Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation

Nobel Laureate economist Dr. Milton Friedman, renowned author of the immensely popular Capitalism and Freedom and, with wife Rose. Free to Choose, has always been a controversial figure in the world of ideas. His noted opinions over the years on government and social policy, freedom and the benefits of free markets have certainly raised a few eyebrows and even shocked his most vigorous adversaries inside the academy.

Today, though, one idea that Friedman and his wife, also a noted economist have long championed is thoroughly in the intellectual and political mainstream. Some 40 years ago, the Friedmans were among the first economists of this century to propose the thenradical notion that market competition could reform our nation's most troubled public school systems. In addition to being practical, "school choice," they believed, was fair and just.

Because of the Friedmans, school choice has now gained widespread acceptance among politicians and, most importantly, parents who are fed up with the failures of public schools. This success can be attributed to their intellectual efforts, as well as those of the Milton and Rose D. Friedman Foundation, a private organization they founded in September 1996.

The foundation is dedicated to what the Friedmans have so enthusiastically maintained for years: that market competition, through incentives, is the best-and only effectivecourse for reforming public schools. "The foundation," they wrote in their mission statement, "is the culmination of what has been one of our main interests for more than four decades: improvement in the quality of the education available to children of all income and social classes in this nation, whether that education is provided in government or private schools or at home."

The foundation's project director, Robert Enlow, says, "The Friedmans have long believed in school choice as the vehicle to bring about substantive reform in our schools. They've said that the most feasible way to change the system is to let parents have the choice where their kids go to school."

Enlow says that the primary purpose of the organization is to educate people about the virtues of breaking open the long-standing public school monopoly. The best way to do that, he notes, is to inform in a way "that is not episodic, or linked to a legislative or ballot initiative," but instead to highlight why school choice works.

But convincing people of that hasn't been easy. The educational establishment, in the form of teachers unions, has launched wellfunded campaigns around the country against choice, most of which, Enlow says, have been successful.

"The teachers' unions, not the teachers themselves, have been the ones who oppose what we're trying to do," he explains. "Teachers actually are the ones who engage in choice the most. They often send their kids to private or parochial schools, and that alone should tell you something about the state of public schools."

The unions, he says, have simply refused to relinquish their power over parents and students.

However, as Milton Friedman optimistically wrote in the Washington Post in 1995, "Support for free-choice schools has been growing rapidly and cannot be held back indefinitely by the vested interests of the unions and educational bureaucracy. I sense that we are on the verge of a breakthrough in one state or another, which will then sweep like wildfire through the rest of the country."

Indeed, the successful choice experiments currently underway in Milwaukee and Cleveland confirm Friedman's prediction. But more work needs to be done. Teacher unions, for example, have twice thwarted Congress from enacting reform through choice in Washington, D.C., leaving thousands of poor children at the mercy of one of the worst school systems in America. Unions have also stopped any legislation allowing federal aid to the states to be used for choice.

"Our job right now is to pull our resources together and help those people who are fighting on the ground for reform," Enlow says. The Friedman foundation provides that assistance in the form of grants to choice advocates and other nonprofit organizations supporting reform in K12 education. It also produces a number of editorials, publications, conferences and research projects, all of which are aimed at influencing the public policy debate.

,So far, the foundation has developed partnerships with choice advocates in several states, including Texas, Florida, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington. Most recently, it supported the efforts of groups in Minnesota who successfully backed Republican Gov. Arne Carlson's statewide parental choice program.

But despite these and other advances, education reform continues to be one of the most vexing social and political issues facing policymakers today, if only because deep-pocketed unions and government-addicted politicians won't allow it. The Friedman foundation, though, is likely to change that. As bureaucrats continue to put out low-quality products at exorbitantly high-prices, they will not be able to withstand the inevitable tide of reform sweeping the country. And thanks to the Friedmans, it is growing stronger everyday.