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The Education Liberator, Vol. 2, No. 6, July 1996 Freedom lovers against tax-funded vouchersby Marshall Fritz The debate over tax-funded school vouchers historically has been framed with two sides: Dr. Milton Friedman and fellow freedom lovers up against a huge education lobby of teacher unions and school administrators. Neither side of this traditional debate welcomes the FLAV crowd into the arena (Freedom Lovers Against Vouchers). We make both sides uncomfortable with our message that if Dr. Friedman's voucher wins, the education lobby will extend its controls to the formerly independent schools. One California think tank evaded the discomfort during the 1993 contest on Proposition 174 by ignoring FLAVs when selecting a dozen authors for a book putatively covering the spectrum of opinion. The same held true for the debates; the FLAV side was usually treated by both sides as if it didn't exist. For decades, the primary attack of the FLAV folks has been the expected loss of school autonomy when government funds start flowing to "private" schools. For the last two years, however, the "expansion of dependency" argument has been gathering steam. I remember asking one VMD (Very Major Donor) to a freedom foundation how I could distinguish, in principle, between him and a liberal. This was at the height of the socialized medicine debate, which he vigorously opposed, yet he saw schooling and school stamps as appropriate uses of government. (He didn't quite answer my question. He was too polite to hang up on me, but we haven't spoken since.) Now it's time for the FLAV crowd to speak out. Part of this is to see just how strong we already are, and that's why I put together this list. I know quite a few more who are just as against the voucher as those listed below, but it is not CC (Conservatively Correct) to go public just yet.
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