Joshua Pundit: Yes, the Left definitely wants kids stuck in dysfunctional, union controlled under performing schools. Especially if they happen to be black or Latino and belong to working families.
Louisiana’s governor Bobby Jindal put something in place that is needed nationwide – a voucher program known as The Louisiana Scholarship Program that allows working families to avoid poor quality public schools graded C D or F in terms of their test scores and drop out rate and attend the private schools of their choice at taxpayer expense.
Needless to say, lots of families took advantage of the program. Note that these are poorly performing mostly minority schools.
As to be expected, the teacher’s union sued as the program got more popular, claiming it was ‘illegally ‘ depriving public schools of public funds,and the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled in a party line ruling back in May that the state could not use the money it allots for each student in public schools to fund the Louisiana Scholarship Program. So pending appeal, Governor Jindal managed to find about $40 million in public money elsewhere to cover the almost 8,000 2013-14 students enrolled in the program.
But if course, we can’t have that.
Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama Department of Justice are suing in federal court to block the program on the basis that- wait for it- giving vouchers to children in poorly performing increases segregation!
The Justice Department’s primary argument is that letting students leave for vouchered private schools can disrupt the racial balance in public school systems that desegregation orders are meant to protect. Those orders almost always set rules for student transfers with the school system. {…}
In Tangipahoa Parish, for instance, Independence Elementary School lost five white students to voucher schools, the petition states. The consequent change in the percent of enrolled white students "reinforc(ed) the racial identity of the school as a black school."
As State Education Superintendent John White pointed out in response, almost all the students using vouchers are black. Given that framework, "it’s a little ridiculous" to argue that students’ departure to voucher schools makes their home school systems less whit. He also pointed out that it’s ironic that rules set up to combat racism were being used on to keep black students in failing schools.
Not only that, but the schools in the voucher program must comply with the terms of 1975 court case Brumfield v. Dodd that prohibits the state from using public money to fund private schools that uphold segregation or engage in discrimination.
The feds will likely win the case since it has been assigned to Federal District Court Judge Ivan Lemelle, a Democrat and Clinton appointee who has already ruled against the voucher program in the past. The State of Louisiana will undoubtedly appeal.
"After generations of being denied a choice, parents finally can choose a school for their child, but now the federal government is stepping in to prevent parents from exercising this right. Shame on them," Jindal said. "Parents should have the ability to decide where to send their child to school."
And working families should be able to opt out of failing, union controlled public schools just like the elites do.
But right or wrong, the Ruling Class will fight it tooth and nail. They don’t want the kids of working families educated.
It’s all about control.
askmarion 