Bringing Choice Advocates Into the School Finance Debate

Today's Eduwonk has an interesting proposition for bringing the left and right together over the property-tax problem -- written in the form of a singles want ad: ISO: National Commission To Tackle Current Property Tax Policies And Propose Reforms. Eduwonk must miss his days as a single guy.

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This somewhat novel idea is that pro-choice folks who have generally stayed out of school finance cases might join forces with those on the left in order to address the current limits of district-based property taxes for schools:

"..both sides of the political spectrum have something to gain by tackling this problem and there is something of a grand bargain out there. Conservative choice schemes (and centrist charter school schemes) will never be serious solutions as long as school finance remains a district by district affair...Resources will come with reform."

I'm not sure that I see it happening, but it's certainly a fresh take on a very old and often intractable problem. Like Eduwonk says, candidates for the job of leading this effort "must be fit and active, nationally recognizable, and enjoy cooking, in particular a witch’s brew that will offend the political right and left."