Posted on 03/25/2009 6:02:46 AM PDT by rhema
"We finally have an education president," exults Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers. And President Barack Obama has assured the nation's children and parents that his Department of Education "will use only one test when deciding what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars. ... It's not whether an idea is liberal or conservative — but whether it works." Yet this is the president who has remained silent when his congressional Democrats essentially killed the Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the city where he now lives and works.
Of the 1,700 students, starting in kindergarten, in this private-school voucher program, 90 percent are black and 9 percent are Hispanic. First the House and then the Senate inserted into the $410 billion omnibus spending bill language that will eliminate the $7,500 annual scholarships for these poor children after the next school year. It could only be reauthorized by the same Democrat-controlled Congress and the anti-voucher District of Columbia Council.
Fat chance!
A key executioner in the Senate of the OSP was Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois. I have written admiringly of Durbin's concern for human rights abroad and his trenchant criticism of the CIA's rendition-to-torture history. How about education rights in the nation's capital?
Andre J. Coulson, director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, supplies the answer. (I am a senior fellow, specializing in civil liberties and education at Cato.) Wrote Coulson in the Feb. 26 New York Post:
"Because they saw it as a threat to their political power, Democrats in Washington appear willing to extinguish the dreams of a few thousand poor kids to protect their political base." Teachers' unions are a vital part of that base, many of whose members fear competition. Not all of them.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
'Whether it works' my ass. President o-dumba cancelled the DC voucher program which has been wildly successful compared to DC's public schools - at only half the cost. So please o-dumba, let the rest of us know what you define success as.
Obama, of course, forgot to add the next sentences to the “whether it works” clause: “. . .whether it works, but only if the NEA and AFT, those invaluable wholly owned subsidiaries of the Democrat Party, give me permission to do so. If they don’t, tough cookies, kids.”
“..whether it works..” Hence the boatload of money Obozo’s sending to that beacon of educational excellence, Detroit.
Hey Randi, what exactly were Mr. Soetoro’s grade out of Columbia again? Occidental? Harvard? I can’t seem to find them anywhere...
I noticed at one point in his remarks he worried that teachers and policemen might lose their jobs. I was not aware of teachers flooding the unemployment offices, and by tripling the education budget we’re not likely to see that crisis.
Obama = union tool
in the pocket of labor-cartel protectionists.
Motto of Democrats, WH:
“Srew the consumers such as DC students, full-steam ahead. Whatever works for Unions is OK with us.”
...Meanwhile, — I send my OWN kids to private schools... Let the rest “eat cake.” (M & BHO)
My children have never gone to a public indoctrination camp and NEVER will. I’ve spent alot of time working my ass off to ensure my wife can be a great mother at home with my boys and If I have to, I’ll find another ass back there somewhere to bust to ensure that continues. I refuse to G.I.V.E. my children to 0.
Ironically, those parents and kids who’ve suffered from the Democrats’ intransigence to continue funding their program may — should, if they’re thinking straight — wind up voting Republican.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.