel good participation awards, not about achievement. And it only got worse. Private schools thrived. Home schooling was so pervasive that there were weekday daytime YMCA athletic leagues for soccer, baseball, softball, basketball and football, to accommodate all of the home school kids. And home schooling has accelerated after the COVID shutdown when parents got to see the indoctrination up close. Common Core is a massive failure. Indoctrination is a massive failure. School Choice is here and not going away.

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We agree it is a good cause. Which is why need to build a broad coalition for it not get it mired in the culture war! It will be good for all children, not just for right-wing parents in the grip of a moral panic who want to force-feed their kids reactionary nonsense.

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IMHO, Left Wing parents like the indoctrination and don’t see the lack of education achievement as a problem. The Majority in the middle want good education without the indoctrination. It takes the 25% “Right Wingers” to bring this out to the middle 50%, to gain a super majority 75% to overcome the 10% Left Wingers and their complicit 15% followers.

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First let me say conceptually I support school choice but the funding sources used need to be looked at carefully.

It is simpler to distribute funds from the state than locally. When the school enrolls a student (public or private) then the state transfers a designated amount to that school electronically and immediately. Parents do not get vouchers.

Property taxes which traditionally have supported public schools is very different.

I do not want my tax dollars used for religious indoctrination but at the same time parents who send their children to private schools should not pay taxes for services they don't use.

Today it would be simple for tax payer to designate their portion of school taxes either to public schools or to a private school fund which is then distributed to licensed private schools on a per capita basis.

There are also a few other concerns.

One is that a significant number of the people pushing for school choice are covertly aiming to resegregate schools. Just as many of the opponents to integration in the 1960s were white evangelical Christians.

Second is that some of these schools are also essentially religious indoctrination centers. Would there be funding made available to a madrassa run by radical Muslims, separatist Jewish yeshivas, and Christian Nationalist military schools?

Finally I have noticed a number of people complaining about teacher unions. Where I grew up there was no teacher unions as such. They had a state organization that advocated for teachers and other educational concerns before state government. They did not negotiated salaries and benefits which were entirely a matter for local school boards and local teachers.

One observation is that MOST of the really good teachers migrated out of education into other businesses and professions. Their talents could not be retained because the job market offered many better opportunities and higher income. What was left over were a lot of adequate but often mediocre "lifers" and a rotating set of bad teachers who came and went because they weren't very good.

The person featured in this article has found the pathway to success if success is defined as school choice at any price and by any means necessary.

Perhaps in this day and age the whole idea of tax supported education is simply too 19th century for our needs. Everyone is all in on individual choice to the point that the concept and benefit of a well educated population has been forgotten.

“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”

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Thanks for that feedback. Does anyone share my concern that private schools will begin raising their prices well above inflation because tuition will be subsidized and we could have out of control costs similar to colleges today. I could see similar tacit collusion taking place and this plan could become a heavy burden on tax payers?

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Not really. Because in a functioning market there is price competition that keeps a lid on prices. In fact, I see private schools as a corrective to inflation.

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"in a functioning market..." is the operative concept that I question would even exist. Catholic schools operated largely (back in the ancient days of my youth) on the low cost of religious brothers and sisters teaching. Now that nuns and brothers have disappeared from the labor market the parochial schools have to compete with the salaries and benefit packages of the public systems. Therefore parochial schools that could once offer an education to even lower income families must now compete for the children of more affluent families. Even if "funding follows the student" it is insufficient to make private education affordable for many families.

And then there are all the students that nobody wants because of the costs of educating them that will just be dumped back into the public system with shrinking resources to support them.

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There is supposed price competition in college tuition as well, yet prices have exploded the past 20 years, how do you explain? Is it the easy access to college loans? Could you not foresee something similar emerging in the private school market? I’m not saying this definitively, but curious your thoughts.

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This is a legitimate concern. Tuitions were raised in Iowa following its voucher passage. https://www.kcrg.com/2024/05/17/princeton-study-private-school-tuitions-rise-after-state-voucher-rollout/

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Who do you propose that libertarians (who make up like 3% of the population, tops) ally with/work with when trying to reform bad policy and implement good policy? It's politics, you have to ally with a coalition that can deliver the numbers to make your proposed changes law. You can't do that with 3% of people, even if they're all wearing halos and glowing with righteousness from how little they've allied with bad mean people.

Frederick Douglass had a good point when he said “I would unite with anybody to do right and nobody to do wrong” - is that wisdom tired out now?

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I would argue that Corey isn’t “doing” right though. He may have achieved (some semblance of) positive outcomes, but “doing” is a descriptor of ongoing actions, not outcomes, and Corey is “doing” rage-bait and moral panic inducement.

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Fair enough - I'm of two minds here, I would prefer to persuade everyone to vote for my preferred policies through solid argumentation and evidence. The bad news is that those things don't typically change anyone's mind, especially when you're talking about legislators. So you have to meet people where they are to change their minds, and sometimes where they are is a very dumb place.

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Or to put this another way - I allied with insane progressives who think there should be a unitary federal government that runs all aspects of policy nationwide, and that private property is the root of all evil when we worked to pass medical cannabis laws and cannabis decrim - should I have just sat by myself pouting, or is it better to have passed the laws we wanted to see?

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Limited strategic alliances have their uses-- upto a point. But he endorses the vilest groups and their message in toto. That makes him either a bigot like them or a cynic. This is him today https://www.threads.net/@layres/post/DA8P7WrI-Cw

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Bah I can't see the link because I don't have Threads - is he retweeting that Trump clip from Lins of TikTok?

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