Writing for the Wall Street Journal, Sol Stern recently called upon President Bush, come January, to seize his "unprecedented opportunity" to create a pilot voucher program for poor kids trapped in the District of Columbia's dismal schools. Doing so, contends Stern, would produce a domino effect, encouraging the creation of voucher programs and quickening the pace of reform in other metropolises. In a Cato Institute Policy Analysis, Casey Lartigue fleshes out the need for choice in the nation's capital, which he dubs "the worst of the worst" for its bottom-dwelling test scores. Given that per-pupil expenditures are already among the highest in the country, he argues, only a heavy dose of competition and parental empowerment can turn the city's schools around. See "S.O.S. - Save Our Schools," by Sol Stern, The Wall Street Journal, December 10, 2002 (subscribers only), and "The Need for Educational Freedom in the Nation's Capital," by Casey J. Lartigue Jr., Cato Institute, December 10, 2002.
