'Loving Public Education, for Others' ... Politicians and School Choice

Our recent post of July 14 was titled 'The Hypocrisy of Democratic Leaders and Public Schools....' After that posting, a couple of us discussed it.

We both wondered why a clear and strong majority of poor and middle class parents continue to vote for and support the status quo in public education at election time, even though it's totally against their best interests and the best interests of their children for them to do so. We arrived at no good answers.

On the other hand, we easily agreed that the politicians and teachers union leadership clearly understood that they risked nothing at the ballot box by continuing to ignore the best interests of their constituents and steadfast supporters come election time.

As a society, we apparently are more interested in talking instead of doing when it comes to fully preparing our young people to lead America into the globally competitive future awaiting them upon the completion of their 'school days.'

The following letter on the lack of widespread vouchers and school choice in America adds more facts to the conversation and says what needs to be said about parental choice and taxpayer funded K-12 education in America. The letter to the editor lays out the sad and sick 'let the public and kids be damned' attitudes and behaviors of far too many of our elitist public officials.

Loving Public Education, for Others is subtitled 'The people most enamored with public education repeatedly refuse to expose their own children to it:'

"It is fortuitous that your July 14 editorial “All Arne’s Children” appears next to the Letters headline “GOP Can and Should Make a Good Pitch to Minorities.” It has been more than 50 years since George Wallace stood in an Alabama school-house door and sought to deprive minority students access to a decent education. Fast forward five decades and Arne Duncan and the Democratic Party are only lacking the state troopers and the dogs.

Mr. Duncan’s “better thee than me” attitude regarding public education is hardly rare among Democratic politicians. The statistics are consistently infuriating. The people most enamored with public education repeatedly refuse to expose their own children to it. The last Democratic president to enroll a child in a Washington, D.C., public school was Jimmy Carter. In a few years, Amy will celebrate her 50th birthday. If you are a member of the House or Senate, your kids are three times more likely to attend a private institution than the average U.S. student. This statistic is especially disturbing considering the fact that few, if any, House or Senate members reside in low-income neighborhoods where poor public schools are most likely to be found. Mr. Duncan’s decision may reek of hypocrisy, but it is certainly rational in Chicago where more than 40% of public-school teachers send their own offspring to private schools....

Your address does not mandate where you buy groceries or access your health care, why should it determine where your child is educated?"

Summing Up

Politics is strange.

It's also cruel.

Public sector unions are counter productive and have a huge negative impact on our American society at the local, state and national levels, one and all.

For a current example of why public sector teachers unions are bad for society and opposed to the best interests of We the People, please read Parent-Trigger V-Day.

The ongoing general public's apathy with respect to the need to guarantee a quality educational opportunity for each and all of America's children is a real head scratcher, at least for me.

I'm for taxpayer funded vouchers and free choice for one and all. How about you?

Thanks. Bob.