School

President Obama pulls voucer program for DC Students

"We know that competition breeds success. In other districts where vouchers have been tested, everyone succeeds. Students using the vouchers see increased test scores, the private schools continue to thrive, and even the public schools improve, as competition forces them to overhaul and provide better services.  
 

With all the available data proving vouchers work, why wouldn't our President want the children of DC to succeed?"

Consider this:  Could it be to keep the kids uneducated?  Would you agree that the less educated they remain, the higher the chances of them becoming dependent on someone else, like possibly, the government?  When one is dependent, the other has the control.  As a matter of fact, on average, the "Blue states" and "Blue cities" have lower grade rates than the "Red" ones in America. 

We know that competition breeds success. In other districts where vouchers have been tested, everyone succeeds. Students using the vouchers see increased test scores, the private schools continue to thrive, and even the public schools improve, as competition forces them to overhaul and provide better services.  
 

With all the available data proving vouchers work, why wouldn't our President want the children of DC to succeed?  
 
CNN contributor Roland Martin has suggested that it is an "all or nothing" mentality.  Obama and the Democrats contend that since every student can't be helped by vouchers, none should be helped. He further details an example about medicine needed for vaccinations. Essentially, it’s the same idea - if it doesn't help everyone, then it should not be available to those it does help.
 
In my view, this goes far beyond canceling a successful program. The action taken by the Obama administration regarding the DC vouchers is deliberate and entirely political, done to benefit the teachers’ unions. Obama had a clear choice to make- support the children, or support the unions. He chose the latter to the detriment of some kids who really needed the help. Now that’s “change we can believe in.” I’m sure the union leadership reminded Obama that they, not the children, voted in droves for him last November.

Read HERE for this entire article from MSNBC (not a conservative post) on graduation statistics from different cities.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31163

School Choice for the Few (do as I say double standard)

The new "do-as-I-say" double standard.

For the most part they fall in line. And so we have today's Washington, a city where none of the major players making decisions about the D.C. public schools have any skin in the game:

- President Barack Obama. Though the president talks a good game about putting kids first, and could save the Opportunity Scholarships Program with a few words, he remains silent -- even as his daughters attend the exclusive Sidwell Friends School.

- Education Secretary Arne Duncan. When Mr. Duncan chose a safe suburban school in Virginia for his kids, he explained it this way: "I didn't want to try to save the country's children and our educational system and jeopardize my own children's education."

Fair enough. Mr. Duncan also stated that the children who now have scholarships should be grandfathered. This reporter called his office to ask what, specifically, his department is doing to make that happen. A spokesman said they are working on a budget request -- though the administration has not yet decided whether the funding would be just for their existing schools or stay with them through high school.

- Mayor Adrian Fenty. The mayor nominally favors the Opportunity Scholarships, but he's been an uncertain trumpet -- and his lack of leadership was a green light to a Democratic Congress itching to end the program. Though the mayor has promised that his two sons will go to D.C. public schools come fall, right now they too are in a private school.

- Sen. Durbin. In his floor statement defending his killer amendment, Mr. Durbin admitted he chose Catholic schools for his own children. "If I entrusted my own children to [private education], I certainly believe in it." But he went on to say this choice should be there only for Americans who pay for it.

Hmm. Wonder if Mr. Durbin's voting record reveals a consistent respect for not funding things when Americans can't afford them -- or if this fiscal rectitude is reserved only for programs that rile his friends in the teachers unions?

There's only one institution capable of holding these leaders' feet to the fire: the national press corp. Parents and their children will be rallying just a few blocks from the White House. What are the odds that our networks and newspapers will think it is worth covering?

You can read the rest of the article in the "Wall Street Journal" HERE.

Write to [email protected]

The new do-as-I-say double standard.

Rachel Carson Elementary

Rachel Carson Elementary School in Washington

"Noteviljustwrong"  movie played at Rachel Carson April 22, 2009

An Inconvenient Film  by Peter Foster

A

l Gore is about to feature in a new movie, but he’s not going to like it very much. Titled Not Evil Just Wrong: The True Cost of Global Warming Hysteria, the film presents a devastating account of the shaky foundations and hefty price of Mr. Gore’s brand of self-interested and hypocritical alarmism.

See entire article.

http://www.youtube.com/user/noteviljustwrong

National Post - FULL COMMENT