Of all the political issues dividing left from right one of most viscerally upsetting is the decades-long collusion of liberal politicians with teachers’ unions to deny black kids an escape route from the inner city and a shot at a better life. The implacable efforts to scuttle both voucher programs and charter schools for these kids has all the elements that make it an unforgivable exercise of brute force against the vulnerable.
It injures children. But not just any children; it targets those who are poor and trapped by their life circumstances and hasn’t even the semblance of a credible rationale to justify it. It is unvarnished obeisance to power and money at the expense of the real lives of powerless people.
And it is the epitome of hypocrisy on two levels. First it is a betrayal of every principle these politicians purport to stand for. And a great many of those politicians have the money and connections to enable their children and grandchildren to attend tony private schools and avoid the colossal failure known as the urban public school system to which they condemn thousands of less fortunate kids in their own supposed voter base.
First there was the Opportunity Scholarships voucher program in Washington D.C. which Democratic politicians from Clinton through Obama have tried to close. But the Clinton and Obama kids Biden’s grandkids and numerous Congressional offspring have attended institutions like the elite Friends School just a hop skip and a stabbing away from the DC public schools that rank among the nation’s worst.
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