Do the WaPo and I Actually Agree?

The Washington Post gets one mostly right today in an editorial criticizing federal funding that it fears could amount to a national school voucher program for students displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

The federal government is right to help those states that have had huge influxes of displaced students, but this is not the time to create any kind of large federal schools program, let alone a voucher program: Good federal policy is not going to be made in the wake of a crisis. In the past we have favored vouchers, on a trial basis and as a specific solution to the problems of specific school systems, such as those of the District. By contrast, a federally funded national program would destroy local districts' ability to make their own decisions, and there's no evidence it would help schools or children.

I suspect that the Post is much more concerned with the creation of a widespread voucher program than it is with massive federal spending, as such a program could potentially threaten the omnipotence of public schools. Nevertheless, the Post is correct in stating that any "emergency" bill that would subsidize private schooling should be quashed, inasmuch as I believe that federal subsidy of any public schooling should also be eliminated.

Yesterday I was very critical of an article written by FreedomWorks' Chris Kinnan, in which he advocated a federal voucher program similar to what the Post dismisses today. But if the Post truly wants to get it right, it will admit that the federal government belongs neither in the business of education, nor - in the words of James Madison - in any other business of expending "on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."