School Choice: Why You Need It — How You Get It

School choice is the hottest and most controversial idea in education reform today. As dissatisfaction with the public schools continues to grow, more and more people are turning to choice to provide real reform. Milwaukee has implemented a voucher plan, and choice plans have been on the ballot in several states.

The author, David J. Harmer, explains why the public schools no longer work, why they resist reform, and why choice is the reform that will work. He also gives us the inside story of California’s pioneering 1993 Parental Choice in Education initiative and the education establishment’s successful $16 million campaign to defeat it. Harmer explains how other states can adapt the initiative to their needs and what lessons can be learned from its defeat.

For taxpayers concerned about rising costs, for employers and educators concerned about school quality, and especially for parents concerned about their children’s future, School Choice is must reading.

“By expertly analyzing the school choice issue, David Harmer provides readers with a detailed vision of how choice can work to improve the lives of American children. He has made a valuable contribution to the debate over how American education must change to meet the needs of tomorrow.”
—Sen. Joe Lieberman

“David Harmer’s arguments about why we need school choice are right on the mark. His chapter on how to make it happen has some great ideas that school choice activists should seriously consider.”
—Bret Schundler, Mayor, Jersey City

“An excellent handbook for all those working to help all American families have more of the choices of schools that the wealthy already have.”
—Lamar Alexander, Former Secretary of Education

David Harmer was the principal author of the California choice initiative and now practices law in Salt Lake City, Utah.