State of the Union

For all the talk about how low President Bush is in the polls, it was a remarkably upbeat and hopeful State of the Union address that he delivered last night. "Our job is to make life better for our fellow Americans, and help them to build a future of hope and opportunity," Mr. Bush said. For those of us who believe in free markets, some of the sweetest aspects of the State of the Union address came in the area of education, where Mr. Bush is unveiling two initiatives that sound an awful lot like school vouchers.

Mr. Bush would require persistently underperforming schools to offer "Promise Scholarships" that would allow low-income students to transfer to private schools or out-of-district public schools. Federal funds would follow the students to their new schools. He would also offer grants through an "Opportunity Scholarships Program" that would help local governments offer school choice programs that include private schools.

A White House fact sheet described this program, too, as aimed at "low-income parents and students," but our hope is that eventually lawmakers will see the logic of extending these programs to all students, without discriminating on the basis of their parents' income. Some may be skeptical about the chances of getting the programs through a Democratic Congress, but the overwhelmingly Democratic city of Washington, D.C., has had a school choice program since 2004.

For those of us who have spent years covering the struggle for parental choice in education, the most exciting aspect of the president's proposal was the way he is leap-frogging resistance from recalcitrant states that would deny to poor children the chances to escape failing public schools that are enjoyed by more affluent children. Less thrilling, from a free-market perspective, is the president's proposal to have the federal government underwrite "$2 billion in loans for cellulosic ethanol plants." With the economy awash in private equity and venture capital funds looking for new investment, private money will find a way to determine whether cellulosic ethanol is a good idea.

The president did not flinch from describing America as "a nation at war" against a "totalitarian threat," a "wicked" enemy that wants "to kill Americans, kill democracy in the Middle East, and gain the weapons to kill on an even more horrific scale." The president left little doubt he had confidence in Americans to prevail, citing the examples of heroes such as Sergeant Tommy Rieman of Kentucky, who won a Silver Star for repelling an attack in Iraq and using his body as a shield to protect his gunner. America, the president said, faces "difficult challenges and determined enemies," but it can go forward with confidence because its "cause in the world is right." We may be in the minority of Americans and of New Yorkers in our positive opinion of the president. But surely there is a consensus in the country that our cause is right.