It’s no secret that America’s teachers unions are by and large defenders of the educational status quo. But less well known is the fact that many union-supported legislators oppose school choice — the kind of reform most loathed by union leadership — but privately exercise school choice themselves. More specifically, a Heritage Foundation survey released this week found that “37 percent of Representatives and 45 percent of Senators in the 110th Congress sent their children to private schools—almost four times the rate of the general population.”

Many of these lawmakers are the same union-backed legislators that fight to keep real power out of the hands of parents currently unable to take their kids out of failing public schools. Take D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship Program, for example: “Over 37 percent of House Democrats have prac­ticed school choice, but 96 percent of Democrats who practiced school choice voted against the voucher program.”

According to a good chunk of Congress — a chunk large enough to ensure that “every major legislative effort in recent years to give parents school choice would have passed” — school choice is great … if you’re rich enough.

Completely unrelated Gallup poll findings from yesterday:

Parents with children who attend private, parochial, or who are home schooled are much more positive than parents with children in public school about the quality of education their children receive, and are less likely to report concerns for their children’s physical safety.