NowThis News wants everyone to know that school choice is associated with the segregationists of 1950s Virginia. Obviously, if we know this, we’ll oppose school choice because who wants to be a segregationist?
“Seeking a way To avoid desegregation these southerners found a loophole through private education. …….Influential conservative and libertarian thinkers supported the white southern cause, seeing voucher programs as an opportunity to advance their broader goal of dismantling public education….”
The name of Milton Friedman is mentioned – they even have a little arrow pointing to him in one picture, which isn’t exactly what happened.
Friedman supported vouchers; so did the segregationists. But they supported them for opposite reasons – Friedman insisted that vouchers would reduce segregation. It’s true, there are racists out there, but most people are not. Therefore, most parents would not use vouchers to segregate schools. On this, Friedman was right. After a couple of years of experimentation, the segregationists started to oppose vouchers. Because vouchers, in fact, led to less segregation of schools, not more.
As we find in our own time. The use of vouchers has reduced segregation in Chicago’s schools. The reason is that it’s the Black and the poor who exercise that option of school choice the most: “We find that the students most likely to enroll in a high school other than their assigned school are African-American students and those living in the poorest neighborhoods.”
As in 1950s Virginia, school choice reduces segregation. Therefore, scaremongering about vouchers and segregation is precisely that, fearmongering – when it’s not just outright disinformation.
The real complaint of NowThis and the progressives in general is this: “However, this practice takes funding from public schools and redirects it to private schools which aren’t accountable to taxpayers.” One response to that is that we don’t care. We desire that the children get educated in the best way possible. If that’s public schools, then great – if it isn’t, then also great. The best possible education and start in life for that specific child is the aim of everything that is being done here.
But the entirely correct observation is that the teachers’ unions, along with a considerable number of bureaucrats, have a lock on the money and power in the public education system. There are many millions of these people. And school vouchers will reduce their power and ability to control that money flow.
They’re rational in opposing vouchers and school choice because they will lose out. But knowing that’s the reason they oppose means that we don’t have to take any notice of their complaints. Even that we shouldn’t, nor those of their propagandists like NowThis News.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News. This article was first published by Accuracy In Media.
Never Forget it is the Democrats who fought & Died to keep slavery. It was the Democrats that instituted segregation into our Society as well. When they make false claims like the Marxists over at “Now This” they are using their playbook “Rules for Radicles” by Sal Alinsky. “Accuse your enemies of the crimes you commit”… This card has been played by Hillary Clinton & the Cilintonistas for decades. Furthermore, when they parrot the lie “all the racists left the Democrat Party back in the 50-60s” the Voter Rolls from then soundly prove that it’s just another lie from the slaveholder party. No body can argue against the FACT the civil rights act was 100% enacted with Republican votes. Not a single Democrat Senator voted for Civil Rights…. simply because the majority of Democrats are Racists… and they play their victims like a fiddle. The only difference between the slaveholder party from back and now is the shackles are on the slaves minds and not their ankles & wrists.
Actually democrats did support the civil rights act, just not as well as republicans did.
When you get basic facts wrong it undermines your arguments.
Yes, they were and still are America’s racist party!
Yes, Friedman did support vouchers, tax credits and choice. However, what Friedman never told you was that when you take one penny of federal education tax money, every federal education regulation goes with it. Therefore, once “vouchers” and such are passed, the government will also control private education, religious education and home schoolers.
Do some research before printing such articles. Here’s a good place to start.
The desire for total government control of education started long ago. However, back then, we had preachers who told the truth and informed the public. In August of 1933, Dr. J. Gresham Machen, gave the speech, The Necessity of the Christian School. He was Professor of New Testament in Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pa. The lecture was given at the Educational Convention held in Chicago under the auspices of the National Union of Christian Schools.
“Every lover of human freedom ought to oppose with all his might the giving of Federal aid to the schools of this country; for Federal aid in the long run inevitably means Federal control, and Federal control means control by a centralized and irresponsible bureaucracy, and control by such a bureaucracy means the death of everything that might make this country great. Against this soul-killing collectivism in education, the Christian school, like the private school, stands as an emphatic protest. In doing so, it is no real enemy of the public schools. On the contrary, the only way in which a state-controlled school can be kept even relatively healthy is through the absolutely free possibility of competition by private schools and church schools; if it once becomes monopolistic, it is the most effective engine of tyranny and intellectual stagnation that has yet been devised.”
Please remember, whatever the government funds with our tax dollars, the government ultimately controls.
total BS
Let’s be clear, the public school system is a COMPLETE FAILURE. The NY Times last week wrote an article based on studying the ‘success case’ of the public school’s highest performing system–armed forces public schools. They admitted that system has more than half its students FAILING to meet basic grade level proficiency in reading and/or math. When failing a majority of your students is the ‘success case’ it isn’t worthy of being studied and replicated, it means your entire system is a failure.
But the academic failures in STEM are only the tip of the iceberg.
Colleges, universities, and employers have for years declared the majority of these public school students ill-equipped to enter college or the workforce.
Only 3% of recent public school students can pass the basic civics test to become a naturalized citizen. Meaning they are unprepared to become citizens. That test consists of 10 multiple-choice questions like: Who was the first President of the United States? 3 PERCENT!
we need 100% school vouchers provided to the parent which they give to the schools in monthly checks.
That way the schools will pay more attention tot he parents then the unions and pedophiles.