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Democrats resegregate DC school system.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  December 31st, 2009 at 07:22 PM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

Are you surprised? I’m not surprised.

The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:

“House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.

Via Big Government.  You know, there’s a part of me that would almost prefer that this was evidence of some sort of long term payback – one that would have been in the works for about 150 years at this point – against African-Americans by the Democratic party.  At least that would be a reason to wreck school choice.  It would be a conscious decision.  Instead, though, I’m faced with the tawdry reality that the Democratic Party simply just doesn’t care.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • mbecker908

    They just care more about the teacher’s union than they do poor kids.

  • Tbone

    gee, now I’ve lost my train of thought…….

  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    I never really believed that the Democrats would actually cut minority scholarships for DC kids. Especially when the new President was himself a beneficiary of minority scholarships.

  • rbdwiggins
  • http://charlemagne-the-hammer.blogspot.com/ DerKrieger

    On one hand I think it’s disgraceful that the Democrat Party cares more about the GD NEA than they do the education of poor black children in spite of all their rhetoric about “caring”.

    On the other hand I’d be willing to bet that not one of the parents of these kids has ever voted for a Republican and still won’t ever vote for a Republican. They get what they deserve.

  • mbecker908

    it’s about money and machine.

  • E Pluribus Unum

    So he’s a racist bigot, and Obama is still magnificently …….er…… something.

    I believe evil and classless are the words I’m looking for.

  • mbecker908

    they might get out of the plantation. Can’t have that you know.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    history has…. um…. ah…. wait a minute….. NEVER MIND

    /snark

    Desegragation was about MORE (forced) CHOICES/OPPORTUNITIES (so they used to say) and now they (Liberals) are all about LESS CHOICES/OPPORTUNITIES. How does that fly?!?!?

    that’s rhetorical Lefties, you can’t justify it….

    Why are Conservatives for Choice? Well, beyond the obvious notion of Competition drives improvements…. If you (Liberals) won’t let us FIX all the Schools and the Education system we want to save as many Kids as we can.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    it was something like that anyway – it’s amongst the many in the “Quotes” link in my sig (I was just to lazy to go confirm the exact wording).

  • mom2oneson

    where the cars these cars for TANF recipients came from..

  • marshmom

    and believe it or not, it really breaks my heart that there is no hope of this changing anytime soon.
    Children are our future……..it’s not just a slogan–IT’S TRUE! Of course, when “progressives” (WTH kind of term is that anyway?) think nothing of murdering a child in utero, you certainly can bet they really don’t give a hoot about their education.
    And, once again, the media is silent. Where’s Al Sharpton on this issue? If Bush did this, he’d have been excoriated!!

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit
  • CincoSolas_del_Bronx

    Our tiny church happens to have folks fighting on all fronts–although no requirement for membership, most intact families homeschool, while a number of the unmarried and retired teach, split between private and public classrooms. The public teachers have guerilla tactics for covert weaving of truth into chestless curricula, not least being the forging of relationships of trust. Then WOM among the kids advertises the weekly after-school clubs in our houses, across the street but under the radar.

    And as the years stretch out, you do begin to see the ROI.

    But … ya gotta be there to see it happen.

  • http://www.sheetanchor.org Sheet Anchor

    The Democratic Party has handed a gift to the Republicans, if they are wise enough to see the opportunity. Republicans have the opportunity to exploit the termination of this voucher program for young black students in D.C. by hammering the Democrats for their blatant hypocrisy and disregard for provision of the most effective education for black secondary school students.

    The RNC, led by Mr. Steele, should seize this opportunity to siphon off Black voter loyalty and support for Democratic candidates in the 2010 elections. Start telling it like it is in TV commercials, with the D.C. officials conveying their disdain for the end of this program.

    Republican congressional candidates should aggressively pursue these voters by sharing the facts about who stands for the best educational opportunities for all students, including these young black students, not only in D.C., but throughout metropolitan America.

  • smagar

    They wanted Obama. They craved Obama. Well…they got Obama.

    One of the irritating things about democracy, is that it forces you to live with the consequences of your very own choices.

    DC has plenty of money with which to get their schools right. They’d best get to it.

    And, I wouldn’t mind if the GOP turned its attention to other matters. DerKrieger is on to something—-these folks won’t give a GOP candidate the time of day. And, they expect us not to notice.

    Take your medicine, DC parents.

  • smagar

    For many African-Americans, voting Democratic is a form of religion. Just like it is with many American Jews.

    By all means, we should run good candidates and state our case for electing Republicans. But, let’s be realistic. This is, at best, a long-term project to win over the next generation.

    This is the city, after all, that elected Marion Barry mayor after he’d been convicted of drug use, largely so they could “stick it to the man.”

  • http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

    …to fund the voucher program with private donations.

    http://thehayride.com/2009/04/dc-voucher-destruction-a-stain-on-obamas-honor-credibility-republicans-should-fix-it/

  • Achance

    outside SF or LA or some such true Blue place. DC is hopeless and the only way that Blacks in any numbers are going to ever vote for a Republican is by having a personal epiphany; at most we’re playing to increase our share by 5%. What to we have to give up to get it?

  • smagar
  • http://moelane.com/ Moe Lane

    Think Of The Children. I mean, it’s not their fault that their parents have been systematically lied to.

  • Achance

    to what’s also called a storm anchor, the biggest and heaviest one you have. See, that’s what I paid all that money and took all those Coast Guard tests for; to answer trivia like that.

  • mbecker908

    do it in a place where the politicians are receptive and the populace will appreciate it.

    DC is a hopeless sump. Let the people effected by this decision storm the White House or the Congress and start throwing eggs at Democrats and I’ll listen. Until then, since they seem pretty happy in hell, let ‘em burn.

  • http://www.sheetanchor.org Sheet Anchor

    the name of my web site: www.sheetanchor.org

    As stated on the “About” page of the web site, “The name ‘Sheet Anchor,’ originates from the quotation, “Hold fast to the Bible as the sheet anchor of your liberties; write its precepts on your hearts and practice them in your lives,” by Civil War Union Army General-in-Chief, and 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, meaning that the precepts encompassed within the Scripture reflect the foundational tenets of American freedom.”

    You are certainly invited to visit the site which encompasses both written and video material, to gain a sense of its focus. :)

  • hickorystick

    to get their kids a good education. Not all the parents in DC care, but some do.
    I wouldn’t catch these parents up with the riff-raff.
    The vouchers in DC were part of the deal President Bush made with Senator Kennedy. The DC schools arrived at the point of total failure and were “punished ” with vouchers. The Democrats can’t follow through with a law let alone a promise.

  • Jeff Weimer

    This is what happens when you hand yourself to the whims of government ? you will be disappointed.

    Vouchers are a great idea, not the least from a government perspective – you hand your responsibility over. But from a parent perspective, they suck. At any time they can be taken away, as we see here. Now that parent is a pawn in a political war between who can appeal to them best for the education of their children.

    That’s wrong, and we should not use our children as pawns.

  • antisocial

    DC parents need to fight for themselves. I don’t give a damn. Everybody needs to bear the consequences of their choice. If they show sufficient remorse maybe…..

    PS: Throwing eggs is a great way to show remorse.

  • antisocial

    A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.

  • joliefleurs

    could be a part of the private donor campaign; I think if it is a blatant Republican party move, it’ll be seen for the grandstanding it is.

    With regards to the parents of these children fending for themselves, I understand where y’all are coming from, butI think they’re fending as best they can. They don’t have the benefit of upbringings we take for granted, and have been indoctrinated their entire lives. That kind of thing is hard to overcome. The fact that tghey even tried to get the vouschers tells me at least they’re trying.

    Just because a battle can’t be won ( new black Republican voters in DC ) doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be fought. I’d be willing to sponsor one of these kids, or at least help sponsor one. Heck, I sponsor 4 kids outside the country, be nice to help one here.

    Cliche or no, it IS about the children.

  • mom2oneson

    http://www.washingtonscholarshipfund.org/donate.html

  • joliefleurs

    I was just coming back on to say that I Googled it and found this link…and you beat me to it!

    My first donation was small, but it won’t be the last, and I’m going to see if my employer and church group will also get involved.

  • stewart

    A strategy at least as old as LBJ’S Great Society: claiming to prop up the black community against the evil Republicans who don’t want black children to have lunch money while simultaneously carrying out policies to keep them tied down and dependent on the Democratic party.

  • merryj1

    … a DC child in the Voucher program costs approximately 1/2 the amount of sending the same child to public school ($7,500 per year per voucher versus $15,000 per public school student). Logic suggests the best solution in both terms of educational advantage and cost-effectiveness would be to close down the public school system in DC and voucher the entire school-age population; but that’s me.

    That aside, I’m perplexed and very disappointed that any American would willfully advocate depriving children of an adequate education based on an assumption about the childrens’ parents’ political beliefs or leanings. I don’t even want to try to get my head around that one.

  • merryj1

    … a DC child in the Voucher program costs approximately 1/2 the amount of sending the same child to public school ($7,500 per year per voucher versus $15,000 per public school student). Logic suggests the best solution in both terms of educational advantage and cost-effectiveness would be to close down the public school system in DC and voucher the entire school-age population; but that’s me.

    That aside, I’m perplexed and very disappointed that any American would willfully advocate depriving children of an adequate education based on an assumption about the childrens’ parents’ political beliefs or leanings. I don’t even want to try to get my head around that one.

  • merryj1

    I don’t think I double-clicked, but I’m sorry for the double-entry.

  • jyjacobs

    because many of you already express what I want to say and say it better. However, I want to respond on this topic. When Obama was running for president, he talked a good talk about education and how our kids needed to be ready to compete in this world, blah blah, but don’t you all see that it’s not about “education”, it’s about ‘indoctrination’. He’d rather have dumb and stupid keep voting for liberal handouts than an educated electorate. Kids that can actually read, write, and do math just might grow up to become people who think for themselves, want to do things for themselves, etc. and that’s a very scary thing for liberals.

    It’s not that “the Democratic Party simply just doesn’t care”, it’s simply a part of their plan, keep ‘em undereducated/ignorant/stupid/whatever you want to call it. The Liberal agenda, to me, is just plain evil.

  • RedBeard

    And because of that, both politicians and parents must shoulder the blame for harming them.

    Politicians lie.

    Liberal politicians lie a lot.

    Leftist politicians lie all the time.

    The Great Society (and every mutation of it for decades) is nothing BUT a gigantic lie.

    And finally, and most critically, parents and voters believe the compounding lies, and become co-conspirators in the ongoing effort to beat their own kids down to the lowest common denominator of human existence.

    Thomas Jefferson wrote that government can never be safe unless in the hands of an educated people. He would be appalled at today’s level of citizen ignorance.

  • smagar

    The House and Senate GOP have done their best to restore the funding.

    I like the idea of a scholarship fund. Over on Instapundit, someone suggested a “Thomas Sowell Fund.” I really like that.

    Other than that…what?

    it?s not their fault that their parents have been systematically lied to.

    Moe, I’m not letting the citizens of DC off that easily. The DC school system has been mismanaged for years, and those parents know it. Yet, they won’t fix it.

    It’s time for the citizens of DC to really police those teacher/other public employee unions and bureacracies that siphon off resources and stifle creativity in the city’s school system.

    Until then, I would encourage the GOP and major conservative financial sources to NOT devote large amounts of time or money to this effort. We need that time, effort and money to win seats in 2010 and 2012.

    BY ALL MEANS, establish a scholarship fund and contribute to it. It’s certainly a good way for people and groups to tithe.

    But, IMO (I’m wearing my Grinch hat here) there’s better payoff for our political time and money elsewhere.

    Once the House is back in GOP hands, then we can provide effective help to the citizens of DC. Until then…

  • smagar
  • partyof1

    The rest is even more scathing (from Politico):

    Obama’s budget effectively eliminates the scholarship program that has allowed 1,900 poor Washington families to finally have the same right as almost all of The Arena’s regular contributors: the choice of whether to send their children to a government-run or privately-run school. Obama, realizing how this budget has exposed him and Michelle to charges of hypocrisy because of their persistent rejection of public schools for their own children, lamely assured the affected families that he would support separate legislation to continue the program. However, he said so knowing full well that no such bill will ever come out of the Democratic Congress, which transforms him and his wife from being common hypocrites to unusually shameless ones.

    http://www.politico.com/arena/perm/Steve_Steckler_7C18DE3E-3EA3-43C0-94DF-583D81268C62.html

    —

    What’s the matter Obama? Don’t like the Public Option?

  • johnt

    Any group who would oppose a god like savior because of his skin color must be behind this, they just must be.
    Remember this the next time, probably today, some half nuts leftist starts throwing the racist charge around. They take their name calling seriously, principles ? Not at all or ever.

  • mom2oneson

    If the citizens of DC withdrew their kids, the district would court them.This is where the parents greatest power is as far as influencing the schools and I believe the constant influx of money with no responsibility is what contributes towards the corruption. Parents can stop the cash flow and the admins will pay attention real fast. Not turning in the free or reduced cost school lunch forms would be a smaller loss of revenue for the district too from the federal government. This is where the parents have power over the corrupt system there.
    WhenDuncan said the newly accepted students that had gotten a letter for the 09-10 year could not go, the parents should have been in some admins office the next day saying they would not attend the DC schools either and other children would be withdrawn too. They would have “heard” that because they lose revenue, that is why vouchers are such a threat to them to begin with.
    I say parents just forget the district and keep ‘em home until they can attend a community college, but to police the district the threat of a withdrawl or an actual withdrawl is the greatest power the parents have as a group to get the districts to listen to them becuase it cuts off a lot of their cash.

  • smagar
  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    for REAL HOPE AND (an about time) CHANGE…

    with apologies to others who have no doubt probably already said same, this was just an obvious easy response to jump in on/with given the comment it is response to. We all know, of course, they will NEVER wake up in DC and remain reaping what they’ve sown.

    DC actaully stands for DEMOCRATS CAN’T

  • http://www.thehayride.com MacAoidh

    …and as such, Republicans showing evidence of actual ACTION which produces tangible, positive and undeniable RESULTS is going to attract media attention – particularly when it’s apparent that no immediate political advantage is being gained.

    The fact that the DC public schools are almost exclusively black and mostly disadvantaged means that if vouchers work there, they’re going to work anywhere.

  • conritwng

    The Democrats care about CONTROL. This is their nature. They want to control the black population for votes via give away programs. If Obama really wanted to help black community there would be school vouchers all over the country. No Democrat is worth a red cent since George Wallace died and Zell Miller retired

  • voxoreason

    You are taking the only alternative left to the broken, non-functioning public schools. Perhaps it takes a village to educate our young, but it still remains up to the parents to raise them, perhaps by participating or helping out an educational bypass as you describe.

    If one wishes to live in Russia, one can move to Russia or vote Democrat.

    If one wishes to live in America, one must find conservative candidates and elect them.

    Conservatism: Traditional American Values

  • talgus

    The poor don’t have the dollars to buy the democrats. The teachers union, due to force extortion of dues, does. lawyers and government employee unions. Both parasites that are draining the blood of this nation.
    As a union protects against bad management, what pray-tell does SEIU protect against. BAD TAXPAYERS?????

  • edwlstr

    that the money Al Mansour paid for Obama’s education could be considered a minority scholarship.

  • edwlstr

    formed to end slavery. Many minority blacks forget that their grandparents and great grandparents were republicans for good reason. They also forget who filibustered the civil rights act in the sixties. 40 acres and a mule updated to fit the 21st century? I believe it is. So, maybe you are right on that other hand.

  • wayneepalmer

    Moe, Barry was from a more elite family, not a proto -drone from the masses.

    One day people will realize that the Left not only believes that we are too stupid to tie our own shoes without their guidance, we need to be made even stupider so as not to have any illusions that we can even decide to wear shoes without their permission.

    Schools are merely mass daycare centers for the drones run by collectivized worker bees designed to turn out more collectivized worker bees incapable of even imagining questioning their place in the universe and readily discard-able when they are no longer useful or merely upon the whims of the elites.

    The Democratic Left are still what they have always been: slavers of what they see as the animals that only look human.

    They want their slaves back and this time it isn’t a slavery based on color but a slavery of the mind and soul that can never revolt and allows no one to be left outside it to object.

  • itrytobenice

    For a leftist outfit like that to not only tell the truth, but to also criticize President Princess is a shock. Has the dike sprung a leak?

  • madjayhawk

    Obama 97% McCain 3% in 2008
    Kerry 90% Bush 9% in 2004
    Gore 86% Bush 10% in 2000

    Anyone in DC that wants to complain about their best and brightest young ones being screwed over by the Democrats should look at those numbers and ask themselves if they are insane. I feel sorry for their poor children. The Democrats have guaranteed that these children will grow up as ignorant as their parents. Change you can believe in.