THEY'LL VOUCH FOR THAT

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Some black leaders support vouchers as a tactical ploy, a way to get attention from public schools they still hope to save. They see what can happen at a place like Giffen Memorial Elementary School, an underachieving school in Albany, N.Y. After Virginia Gilder, a wealthy donor, singled out Giffen students for private-school-tuition subsidies that she pays for, the school was suddenly lavished by its district with a new principal, nine new teachers and $125,000 more in taxpayer funding. "I'm all for public schools, but we need a needling in the system," says Augustus Baxter, a former member of the Philadelphia school board who is now part of the pro-voucher movement.

Republicans know better than to think that vouchers alone will bring them a lot of black voters. There are too many other issues, such as affirmative action and welfare reform, where the twain don't entirely meet. But they also know that in some closely contested congressional districts, the G.O.P. needs to carve off only part of the black vote to win. That's what wedge issues are for. So they are listening closely to people like Jim Lester, La-Kia's grandfather. "The Democrats use us, and the Republicans abuse us," he says. "I don't care if it's Democrats, Republicans or chickens--I just want what's best for my grandbaby."

--Reported by Sally B. Donnelly/Washington and Tamala M. Edwards/Philadelphia