Mike Ross Comes Out Against School Choice

Former Congressman Mike Ross has been busy speaking around the state gearing up for the Democratic primary for Governor against former Lt. Governor Bill Halter.  Yesterday, his tour took him to northwest Arkansas where he spoke at the Political Animals Club of Northwest Arkansas.

Reports are that his speech was the standard stump speech mainly about his bio and how fed up he got with Washington D.C. politics so he decided to come home and run for Governor.  But the question-and-answer time got fairly interesting.

For one, he was grilled by a lady at the event for his seemingly overnight policy change regarding abortion.  His answers seems to have matured somewhat although it is still awfully weak saying that while he represented the Fourth District in Congress he voted pro-life, but as Governor he would have a “safe, legal, and rare” viewpoint.

He also seemed to make sure he veered (or at least remained) to the left with a question he was asked by a college student on his views on school choice.

The question came from University of Arkansas college student Will Simpson, who attended the breakfast at a table for College Republicans. I heard about the exchange and visited with Simpson about it who described the exchange…

After introducing myself as a student, I said, “We have a Department of Education Reform at the University that is publishing groundbreaking research by some of our professors, like Patrick Wolf and Jay Greene, demonstrating how student performance can be dramatically improved by more school choice. Are you at all open to any school choice measures, like a vouchers program or more charter school options, in Arkansas?”

After inching up remarkably close to me (I stood to ask a question at the front table), he laughed, shook his head, and said, “No, I’m not.” The short answer fired up the crowd, who gave a round of applause that encouraged him to continue.

“If you want to send your kids to private school, you can, but I’m not going to drain money from our public schools to do it.” The crowd applauded again, and he looked at me and shook his head again, “What I don’t understand is why you would go to a public university and ask a question like that. It might make more sense if you were at some kind of private institution, but it’s not.”

Of course, I wanted to reply that Arkansans can take interest in the quality of our K-12 system regardless of where they go to college, but there were plenty of other questions to field.

Interesting answer.  I followed up with the Ross campaign for a clarification on school vouchers and if they are against any increased options for charter schools.  I will update if I hear back as I know this is certainly an area which interests many in the state.