Posted on 12/16/2009 10:13:02 AM PST by ReleaseTheHounds
With Congress phasing out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, D.C. parents and students are looking to President Obama/administration to step in and save the federal initiative, which has given hope for a brighter future to thousands of families. However, Mr. Obama has been silent on the issue....
Asked ...why he didn't support the Opportunity Scholarship Program -- given that the Department of Education's own evaluation found it was benefiting participating students. Duncan explained that he was focusing on reforms to turn around the entire public school system, not just save a few children: "As a country, we like to save one or two children in a neighborhood and let the other 500 drown and then go home and sleep well at night. I think we have to be much more ambitious as a federal government."
... That is why we have a moral obligation to rescue as many children as we can from our broken public schools while we work overtime to turn those schools around. I am reminded of the example of Harriet Tubman -- the black abolitionist and famous "conductor" of the Underground Railroad. While she worked to abolish slavery, Tubman made 19 trips into the South and transported 300 slaves into freedom.
Tubman knew she couldn't personally rescue all of the slaves in America, but she knew she could save some, and what an amazing difference it made in each of their lives.
... D.C. families watched with interest as Mr. Duncan and his family chose to live in Northern Virginia to be able to enroll his children in a good public school system. ... It's our moral obligation to save as many children as we can. It's what Harriet Tubman would do.
• Virginia Walden Ford is executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
He is afraid of the NEA. They bought him off during the election. If given the choice, these folks choose private education. That is a slap in the face to the public education system. He will do nothing.
Yes, I know, but the hypocrisy is just galling: Obama chooses to keep his girls out of the DC public schools; Arne Duncan, his Secretary of Education, chooses to live in Virginia to avoid the DC public schools; DC Mayor Finty chooses to send his kids to private schools; I think Michelle Rhee (the DC School Chancellor) has her kids enrolled at a Charter school... Just amazing!
And this DC Opportunity Project is based on a Federal program so it is incremental to DC’s own public school funding — and the DC council and all the NEA officials have eliminating this program as a top priority.
Harriett Tubman, indeed.
It is definately a “do as I say, not as I do” moment for this administration. One of many, I’m afraid. Thanks for the info about all the others who adhere to this policy. I had no idea there were so many.
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