NJ Gov Christie gives the bird to a school choice program almost everyone loves

Laura Waters:

“It’s a great program,” says New Jersey Senate President Steve Sweeney. It “meets an important need, and it does so utilizing New Jersey’s excellent public schools,” says New Jersey Education Association. “We knew there would be interest in this program because of enrollment trends” and we’re “very supportive,” says N.J. School Boards Association.

This object of this rare consensus among lobbyists and legislators — not to mention parents and students — is N.J.’s Interdistrict Public School Choice Program (IPSCP), which allows students to attend public schools in other districts even if their parents can’t afford to live there. But there appears to be one dissenter from this happy unanimity: the Christie Administration. While the Governor continues, as recently as this month’s State of the State address, to hawk a pipedream of parochial school vouchers, he has steadily diminished budgetary support for a program that offers a non-polarizing and popular form of school choice.