“Public schools are good for your kids but not good for… my kids?”
This should be the Democrat Party’s motto. They practice this hypocrisy, and sadly, get away with it. The liberal media is AWOL on challenging them.
Democrats would say “let public funds be used only for public schools.” Translation: If you do not have the personal means, you are screwed; you have no school choice. That is not very American. All children should have an equal opportunity at success with no child being trapped in a failing school.
Why can’t people take their resources (public funds derived from taxes paid) with them to the school of their choice? Why should only the wealthy be able to choose the school of their choice?
The landmark Brown vs. Board of Education decision in 1954 changed America for the better. “With all deliberate speed,” it put us on course for a desegregated educational system meant in the bigger picture to convert us into an integrated society with no second-class citizens.
For decades, the leadership of the teachers unions and their acts to deprive all children and their families of the fundamental right to select the school of their choice – as long as parents could transport their children to the school – is in direct opposition to the spirit of the aforementioned Supreme Court decision.
Having been a product of integrated schools, as well as my children, as well as my students at Georgetown and the University of Virginia, I will go out on a limb and say that students of color who attend integrated K-12 schools do better than those in segregated schools.
Thus, we know one of the solutions, yet we refuse to take one of the remedies to failing schools and allow for school choice.
The public gets it. They have been screaming to free our children. Polls show that 72% of Americans are in favor of K-12 school choice. Democrat leaders, however, are out of touch.
In fact, recently North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, made national news when he wrongly declared a state of emergency because the Republican-controlled legislature decided to expand school choice in the state.
Democrat presidents past and current, an award-winning Democrat educator now serving in Congress, Democrat governors, and a host of other Democrat leaders have exercised their right to send their children to non-public schools. And yet they all attempt to forcefully deny that right to their constituents. Their actions are disingenuous.
Back in the day, no member of Congress would be caught driving a foreign made car. It was considered hypocritical to encourage Americans to buy American, and then be seen driving a foreign made vehicle because you could afford to do so (now, many foreign cars are actually assembled in the U.S.).
But Democrats have no qualms about sending their children to non-public schools simply because they can afford to do so, while prohibiting others from doing the same. That is a classic double standard.
Democrats and teachers unions are inseparable and make an interesting pair. If you look at who these unions give nearly every dollar to in political campaigns (well over 90%), you would believe that the forced dues they collect from every public school teacher in the land means that nearly all teachers are Democrats. Well, no. Not true.
One of their top agenda items is thwarting any form of non-public school choice. Tens of millions of campaign contributions go only to those political candidates who accept this absurd position.
It begs the question: If Democrats can be hypocritical on this issue, what other issues are they not being “straight” with us on?
Economics play a role in segregated schools as neighborhood schools in all Black neighborhoods would be nearly all Black, but school choice helps to alleviate this issue by allowing a child to leave their segregated school for an integrated one.
Black Democrat politicians working with the teachers unions are actually keeping Black children trapped in failing public schools. They are inadvertently supporting segregated schools.
Black Democrats have drunk the “Kool-Aid” that more spending will yield better test results. Yet the record is clear that spending on education has continuously gone up over the years. Throwing more money at schools is not the solution. But it is the narrative that teachers unions have been promoting for decades. Doing the same thing year after year, decade after decade, and expecting a different result is the textbook definition of insanity.
Republicans practice what they preach. They believe in school choice for themselves and for all Americans.
The Democrats’ do-what-I-say-and-not-what-I-do form of governance is not the message we should be sending to our children and future leaders of America.
We cannot be so cynical that we allow such hypocrisy to be “par” for the course.
Gary Franks served three terms as U.S. representative for Connecticut’s 5th District. He was the first Black Republican elected to the House in nearly 60 years and New England’s first Black member of the House. He’s host of the podcast “We Speak Frankly” and author of “With God, For God, and For Country.” Reach him on Twitter @GaryFranks. His column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Lima News editorial board or AIM Media, owner of The Lima News.
