Opponents of voucher and other educational choice programs have been pushing a new narrative concerning the origins of such programs: that they were born in 1950s Southern racism.
Although segregationists did attempt to use vouchers to circumvent the Supreme Court’s order to desegregate public schools in Brown v. Board of Education, that was by no means the origin of educational choice. In fact, it was an aberration.
As I discuss in the Syracuse Law Review, the true roots of school choice run deeper — two centuries deeper. The modern educational choice movement, meanwhile, which counts Black parents among its most fervent supporters, arose in inner city Washington, D.C., Milwaukee and Cleveland. This movement traces its lineage to classical liberal thinkers — not to reactionary racists.
The gradual turn to race as the basis for attacks on educational choice began in 2017. That year, the Center for American Progress…
