Public policy ideas usually go through a long, arduous path before becoming laws. For a while, issues and ideas just percolate in academic and intellectual circles, then public officials begin to talk about them, then the media picks it up, coalitions form, they push through a program first at the state and local level as an experiment, and then national figures run with it. Most big ideas never make it that far.
Vouchers have more or less followed that path. But after a couple of successes, the voucher movement ran out of steam a few years ago. There was just too much organized resistance to putting forward real policies with some teeth in them. Many of biggest voucher proponent began to champion other programs, like home schooling and e-schooling, that they felt could reach the same ends. Bush stopped talking about them all together.
Surprisingly, the voucher proponents are beginning to organize again. Maybe they were just waiting to see how the few pilot programs out there in DC and Cleveland worked out. Maybe new people have come to the table. Maybe these things are just cyclical. Policy proponents or entrepreneurs need to wait out lulls in public opinion and charge the fortresses with new strength.
New York City might first on the list for the next federal backed voucher program. And many state legislatures are gearing up for big voucher fights this year, including expanding Ohio's program.