Ben Smith of Politico reports the following interesting piece on his page:

At a round table for reporters this morning, former Virginia congressman and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership Tom Davis said that despite the state of the union rhetoric, Obama’s real test on education will be on school vouchers.

“I’m interested in where he comes down on that issue,” said Davis. “That’ll tell me if he’s for school reform or not.”

Davis, who sponsored the first voucher bill when he was in Congress, has previously argued that the president’s hand was forced in the previous Democratic Congress — where it might have been politically impossible to get a voucher bill even in the president had wanted. But, Davis said this Congress, a voucher bill would be entirely possible.

“Now, I think he may get a bill – or he could get a bill if he wanted. There are enough Democrats like Lieberman, Feinstein, Mark Warner – who will give the city what they want,” said Davis.

Obama came close to suggesting during one interview in 2008 that he was open to vouchers as an experiment, but his campaign walked back that statement. In 2009, Gibbs said  “The president doesn’t believe that vouchers are a long-term answer to our educational problems and the challenges that face our public school system, where the vast majority of — of students are educated in this country.”

(Source: Politico)