Even in the reddest states, they fell short of their true Holy Grail: public money funding private school tuition, for all who want it, including middle-class and wealthy families.

Very suddenly, that has changed. It started with West Virginia in 2021 and Arizona in 2022, and then continued with a flood this year — Iowa, Utah, Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Ohio, and Indiana. More may follow. “It’s happening!” Corey DeAngelis, a conservative activist who describes himself as a “school choice evangelist,” regularly tweets, joyfully chronicling each new victory. …

But the biggest change is in who can use them: everyone. “It’s really hard to overstate how different from any kind of previous legislation these programs are.” said Liz Cohen, policy director for Georgetown University’s FutureEd think tank. “It’s not income-tested; it’s not about getting the lowest-income kids in the worst schools. Prior to three years ago, I would have bet a lot of money you would have never seen this happen.”

[Gee, I wonder why voters are suddenly supporting these programs? Could it be that public schools went derelict in their duties over no good reason during the pandemic except to benefit unions? Or might it be that public schools are now serving as amplifiers of a transgender social panic that threatens to turn children into neutered mental patients for life? Or perhaps it might be that public-school education delivers consistently poor results with no accountability whatsoever. My best guess is … all of the above reaching critical mass post-pandemic. — Ed]