Plus, justice in the New Black Panther case?
Does President Obama risk looking like he’s in the pocket of teacher’s unions? There’s no doubt.
You have to look no further than a letter written in 2009 by Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, urging Democrats in the House and Senate to vote against any D.C. voucher program.
In fact, it appears the White House took their language right from Van Roekel’s letter, where he explained the NEA “strongly opposes” the expansion of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. “We expect that members of Congress who support public education, and whom we have supported, will stand firm against any proposal to extend the pilot program,” he wrote.
Sadly, of course, what the White House left out of their policy statement is the fact that even this relatively small choice program yielded dramatic improvements in academic achievement and higher graduation rates (based on findings from a federally mandated study!). And it managed to do this for a fraction of the cost. Each scholarship recipient cost $6,600 per student, rather than the $28,000 per student D.C. Public Schools spend each year.
President Obama is opposed to saving huge sums of money, improving educational outcomes, and giving students and their families more choice in education. It’s a lose-lose-lose situation.