Opposing school choice could cost Dems 2016 election, strategist says

Opposing school choice will be a liability for Democrats in the 2016 election, argues one political strategist.

"Let's call this move what it is: a pivot in the wrong policy direction to pander to a sizable interest group — teachers' unions — that comes at the expense of mostly low-income, minority kids who desperately need high-quality school options," Francesca Jarosz Brady wrote in an op-ed published by The Hill on Nov. 13. "The Democrats' education reform reversal is not just wrongheaded on the substance; it's also a bad move politically for a myriad of reasons."

Jarosz Brady is vice president at Vox Global, a strategic communications and public affairs firm.

She goes on to cite several factors that show the political tides are shifting in favor of more school choice.

For example, millennials have grown up in an era of innovation. It's unlikely they will support a party that wants to maintain a 20th-century, one-size-fits-all status quo in education. "It's no wonder, then, that GOP pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson identified education as an issue on which Republicans have the potential to win over young voters in her book, The Selfie Vote," Jarosz Brady wrote.

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