Huge Demand for Private Vouchers Raises Questions

By Jeff Archer

The Children's Scholarship Fund may have pledged to stay out of politics, but it's dropped a compelling new question into the school choice debate: What does it mean when the low-income parents of 1.25 million children seek the chance to win one of 40,000 private school scholarships?

Does it mean that "the families who applied are profoundly dissatisfied with their current--and only--option in education," as the program's co-founder, Theodore J. Forstmann, said last week in announcing the privately financed awards? Or does it merely suggest that large numbers of urban families believe a private education is the better alternative for their children?

"I don't think you want to infer from this that most parents are dissatisfied, or even that most poor parents are dissatisfied," said Terry M. Moe, a Stanford University professor and voucher supporter who has written a book about such scholarship programs. "It's just that there is a large, pent-up demand among some...