A fine editorial here from the Washington Post pointing out that Members of Congress are far more likely to send their children to private school than are members of the general public. The Post goes on to raise the issue of hypocrisy, given the Democratically controlled Congress' recent moves to kill the District of Columbia's nascent voucher program, a program popular with residents but anathema to the teacher's unions and the education lobby.
The unremitting noise of liberal Dems who bleed for the future of our nation's public schools while shuffling their progeny off to tony private schools is one of the great hypocrisies of our time. They preen about smaller classrooms (more teachers), parental involvement, "progressive" learning environments and all manner of other enhancements "necessary to save" our public schools, a support bought cheaply as they are not themselves willing to subject their children to its decline. Vouchers are a way to ensure SOME children of modest economic means are able to escape the system while all the wonderful experiments of modern liberalism play themselves out.
Its been a long time since I've been on your blog. Here is a quick comment...
ReplyDeleteVouchers are about income redistribution to individuals that already have established educational program(s) available to them. I don’t believe they should be given another option at taxpayer expense.
I don't see the hypocrisy that you describe. If members of Congress take voucher funding while stating they aren't they would be guilty of your charge as well as lying. I don't believe there is anything wrong with supporting private schools but precluding individual public funding. As a parent it is their decision to spend THEIR money how they chose. As elected representatives they are rejecting a costly program that only benefits a fraction of the population. (I suspect voucher recipients receive a disproportionate benefit for their individual decision - at an extremely high price for the rest of us(in DC $7500).) I personally oppose the use of tax monies for this purpose. Glad it’s dying a quick death – I want all funds focused on our public schools.
Now fixing poor performing public schools… well that is a subject left for another time. JPH