Quote of the Day:

Making use of time-honored federal government logic—we have to do something about X, and this is something, so we must do this—Hillary Clinton has proposed $500 million in federal spending on school anti-bullying initiatives.

–Robby Soave in Reason

 

You've got to love the name of Clinton's plan: "Better Than Bullying."

Most things are better than bullying–except this pathetic plan, which is basically to hire more school personnel for an already bloated system. Tax hikes will pay for these hires.

Advocates of Mrs. Clinton's plan make a novel pitch, according to Soave:

Supporters argue the program is necessary because bullying is on the rise—and it's all Donald Trump's fault, the Clinton campaign alleges.

As Soave points out, the NEA has only anecdotal information to support the claim that bullying is on the upswing. The discredited Southern Poverty Law Center has also trumped up some support for the idea that Trump is making children bully each other. But we'll have to wait for the end of the campaign for reliable data (and no doubt, the Democrats will want a taxpayer study of this).

Meanwhile, Soave quotes Jonathan Haidt on the redefining of bullying, definitions under which we will see an upswing in bullying even if actual bullying remained the same.

No, Mrs. Clinton's plan will not curtail bullying–but it does bully the taxpayer into coughing up money to hire more administrators. This as the system is largely already overstaffed with administrators.