Educational Hypocrisy - School Choice or Not School Choice

Posted by Brian
Teachers Unions For School Choice - If You Have The Money...or the Status

When President Obama made the decision to send his children to private school, many complained that it was hypocritical.  On the surface, I would agree.  However, as a proponent of free-choice, I have no problem with his decision.  As a parent, he and his wife should make decisions which are the best for their children.  My problem is that he and many others don't believe that others should have the same freedom.

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=e4qGZu8z6U

He publicly opposed and helped kill the DC Opportunity Scholarship program, which was a voucher program that allowed parents of students in under-performing schools to send their children to private schools, including the Sidwell Academy which the Obama's send their daughters to. The program was both popular and effective within the D.C. area, whose main beneficiaries were under-priviliged African-American families.  In this case you could actually run the headline - "Minorities Hardest Hit".



This is also another illustration that the teachers unions are not concerned in the least about children and the type of education they get.  They oppose school choice vouchers for two reasons.
One - money. The vouchers represent money that would normally go to these under-performing public schools, but which would now go to either better performing schools, or private schools.  Teachers in private schools are not in the unions, but are privately contracted. This would funnel less money into the unions.  Less money into the unions means less Power.
Two - Exposure. Students going to these new school typically see dramatic improvement in their performance and behavior. As parents become aware of this performance chasm, the gilding will be off of the public school monopoly.  They will see that the agenda of the teachers unions, and the billions of dollars that have been poured into failed social experiments disguised as education, have never been about the children.  It has always been about money and power.