Most Expect Movement for Vouchers to Survive Vote
The California initiative is lagging in the polls. But backers of the nationwide effort suggest other approaches might have a better chance of success.
By MARTHA GROVES, Times Education Writer
With California's vouchers-for-all initiative seriously lagging in the polls, advocates and opponents are pondering what a defeat would mean for the future of the national voucher movement. Proposition 38's loss in the Golden State could slow the crusade's momentum, but it is unlikely to squelch the campaign altogether, academics and policy watchers say.
Rather, they say, failure to pass the universal, statewide program--far more radical than any of the other public or private voucher experiments tried to date--could spur proponents from across the political spectrum to converge on a patch of common turf.