@article{88f6147f1d724d4294d90c613f78bb55,
title = "New South Governors and the Evolution of School Choice, 1980-1996",
abstract = "This article examines cases of governors who established a foundation for school choice between 1980 and 1996. Education was a strategic issue around which they sought to alleviate economic concerns and anxieties about desegregation to realize their vision of building, yet again, a New South. As part of this process, southern governors extolled the values of the free market in deracialized ways and networked to pass comprehensive education reform grounded in neoliberal ideologies including individualism and competition.",
keywords = "Bill Clinton, Lamar Alexander, New South, Richard Riley, William Winter, charter schools, market-based reform, neoliberalism, school choice",
author = "Jon Hale",
note = "Indicative of a national movement, school choice and charter proposals grew in popularity by the 1990s. They resonated widely across the aisle and with representatives outside the New South, including NGA leaders such as Rudy Perpich (D.-MN), who ushered in the nation{\textquoteright}s first charter school in Minneapolis in 1991; Richard Lamm (D.-CO), who chaired the NGA subcommittee on school choice under Lamar Alexander{\textquoteright}s leadership; and Tommy Thompson (R.-WI), a staunch voucher champion in the early 1990s. School choice governors cultivated additional support on Capitol Hill, including Representatives David Obey (D.-WI), Frank Riggs (R.-CA), Tim Roemer (D.-IN), and John Porter (R.-IL), as well as Senators Joe Lieberman (D.-CT) and Dan Coats (R-IN). Charter proposals also included initial support from the largest teacher unions, the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers. The bipartisan, national coalition demonstrated the extent to which school choice reverberated outside the New South and moved the entire nation to embrace concepts like accountability, competition between schools, and the rights of individuals to choose which school to attend. It also demonstrated a repurposed coalition that, through the NGA and federal partnerships, was fused in the 1990s as a result of shared values in prioritizing market-based education reform.",
year = "2025",
month = dec,
day = "9",
doi = "10.1017/heq.2025.10114",
language = "English (US)",
volume = "66",
pages = "48--72",
journal = "History of Education Quarterly",
issn = "0018-2680",
publisher = "Cambridge University Press",
number = "1",
}