Milton Friedman and his free-market ideas may have been anathema to the political left, but he was right about one thing: School choice.

Daniel Grego, the director of Milwaukee's TransCenter for Youth and an acolyte of the likes of Ivan Illich and Wendell Berry, made that case in the journal Encounter. His argument, outlined in a 2011 article we stumbled upon recently, is worth highlighting, in part, because it reinforces a theme we've explored on this blog for quite some time: The left-of-center appeal of educational choice.

"It is time for people on the left to overcome 'the nonthought of received ideas' and admit that giving poor families resources is a progressive public policy," Grego wrote.

The writer helped lead an ill-fated effort, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to bring more "small schools" to his city. An article in Milwaukee Magazine said he was intent on ending "the longtime war" between public-school supporters and advocates of the city's pioneering school voucher program.

And while he wound up sharing Friedman's conclusions about the benefits of educational choice, he followed a different intellectual path to arrive at that position.  (more…)