This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Terry Stoops, Education Policy Analyst for the John Locke Foundation.

Earlier this month, Jon Huntsman, the Republican governor of Utah, signed a universal voucher bill that offers families between $500 and $3,000 to help defray the cost of private school tuition. While there is nothing unusual about a Republican governor signing a school choice bill, some may be surprised to hear that a handful of Gov. Huntsman’s Democratic counterparts have recently signed landmark school choice legislation into law.

To be sure, the school choice movement is flourishing in unlikely places. Over the past year, the Democratic governors of Iowa, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Arizona signed bills that created or expanded school choice options for families. Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic governor of New York, may soon join the list. He recently proposed that families receive a $1,000 tax credit for private school tuition. Spitzer also wants the New York state legislature to expand existing options by lifting the state’s cap on charter schools. Like North Carolina, New York has a ridiculous state-imposed cap of 100 charter schools.

I do not expect Gov. Easley to embrace tax credits (Dell and Google excepted) or call for lifting the state’s cap on charter schools, but many Democrats wish he would. A July 2005 John William Pope Civitas Institute poll found that 61 percent of Democrats (and 68 percent of Republicans) supported using tax dollars to help families pay for the public, private, or religious school of their choice. Support was particularly strong among 18-to-44-year-old North Carolinians from both parties, suggesting that the next generation of elected officials, on both sides of the aisle, may take the need for school choice legislation for granted.

Democrats and Republicans may agree that families need school choice, but they rarely agree on the reasons why. For many of those on the Right, the late Milton Friedman said it best: “As the private market took over, the quality at all schools would rise so much that even the worst, while it might be relatively lower in scale, would be better in absolute quality.” Many of those on the Left embrace school choice as a social justice measure. They argue that school choice would raise the quality of schools for poor and minority students, who are ill served by government schools. Clint Bolick, a prominent leader in the school choice movement, observed:

The U.S. Department of Education reported recently that 3 million children are attending chronically failing schools – that is, schools that have failed to satisfy minimal state standards for at least six consecutive years. … For Democrats who truly believe in social justice, that presents a terrible dilemma: Either forcing children to remain in schools where they have little prospect for a bright future, or enlisting private schools in a rescue mission. Democrats are increasingly unwilling to forsake the neediest children.

Of course, both perspectives share a common assumption, namely that our 19th century system of government schools did not fulfill the promises of the 20th century and cannot meet the needs of the 21st century.

True blue progressives may balk at the suggestion that the Left is joining the Right in an effort to expand school choice. After all, Democrats have been willing to support only tame school choice legislation that provides targeted, not comprehensive, reform. These new choice measures will not diminish the power of the teacher unions or do much to undermine the government school monopoly. Moreover, a majority of Democratic legislators, beholden to the education establishment, will continue to oppose school choice vigorously. The Left may be more bipolar than bipartisan on the issue, but a change is in the air.

Everyone, regardless of political affiliation, is invited to get involved in the school choice movement in North Carolina. On March 6, Parents for Educational Freedom in North Carolina (PEFNC) will host Dr. Howard Fuller, chairman of the Black Alliance for Educational Options, at the Upper Room Christian Academy in Raleigh. PEFNC is a new school choice organization focused on building awareness of the need for even more educational options in North Carolina. If you believe that low- and middle-income families deserve the same educational choices that wealthy families can afford, I encourage you to attend the March 6 event. Register by phone at (919) 341-8450 or on the website www.pefnc.org.