Written with contribution from Sheriff David Clarke
It can easily be said that the fight over school choice ultimately boils down to being between the politically powerful teachers’ unions and those who advocate for taxpayer funds to go towards schools more suited to cater to individual students’ needs and meet parents’ unique values and desires for their child’s education.
The Democrats, eager for the support of the notoriously progressive public-school employee unions, typically excoriate any Republican-based effort to divert taxpayer funds to private, charter, or home schooling options.
They readily adapt the common pro-union talking points that this takes away resources from less advantaged public school students, though ignoring the fact that disadvantaged students often have the most to benefit from expanded options for school choice. To say nothing of the fact that public schools are largely failing students miserably as a whole as it is.
However, now that the Democrats have power in Washington D.C., they’re more than happy to ignore everything they’ve said in the past and team up with the teachers union to ensure funding for private schools.
No, really.
I’m sorry, wasn’t it “perpetuating white supremacy” when Betsy DeVos did it?
Give me a break.
Newsmax reports:
Democrats have long professed to be staunch supporters of public education and against school choice, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., struck an 11th-hour deal to fund almost $3 billion for private schools, The New York Times reported Sunday.
The $2.75 billion for private schools came together from Schumer after aggressive Orthodox Jewish lobbying and rare support from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, according to the Times.
Notably, though, Democrats excoriated Trump administration Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for fitting in funding for private schools in past stimulus bills last year, only to turn around and do the same thing with Biden’s $1.9 trillion spending package signed by President Joe Biden on Thursday.
Others teachers’ unions did object in statements to Congress and even, in the case of the largest teachers union the National Education Association, protested directly to the Biden White House, with whom they remain closely allied, as Newsmax notes.
Schumer defended the bill, which also includes $3 billion for special education program and $800 million for homeless students, as containing sufficient funds for public schools as well.
“Make no mistake, this bill provides generous funding for public schools,” a Schumer spokesman told the Times. “But there are also many private schools which serve large percentages of low-income and disadvantaged students who also need relief from the COVID crisis.”
You know what else is different about the private schools?
They’re open.
Meanwhile, the teachers’ unions, who are tearing their hair out that anyone would so much as suggest taxpayer funds be diverted to educational resources free of their ideological indoctrination, refuse to go back to actually teach the children who have no alternative than the public schools.
Nothing has revealed how broken our school system is like the pandemic—particularly how much the unions are to blame for its degradation.
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