This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, January 27th, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

If you follow the dramatic shift toward educational freedom in the past year in states you may wonder what

Congress has to say about it even if Congress has no constitutional role in

education Michigan Republican Congressman John Molinar is part of what's known as the

School Choice Caucus in Congress.

We talked about School Choice in 2022 earlier this week.

Careful listeners to this podcast will know that I live in Kentucky and Kentucky is one of the states that adopted a small but robust

school choice program in 2021. West Virginia was the more notable, it pains me to say, more notable school choice program.

So, you know, watching how states have rolled this out.

You're in Michigan, which has a long history of school choice.

You know, how have you evaluated the last couple of years with respect to school choice?

Well, as you point out, Michigan was an early leader in school choice. The Mackinac Center for Public

Policy really had been formulating the policies that would justify it in

legislation.

Governor Angler in the early 90s was a pioneer

and really a leader in making charter schools something that were viable in Michigan.

We've had Betsy DeVos, the former Secretary of Education, has been a leader

in so many ways across the country, but having her in Michigan has been a huge help as well.

So I feel very good about the foundation that has been built here in Michigan.

I myself was a charter school administrator for a number of years and have

seen the benefits of school choice. You know, the last several years, you know, I think with COVID, with people responding, I think there's a real opportunity to grow

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