ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses why he employed a pejorative expression to characterize the rhetorical defenses of educational finance monopoly (EFM) supporters. The rhetorical defenses of EFM are not well-honed survivors of intellectual exchange. They are simply tools designed to achieve "victory". One of the common defenses against educational choice is to charge that it will add to already too-heavy school costs. Opponents of choice also suggest that unrestricted parental choice in education would violate constitutional proscriptions against establishing a religion. Such a definitive demolition of the church-state smoke screen could occur as a result of the litigation now underway on the 1995 expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) to include religious schools. Since the smoke screens employed by EFM's defenders are standard and entirely predictable, one can expect to encounter them on every battlefield where parental freedom finally engages with EFM.
