QUOTE OF THE DAY:

One prominent school choice advocacy group, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), has adopted as mantra that school choice is widespread, unless you're poor. Middle-class and wealthy families have the means to choose neighborhoods with good public schools or send their children to private schools. Tens of millions choose where to live because of the quality of schools nearby; something people of lesser means cannot do.

Critics say rich people have a lot more of everything of value than the poor. And if they choose ritzy neighborhoods to gain access to good schools, they're paying for it, unlike the poor who demand school vouchers.

That's not exactly true. The federal income tax system operates as Robin Hood in reverse, subsidizing wealthier taxpayers at the expense of less-affluent Americans.

Among those Americans who itemize their taxes — less than one-third of those who file tax returns — the average taxpayer receives a $9,607 deduction for mortgage interest. Add an average deduction of $2,645 for real-estate taxes for a total of $12,252 — more than $4,000 in reduced taxes for higher-income earners (even after accounting for the alternative minimum tax).

That's Clint Bolick, making the case for school choice. I am pleased to see the advocates of school choice reaching out to the egalitarians. School finance through local property taxes has long been trouble. Diffusion of the meme, school choice IS bundled with home ownership, is a Good Thing. (Hat tip: Newmark's Door.)