Posted on 06/18/2008 5:38:18 AM PDT by shrinkermd
When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he notably dissented from liberal orthodoxy on welfare and the death penalty. Many observers have been wondering if Barack Obama will follow Clinton's example. They frequently raise school choice as a cause Obama could take up to show his independence from Democratic interest groups.
It doesn't look as if that's going to happen, as ABC News's Jake Tapper reports:
On the same day that he was extolling the need to shake up the "status quo" in education, Obama also defended his opposition to school vouchers.
"We don't have enough slots for every child to go into a parochial school or a private school. And what you would see is a huge drain of resources out of the public schools," Obama said.
[John] McCain advocates giving every parent a voucher to essentially choose which school they'd like to send their child. Obama, whose two daughters attend private school, said that idea would crush the public school system entirely.
"But what I don't want to do is to see a diminished commitment to the public schools to the point where all we have are the hardest-to-teach kids with the least involved parents with the most disabilities in the public schools," he said. "That's going to make things worse, and we're going to lose the commitment to public schools that I think have been so important to building this country."
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Gee, Mr. Obama, that doesn’t sound like *change* to me.
Of course he has choice on where to send his kids to school but he wants to deny that same choice to other Chicago parents and across the country.
And they say he’s not an elitist?
.
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Obie soundy likey control freak to me........
“... we’re going to lose the commitment to public schools that I think have been so important to building this country.”
Obeyme’s only interest is to keep the proletariat indoctrination camps running full throttle. They are the well spring for turning out future Marxist golems.
Dear UNION Teachers: Don’t worry...You’ll get your big fat pensions and I might even shorten the school year. Just teach what I tell you and everything will be fine if you vote for me. Love Ya all...Big Bump...Obama
So it’s ok for his kids to go to a private school, but an inner city parent can’t be allowed to have the same for their kids ? I thought he was for making everyone’s life an utopia ? Or is that just for the members of the politburo ?
He’s an elistist.
Why? Why would there be such a drain of reources out of the public schools? Is it because everybody knows they suck?
And what happens if resources do drain out? Lots of resources become available, families start looking for slots in parochial or private schools, then what happens? Oh, yeah, the resources are used to create slots in parochial or private schools.
Does this guy understand nothing?
Pandering to the NEA.....and offering NO new ideas and NO real change.
His best chance was against Hitlery; another "pragmatist". Against Obama he looks like a doddering fool.
There are two america’s. One for him and one for us.
Not only does he get private school for his kids, he gets reduced tuition because his wife has a job at UofC and they run the school. A job that is political patronage and pays 300k. Plus..he gets a discount on realestate from Mr. Fixit of IL.
This is not change..except that he has moved the DNC from DC to S.Chicago. I hope they like the change. Now the DNC will be run Chicago curruption style..worse than DC.
Obama checked with the NEA and they told him he was against vouchers.
It’s time to concentrate on the really awful agenda of Obama. He could do some REAL harm in many areas, particularly with his plans for defense capabilities.
LOL!
I thought hypocrisy was a word, not an entire sentence...
You know...I’d love to know just WHO Obama’s core advisors are? It’s obvious he doesn’t have much expertise on a multitude of issues.
You can say that again.
Yes? And what's the down side?
I'd say the man is just plain damn dumb. He READS an excellent speech, but that's about the extent of his intellectual talents.
Yeah, I agree. I wonder how many politicos in D.C. actually send their children to public schools. Supposedly the per capita expenditure there is the highest in the U.S. Not surprisingly the results are among the worst. D.C. is the paradigm of liberalism. Change my ass! This guy reminds me of Townsend’s line, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.” The Dalai Bama (DMD - Dingbaticus Moronicus Dipshiticus) will swallow any bullshit shoveled his way by tort lawyers and teacher’s unions. What a fraud.
If he was not already a slave to the teacher’s unions, he would not be the Democratic nominee.
Ping for later
a) The disruptive kids end up disrupting private schools. Half the value of a private school is their filtering process.
b) With money comes strings. Once private schools start accepting tax money their filtering process will be destroyed. If some private schools accept the money, almost all will have to to remain in business.
The conservative position should be to not involve the government in distorting the free market. While I don't agree with Obama's reasons, I agree with his position on vouchers.
Exactly! Although he is a Harvard graduate, he doesn’t seem to be very well rounded in his knowledge base and he CERTAINLY subscribes to socialist remedies for societal problems. THAT alone demonstrates a very limited understanding of history. I consider a good understanding of history (among other things) to be crucial for anyone in political leadership.
***Obama, whose two daughters attend private school, said that idea would crush the public school system entirely.***
I’m speechless!
Why oh why doesn’t Obama send HIS kids to one of these WONDERFUL public schools?
Why oh why will not ONE member of the MSM even ASK him that question?
“The disruptive kids end up disrupting private schools”
If that continues, they will be expelled....which is what the public schools SHOULD do.
You actually make some good points.
Once that “gubment money” starts going toward those private schools, prayer and values will be stripped from them and the “gubment” will begin to tell them what they can and cannot teach! THey will eventually become no different than the public schools.
Now thinking about it, I’m actually surprised the dems are not pushing school vouchers just to make the above scenario happen.
There is real energy and passion in the posts. Senator McCain should note this. As issues go, this one appeals to the political brain.
Great. I wasted half an hour trying to think of a down side...
Obama attended an exclusive private school in Hawaii.
He also attended an exclusive private school in Indonesia.);>)
The public school teachers and Democrats in power don't want to destroy private schools because then they will have no place to send their own kids. Having their progeny mix with the plebeians is the last thing they want to see happen.
I’ll agree with b), but a) will be much less of a problem than we see in public schools.
The reason that some kids are allowed to continue to be disruptive is that they know they can’t get kicked out.
The simple existance of the option of kicking out a disruptive student will cause incentives on the parent, the kids themselves, and the teachers to correct this behavior.
There are many examples of “disruptive” kids being put in a situation where it’s shape up or ship out, and they shape up.
Once again, the concept of supply and demand eludes the Dems. With more students trying to attend private schools, more private schools will open to meet the demand. Those which fail to improve on public education will close, while the ones providing a better education will prosper and grow.
And those of us in NJ whose real estate taxes are rising every year to fill the trough of the NJEA pig may get some small relief. But I doubt it.
If I remember correctly, Clinton was against welfare reform, and vetoed it several times, until the 1996 election came around. I believe he had a change of heart around August or September of 1996 and signed the bill into law. That signature took away the only issue the GOP had against Clinton.
Granted, we had many issues with Clinton's policies, but the GOP decided to run on a platform of "be against clinton", when it should have been "this is why you should vote for me."
Harvard recruited my son but I told him he couldn’t go there because his mom and dad are married.
He has no basic understanding of economics other than state-control Marxism.
He has no clue that entrepreneurs in the private sector would create all sorts of new “slots” for students fleeing the corrupt public school system if parents were given a choice.
Instead, he wants every student to be a “Tab A” fitting into the government controlled “Slot B” where everybody gets the lowest-common-denominator education, outcomes are mandated to be equal and you get your full measure of gay, lesbo, and transgender indoctrination.
Obama: God forbid that some of that ‘voucher trash’ get to go to the same school as my precious babies. We have to keep the riff raff out, you know.
What do you want? Thought?
Good question.
Is Obama having any events near anyone here in the near future? It would be a good question to ask, if he takes audience questions.
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