The war against vouchers

DC public schools are an awful mess, so naturally our non-voting Representative Eleanor Norton Holmes is pulling out all the stops to ensure that poor children in DC can't attend private schools. Actual quote:

"We have to protect the children, who are the truly innocent victims here," said Norton, who like many Democrats opposes vouchers as a threat to public school systems. "But I can tell you that the Democratic Congress is not about to extend this program."

So denying children the opportunity to enroll at schools that only the children of wealthier parents can attend -- a most egalitarian of initiatives -- is now seen as somehow a threat to children. This is logic at its most twisted. Indeed, the primary goal here is NOT the education of children, it's the preservation of public education as the primary means of doing so. It is simply axiomatic that public schools must be the cornerstone of childhood education, even if the evidence does not bear it out to be a particularly effective means of doing so.

When you read about things like this, and then consider that popular wisdom holds that Democrats have a monopoly on compassion while Republicans simply look out for the interests of the rich, it makes you want to scream.