Begin reading at the back of the book on page 266. This is the Institute for Justice brief as reported in Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the 2002 Supreme Court decision upholding the Cleveland school choice program. This is where the respondents describe parents as “inconsequential conduits” for the program. Ponder that and then the reason for the IJ team’s passion to prevail will become quite clear: it’s time to put parents back in charge of their own children’s education.

Voucher Wars, authored by maverick Institute for Justice attorney Clint Bolick, is more than a chronicle of the 12-year legal battle over school choice. Equally, it is a story of the unwavering conviction of parents and advocates achieving the high moral ground in their fight for children to receive quality education guided by parental choice.

Despite repeated U.S. Supreme Court rulings validating parents’ rights to have primary control over education of their children, beginning with Pierce v. Society of Sisters in 1925 to Troxel v. Granville in 2000, unions and educrats persist in their attacks against the choice movement.

Bolick deftly maneuvers the reader through the many facets of countering these attacks to establish legal precedent with strategies that include mobilizing a network of parents, activists, philanthropists and media. Weathering 40 court arguments, 80 briefs and 50 rulings, losing many more times than winning, the battle crescendos in Zelman.

Predictably, the story does not end there and the defense does not rest. The battleground immediately moves from Cleveland to Florida, where the opposition shifts strategy to exploit the state’s Blaine amendments, laws initiated in 37 states in the late 19th century to block funding to Catholic schools that had broken off from Protestant-run government schools. The war may now be one of attrition, where special interest groups move state to state to wear out choice advocates. The author notes that while the unions spend more and more on legal challenges and expensive ad campaigns to effect public perceptions, government schools continue to decline and children continue to suffer. He says these unions have, in effect, “squandered their moral capital”.

Bolick lays out strategy ahead to guide education freedom advocates towards strengthening and solidifying the stronghold represented by Zelman, noting that while the Establishment Clause “forbids Congress to make laws regarding the establishment of religion”, it also forbids the “abridging thereof”. Neutrality and private choice are the guiding principals for all existing and future scholarship, voucher and tax credit programs. The key will be to seek national precedent from the U.S. Supreme Court holding that state constitutions requiring discrimination against religious options violate the First Amendment.

Here is the call to arms: Legal precedent may be won, but competitive choice must now occur on a large scale. The promise held by No Child Left Behind legislation was lost when school choice language was removed. The key to reform will only occur through true “education equity”. That is not to say that unlimited funding must be thrown at school systems. Education equity will occur only when funding follows individual students in the form of vouchers and the parents of those students have complete freedom of choice where their children attend school. Schools would be given the opportunity to compete; teachers would be given the resources to teach.

Deregulation, decentralization and depoliticization are the keys to public school renewal, says Bolick. Litigation has given impetus to this forward movement. Now, it is time for national policy leaders to take up the banner and lead our country towards systemic education reform, where the welfare of children precedes the preservation of the status quo. Schools and parents must be given information on successfulrograms and then begin to organize with the ultimate goal of enhanced freedom and equal education opportunity for each student.

Remember Brown v. Board of Education? If Bolick has his way, you ain’t seen nothing yet.