This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, December 21st, 2007.

I'm Caleb Brown.

As presidential candidates begin to offer their opinions in the face of scrutiny from primary voters,

where do they stand on school choice? of Education, Neil McCluskey, the Associate Director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational

Freedom, is trying to figure out where the loyalties lie.

Among Democrats running for president, what have been their public comments on school choice?

Well I've heard almost nothing about school choice from Democrats.

Typically the only time it comes up is if they're addressing the National Education Association or

some other education interest group in which case they'll say that definitely

vouchers and that sort of school choice is not the answer it's something's something that none of the Democrats at

least want. Every once in a while they'll say something nice about charter

schools, Hillary Clinton, and her husband had supported church schools.

For the most part, though, it never comes up.

Democrats concern and focus is always on more money and more programs and trying to keep as much power in the current system as possible.

Democrats have what has traditionally been a constituency in black parents and other minorities who, if you look at

opinion polls, generally support school choice.

That's true, but that is not the group that they are

focusing on when they talk about education. By far the most powerful interest

group probably in the entire Democratic Party and certainly when it comes to education

is the National Education Association, the Teacher Union and then on top of that you can

throw in the American Federation of Teachers. All told then you're talking about millions, about 4 million

teachers. They have huge power within the party. They do lots of campaigning and so whenever education is the subject that's the group they're focusing on

...