June 19, 2007 4:29PM 

# School Choice Movement Needs to Broaden the Coalition 

By [Adam B. Schaeffer](https://www.cato.org/people/adam-b-schaeffer) 

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A must-read article by Howard Rich\*, chairman of the Parents in Charge Foundation, ran this weekend in the *Wall Street Journal.* It explains why pursuing [targeted voucher plans is a bad long-term strategy](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB118195964720137475.html?mod=most_viewed_opinion24):

> Broader choice plans equal broader support. You don’t have to take 
> Grassroots 101 to know that successful coalitions are based on 
> addition, not subtraction. Yet in many instances school choice 
> supporters have been conditioned to believe that confining the 
> parameters of parental choice will lead to a broader base of public 
> support. The opposite is true. As employee stock options and personal 
> savings accounts have shown, nothing motivates individuals quite like 
> becoming personally invested in an issue.
> 
> 
> Supporters of school choice cannot afford to leave a single ally on 
> the sidelines — for Christian school parents, home school parents, 
> parents with special-needs children or parents who for whatever reason 
> aren’t satisfied with the public school they are zoned for, universal 
> choice plans offer a much broader base of grassroots support than more 
> narrowly-drawn proposals.

Rich should be commended for spearheading a new strategy in South Carolina that expands the school choice coalition and makes long-term success more likely.

Educational freedom for all is good policy and good politics.

\* Howard Rich is also a Cato Institute Board member.

##### Related Tags 

[Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) 

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