The Far-Left Education Idea Floated in the Debate by ... Romney?
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Posted Wednesday, Oct. 3, 2012, at 11:30 PM ET
Mitt Romney at the first presidential debate on Wednesday
Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.
Mitt Romney has floated the most radical, furthest left idea currently in the mainstream education debate: to allow poor and disabled schoolchildren to move their federal education funding across district lines. Romney first outlined the idea in an education policy white paper he released in May, and he reiterated the proposal during the Wednesday debate.
Coming from a Republican, this is a big deal: Historically, affluent and white parents and school districts have gone to great lengths to keep poor, nonwhite kids out of their own kids’ classrooms. Those of us concerned about the resegregation of American schoolshave long advocated for more partnerships between urban and suburban districts, through magnet schools and voluntary busing programs. But this is typically understood as such a lefty proposition that not even the Democratic Party will embrace it. The Obama administration’s signature school reform program, Race to the Top, did nothing to encourage school integration or allow children to attend schools outside of their home districts—an important right, since many failing schools are located in districts where