Quick morning updates
The Virginia legislature is back in Richmond today for a special session. While originally called to deal with a Supreme Court opinion dealing with evidence in legal cases, the Governor has now announced a further budget shortfall and the need for more than $1 billion in budget cuts.
More tributes to Mrs. Rose Friedman, a tireless school choice and freedom advocate, who passed away yesterday.
And an interesting article in the Washington Times, “Don’t look for the union label.”
Maybe there can be too much of a good thing. That appears to be the lesson to take from two kinds of school choice — charter schools and education voucher programs — that have enjoyed increasing success in recent years. As voucher programs come of age and charter schools proliferate, they are both threatened by the tedious mandates and workplace rules they were created to circumvent.
And the implacable enemies of school choice, teacher unions, have supporters between a rock and hard place. They say they will give up their old hostility, but there’s a catch: First schools must be unionized and regulated by government.
Rose Friedman
We are deeply saddened to learn today of the passing of Rose Friedman at the age of 99. Rose, like her late husband, Milton Friedman, was a talented and influential economist and a tireless advocate for freedom, especially in the area of education. The school choice movement has lost a brilliant and passionate advocate today, but her work will undoubtedly continue to have a lasting impact on freedom in this country and, in fact, the world.
The Friedman Foundation- the organization established by the Friedmans in 1996 to promote parental choice in education- today has a remembrance statement posted on their website, recognizing the life and work of Mrs. Friedman.
They share some highlights of Mrs. Friedman’s professional, as well as personal life:
Her most important contribution was the 1980 book Free to Choose, which she co-wrote with her husband, and the accompanying ten-part PBS series. Both were highly successful – the book topped the bestseller list for five weeks – and had a profound impact on the public understanding of freedom. At a time when the nation’s confidence in its founding ideas was at an all-time low, Free to Choose played a decisive role in restoring America’s faith in liberty.
Rose Director met Milton Friedman in 1932 when the two were seated next to each other in alphabetical order as graduate students at the University of Chicago. In their memoir of their lives together, Two Lucky People, Milton acknowledged Rose as having been a crucial partner in nearly all his economic and public policy work. And, in addition to her many other accomplishments, Rose had the distinction of being the only person ever known to have won an argument against Milton Friedman.
Thank you, Rose Friedman, for your enduring commitment to freedom and for inspiring so many to stand up for educational freedom around the world. You will be missed.
