I f you happened upon the newspaper, radio, and television ads last year, you might have assumed they were the work of a conservative organization. After all, they spotlighted black students and their parents touting an idea close to the hearts of many Republicans: government-funded vouchers for tuition at private and parochial schools. The tagline for the multimillion-dollar ad campaign, however, was this: "Parental school choice is widespread -- unless you're poor." The sponsor of these ads is a controversial group called the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO). Founded in August of 2000, BAEO supports vouchers along with other education options for low-income parents, such as charter schools and home schooling. But the group only advocates vouchers targeted to low-income parents. It does not defend the "universal voucher" scheme that conservatives favor, and which some fear would leave public schools to founder while white middle- and upper-class parents combine public...