Virginia, a mostly conservative state, would seem a natural environment for school choice and, in fact, polls show that many Virginians support choice as a means of injecting competition into the education system. Yet the Old Dominion has been inhospitable territory for this reform strategy, boasting one of the weakest charter laws on the books. Adam Schaeffer faults state policymakers for lacking courage and failing to present cogent policy options to Virginians. (The relative excellence of public schools in Northern Virginia's densely populated suburbs may also be a factor in the Commonwealth's disinclination to tinker with a system that serves prosperous white people reasonably well.) Schaeffer also suggests that Virginia choice advocates focus on tax credits to get around a Blaine Amendment that the state Supreme Court has interpreted strictly. An excellent example of the need for such advocates to take their arguments to the grassroots and develop strategies that respond to local/ state political realities.
"No, Virginia, there is no such thing as school choice," by Adam B. Schaeffer, Doublethink magazine, Spring 2004