“This is the Obama administration, this is Washington D.C., putting the needs of government unions over the needs of our children.”
That was Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal at a speech to Americans for Prosperity calling out the White House and Eric Holder-run Justice Department for bringing federal suit against that state’s school choice voucher program.
The Justice Department is making the patently absurd argument that allowing students to leave public schools for private schools will somehow undermine desegregation of schools in Louisiana.
There’s only one small problem. As the Washington Post editorial board notes, “most of the students using vouchers are black,” meaning the effect will be to boost black enrollment in private schools where they are underserved, not to reimpose segregation.
Said the Post, “Louisiana parents are clamoring for the choice afforded by this program; the state is insisting on accountability; poor students are benefiting. The federal government should get out of the way.” Indeed.
The only thing that might be undermined is enrollment in public schools across the board if school vouchers should become more widely available. Bobby Jindal and Americans for Prosperity are to be praised for standing up for school choice.
The true segregation in education being enforced today is not based on racial quotas, it is based on the monopoly public schools teachers unions insist on imposing.
School vouchers take dollars out of public schools, and the unions hate it. It forces them to compete. They care more about pocketing those tax dollars than helping little black kids get a better education.
That’s despicable enough. But so beholden is the Obama Administration and Holder Justice Department to the unions like that National Education Association, they are willing to send those black kids to the back of the bus by leaving them in failing schools.
