Last week, I wrote about David Obey cutting out vouchers for DC children. In my post, I said that it was Rep. Obey’s way of giving the inner city’s underprivileged children the finger. This morning, the Chicago Tribune takes up the fight in this editorial:

We wrote last week about Democratic efforts to strip 1,900 low-income Washington children of $7,500 “opportunity scholarships” to attend private schools.

It’s an experiment in school vouchers, an experiment with little potential downside. But it’s an experiment that was launched in 2004 by a Republican-controlled Congress. Today it’s on the verge of extinction because the Democratic-controlled Congress wants to do the bidding of public-school teachers unions. The unions see vouchers that let poor kids go to private schools as aiding the enemy.

Language passed by the House as part of a massive $410 billion spending bill would effectively doom the federally funded program. The 1,900 kids would have to leave their schools and re-enter public schools in Washington, which has some of the worst schools in the nation. The measure, by the way, is referred to as “the Durbin language” for sponsoring Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois.

The Democrats’ point is not to save money—at $14 million a year, the effort represents a trivial share of the budget. The point is to prevent the spread of vouchers.

BINGO on that last point. With all the money that’s being spent by the Obama administration and the Democratic majority in the US House and US Senate, $14 million is practically nothing. This is the teacher’s union saying jump and the Democrat majority asking how high.

The Democrats’ racism is showing.

I don’t use that word often because it’s such a misused word. This time, according to Dictionary.com, it fits:

discriminatory or abusive behavior towards members of another race

Tell me how this legislation doesn’t constitute “discriminatory or abusive behavior.” I don’t just dare people on that; I double dare them, especially Rep. Obey and Sen. Durbin, to tell me why this doesn’t constitute “discriminatory or abusive behavior.” Their behavior, along with other Democrats voting for this bill, is despicable.

Here’s what I said in last week’s post:

I didn’t often agree with President Bush on education policy but one thing that I’ll wholeheartedly and consistently agree with him was his statements about education being proof of the “soft bigotry” of the 21st century. In fact, Chairman Obey is the personification of that soft bigotry.

The Chicago Tribune isn’t the only newspaper that’s picking a fight with the Obama administration. In fact, some DC students are picking a fight in this DCExaminer editorial:

Domonique, age 14, begins the videotaped letter: “Dear Mr. President Obama.” Paul, 11, and Sakeithia, 12, echo the greetings. “In my old public school,” Paul says after the formalities, “people screamed at the teacher, walked out of the school during classes, hurt me, and made fun of all my friends.” Breanna, 9, chimes in: “I love going to school there where I can learn and be safe.” These are the faces and voices of low-income children (via www.VoicesofSchoolChoice.org) who receive congressionally funded D.C. Opportunity Scholarships to attend various private schools of their parents’ choice in the nation’s capital. They are asking President Barack Obama to make sure their scholarships aren’t snatched away by congressional Democrats in hock to the public school teachers and administrators unions. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told a congressional committee yesterday that he favors continuation of the program. Where is Obama on the issue?

As has by now been well publicized, the ranks of the 1,900 scholarship recipients include Sarah and James Parker, who attend Sidwell Friends School with Obama’s daughters Malia and Natasha. Their mother, Deborah, has said the thought of her children returning to their old school “frightens” her. But unless Congress strips certain provisions from the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, the scholarships will disappear. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic congressional leaders contrived a legislative sleight-of-hand in the omnibus bill to kill the program without having to go on record individually. Some would call that political cowardice.

I’d call the Democrats’ sleight-of-hand political cowardice, too. The only thing Democrats have a spine for these days is for destabilizing MidEast allies like Iraq and Israel.

One thing that’s been gnawing at me for years is that this is a great opportunity for conservatives. We’re always talking about the private sector doing a better job than DC’s bureaucrats. It’s one of conservatism’s tenets that I wholeheartedly agree with. Now’s the perfect opportunity for conservative philanthropists to step forward and offer scholarships. Ideally speaking, we shouldn’t just focus on DC, either, but rather on inner city schools across the nation.

The great thing about setting up such a network is that it forces the teacher unions and their liberal enablers in Congress and the state legislatures to justify their monopoly on America’s education system. It’s time they explained (justified?) why trapping children in schools that don’t teach children the things they’ll need to compete in a global economy and that don’t guarantee each child’s physical safety is what’s best for the children.

It’s time that these unions and their enablers explained how trapping children in unionized schools isn’t the soft bigotry that President Bush rightly exposed.

Finally, it’s time we forced Chairman Obey and Speaker Pelosi to explain why they’re pursuing policies that that strengthen the teachers’ unions instead of pursuing policies that guarantee these children the best opportunity to learn.

Technorati: Education, Vouchers, Washington, DC, Soft Bigotry, Racism, Unions, David Obey, Speaker Pelosi, Democrats, Scholarships, Conservatism, Republicans