Virginia is one of several states where parental choice advocates are trying to pass legislation to help low-income families. The challenges in this state are unique, because Virginia has an unfortunate history with choice legislation. In the early 1960’s, as public schools were under court order to integrate, the Virginia legislature passed a choice program that was largely seen as a vehicle for white parents to pull their children from integrating schools. Understandably, several long serving members of the Virginia legislature remember these times and these motivations.

Half a century has passed, and a new generation of parents in Virginia are now looking to the legislature to once again pass a choice bill. This time, African American parents are asking for this empowerment. This recent article from the Washington Post does an excellent job describing this development.

I want to personally thank former Florida House Representative Terry Fields, and former Florida Senate Democratic Leader Al Lawson for their efforts in trying to help pass this bill. The sponsor of the bill in the Virginia Assembly called looking for help in persuading members of their legislature’s Black Caucus. When the tax credit scholarship program was created by the Florida Legislature in 2001, only one Democrat—and not a single member of the Black Caucus—voted for the bill. In the 2010 session, when the legislature aggressively expanded the program, roughly half of House Democrats, a third of Senate Democrats, and a majority of the Black Caucus voted in favor. Representative Fields, who was one of the first to convert to the cause, personally went to Richmond to talk to members of the caucus. Senator Lawson, who sponsored several of the Florida bills, published this column in the Roanoke Times supporting the bill.

Although they were not successful this year, as you can see from the Washington Post article, things are changing. Perhaps next year we should send the Rev. H.K. Matthews from Pensacola, Fla., who like Virginia’s Senator Marsh is a hero of the civil rights movement. But unlike Marsh, Matthews supports parental choice for low-income families. In fact, he has called it “an extension of the old movement”. That would be quite a conversation, I imagine.

Before a Virginia senate committee had a chance to kill a proposed tax credit scholarship for low-income students, legislators heard from a former Florida lawmaker who had his own change of heart about supporting private learning options for families who could least afford them.

Terry L. Fields, a former Democratic state representative from Jacksonville, Fla., traveled to Virginia this week to share with lawmakers skeptical of HB 2314 how a group of families once showed him that supporting a scholarship for low-income children helped fulfill the state's commitment to equal educational opportunity.

"It's very personal with me," Fields said in an interview with redefinED this morning. "When my son was in grade school, I realized as a parent that he didn't do very well in that setting. So we made a decision to put him in a private school." A few years later, a group of about 30 parents and 30 students came to his House office  and confronted Fields' opposition to Florida's own tax credit scholarship and asked for the chance to give their children what he had given his own son. (more…)

The Virginia Senate Finance Committee voted 9-6 this afternoon to kill a bill that would have provided private school tuition assistance to low-income students.

House Bill 2314 passed the Virginia House of Delegates last week by a vote of 54-45, but senate opponents said the state had no business funding tax breaks to subsidize private schools while traditional public schools suffered budget cuts, according to a story on washingtonpost.com

It didn't matter that the bill had bipartisan sponsorship and was crafted to benefit only students who qualified for free and reduced-price lunch. Even Terry Fields, a former member of the Florida House of Representatives and a strong supporter of the similarly designed Florida Tax Credit Scholarship, tried convincing the senate committee of the bill's merits -- which would have included a savings to the state -- to no avail.

Earlier today, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a proposed tax credit scholarship for low-income students by a 54-45 vote. HB 2314, which proposes Education Improvement Scholarships, would provide private tuition assistance to students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. The measure gives a corporation a tax credit if it contributes to a nonprofit scholarship organization.

Over the weekend, Democratic delegate Algie T. Howell, a co-sponsor of the bill, had this to say about the plan in The Virginian-Pilot.