New governor has lots of school choices.

• Author: Mooneyham, Scott
• Position: CAPITALGOODS

Since his first campaign for governor in 2008, Pat McCrory has supported giving parents more choices about their children's schooling. During that initial, unsuccessful bid, he spoke at a church in Durham to a predominantly black audience, many of them supporters of charter schools. "Ladies and gentlemen," he said, "it's time to try some new things. And choice has got to be an option."

In his second, successful run, the Charlotte Republican didn't back down. McCrory told crowds along the campaign trail he was glad the General Assembly had changed the law that capped the number of charter schools--tax-supported but run by nonprofits with less state oversight than regular public schools--at 100 and wanted to see the process for how they are approved and their enrollments expanded streamlined. Another plank in his education platform was better access to online classes for public, charter and private schools. He was a bit more hesitant when it came to another part of the school-choice movement--tax credits and vouchers for private education--but did say he favors some tax support for private schools as long as it's targeted at students with the greatest needs.

What will the new governor actually do when it comes to school choice and education reform? As that crowd in Durham demonstrated, charter schools are no longer a particularly partisan, racial or class issue. In fact, there's little difference in McCrory's position and that of another supporter, President Barack Obama. If charter schools were once a political hot potato in North Carolina, the Republican-controlled legislature stuck a fork in that spud by removing the cap.

That doesn't mean that the broader conservative view of school choice is without controversy. It's a vision that has government-run schools competing with charter schools, nonprofit private schools and home schools for parents' hearts and children's minds. Each of the alternatives requires some sort of taxpayer support--whether vouchers, tax credit or other assistance--though critics warn that moving this money would cripple public schools, leaving behind only poor and middle-class students who couldn't access other choices.

The extent of McCrory's embrace is likely to play out over the next year. He won't be able to avoid the battle, already under way in the General...