Today’s Wall Street Journal features and editorial on Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle’s change of heart regarding expansion of the school voucher program in Milwaukee. In discussing what might have led to the Governor’s new found support for expanding the cap on the number of students that can participate, the Journal points out that, in TV ads, the pro-voucher campaign made a big deal out of the fact that Doyle sent his kids to private school. The WSJ then states ?Sometimes it helps to point out the hypocrisy of public officials who exercise the very freedoms they deny others.? (A link is not available without subscription.)

This is a patently absurd statement. While I know nothing about Governor Doyle I am quite sure that he did not ?deny? anyone the freedom to send their kids to private school. In fact I am quite sure that all citizens of Wisconsin have the right to do exactly what the governor is doing-dip into their own pickets and pay for their kid’s private education. This is a particularly obnoxious claim that voucher advocates make-namely that those who send their kids to private school but oppose vouchers are hypocrites and want to deny other people a right that they themselves are exercising. There is nothing hypocritical about sending your own kids to private schools using your own money while being against the use of taxpayer money to provide vouchers for others who might want to do the same. In fact I would argue that anyone who truly values private education and wants to preserve its autonomy and integrity would automatically have to oppose vouchers.