Baby Steps for Interdistrict Choice

Our restricted interdistrict school choice program is set to be unfettered this week if the Assembly Education Committee gets with the program. NJ’s Interdistrict Program, which allows students in rotten schools to transfer, if invited, to schools in neighboring districts, has been on extended life support since the pilot program died in 2005. (See our posts here and here.) The new bill to be considered this Thursday, according to the A.P., would revive the Interdistrict Program, though it’s unclear if legislators will concur with Gov. Christie’s Transition Team’s recommendations and expand the horizons of this well-conceived yet handicapped program, which limits school choice within a county to volunteer (and sometimes unsuitable) districts. Yet it’s a start and we applaud.