You Won't Believe This

Down in Florida, the former President of the teachers union is now the head of the school choice movement. Go figure.

The new head of the leading voucher group in Florida is a former teachers union leader who once said vouchers were "based on false assumptions and faulty logic."

His hiring may be another sign that the bitter political lines over vouchers are not as hard and fast as they were just a few years ago....

People say, " 'Gee, Doug, you suddenly flipped your position on school choice.' That's not true," Tuthill said.

Tuthill said he heard many of the same arguments now raised against vouchers when he helped set up the International Baccalaureate program at St. Petersburg High School in the early 1980s. "Our argument was all we're trying to do is create more learning options (for kids)," he said.

Bingo. Different children will excel in different environments. This includes traditional public high schools, vocational schools and yes, private schools. Yet somehow, the teachers union here in New Jersey continues to argue that the best interest of education does not include offering poor children all possible options.

Also joining the movement is a St. Petersburg Times columnist who now acknowledges that vouchers do not undermine public education.

Good for them.