The Democratic Party has been beholden to the demands of the school teacher's unions for at least a couple of decades--the unions are a reliable source of funds, and votes, for the Democrats.
Luckily I live in an area with excellent public schools. Which is one of the reasons I moved from Chicago's North Side to Morton Grove. Not everyone is so fortunate, and some parents have not choice but to send their children to substandard government-run schools.
Obama talks about change, and to his credit he favors merit pay for teachers.
But as far as allowing parents to use vouchers to send their kids to private schools, well, Obama doesn't have the audacity to speak out in favor of that.
Friend of the blog Pat Hickey of ...With Both Hands writes in the Chicago Daily Observer, "The Public School Lobby is one of the most active and violently unforgiving of any candidate who would even consider school choice."
He also says:
The Chicago Archdiocese serves more than 100,000 students from every faith, family background, and financial situation. The Archdiocese also creates jobs for more than 8,000 persons who teach, administer and serve the Catholic School System. Those employees and the parents of Catholic school students pay taxes – which fuel the Public Schools. The public school sacred cow worshippers would have one believe that Catholic and other private schools serve the elite. That is not close to the case, unless, of course, great personal sacrifice is the rubric for elite.
Catholic school parents largely work more than one job. Catholic school parents are largely what one used to call middle class. The middle class in America is vanishing and public schools are doing their part to speed up that process. Catholic Schools and private schools in general need school choice – vouchers. Public school advocates scream ‘Parents have made their choice!’
Not true, but you have a tough time getting that through to Chicago news media. Choice in education will be a big part of the Presidential National Debate once the ring is cleared of all but the true contenders. John McCain stands for choice – which is anathema to the national Democratic Party (DNC) and candidates who wish to be elected under its aegis.
School choice: Change I can believe in.
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3 comments:
Can't make angry your campaign cash cow and those who might make or break your campaign. I don't totally understand the resistance to school choice. It's almost as if these teacher's unions think they're doing the job when they're not doing the job they should be doing. What's wrong with parents determining what's in the best interest of their child. I would include in that using their tax dollars that would go to the public school in order to pay for private education?
As long as private schools pick and choose their students, why should the public support them? How much will it cost the public to educate those left behind?
Let's face facts, some kids with vouchers are not going to find a place in private schools. What do we do with those children?
Many Catholic schools have been closing--or merging. Not everyone is Catholic, or religous, so just as nature abhors a vacuum, so does the marketplace--which I admit is stretching the metaphor a bit.
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