Posted on 06/30/2008 2:43:04 PM PDT by Graybeard58
Too often, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, I-Conn., is the typical opportunistic politician. But on a few issues, notably school vouchers and the war against Islamic extremists, he seems guided by principle rather than pragmatism.
Sen. Lieberman this month helped block an attempt by teachers unions and their congressional servants to kill the Opportunity Scholarship Program in Washington, D.C. The program gives scholarships so 2,000 mostly low-income, minority students in the nation's worst public school system can attend private or parochial schools.
A number of leading Democrats, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and past and present mayors of Washington, want the program continued, but Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., and others are hard at work trying to shut it down.
In a June 13 letter to Del. Norton, Sen. Lieberman wrote: "... (W)e owe it to our taxpayers to fully evaluate the effectiveness of this program in the light of day before turning our back on that investment ... (T)here are promising signs that the program is working, and it is still too soon to definitively reach conclusions." True enough, but to voucher opponents, utterly irrelevant.
Last week, the program survived a vote in a key congressional subcommittee, but at a significantly lower funding level ($14.8 million) than the White House proposed ($18 million).
As Sen. Lieberman acknowledges, the program has not proved vouchers work. While 90 percent of scholarship recipients' families say they're highly satisfied, standardized test scores do not add up to an unambiguous case for vouchers. But vouchers have had a discernible positive impact in Florida, Milwaukee and a few other places. After just 19 months of instruction, a U.S. Department of Education study found D.C. voucher students "realized higher academic achievement than students who were not awarded a voucher, though the differences between both groups of students were not statistically significant," Shanea J. Watkins of the Heritage Foundation reported June 20. She noted students in older voucher programs did not achieve significant academic gains until after the third or fourth year of participation.
Reasonable people would agree with Sen. Lieberman that the program should be given more time to prove itself. And it isn't difficult to discern why people such as Del. Norton want to deliver a quick death blow:
The last thing the teachers unions and their lackeys in Congress want is a successful voucher program that actually helps children, because that would threaten the unions' higher call: a continued stranglehold on American public education.
Ping to a Republican-American Editorial.
If you want on or off this list, let me know.
I think we need to be appreciative of the actions of People like Lieberman and Feinstein when it’s called for. I’m not a big fan of Feinstein and even Joe pushes it too far at times, but if she’s on the right side of an issue, I should reinforce that behavior.
You may not go back that far but Lieberman reminds me of Hubert Humphrey, right in a few areas but liberal to the core.
Nailed it.
I remember Humphrey fairly well. I agree with your assessment, but I’m not going to pretend I was as big a follower of politics then as I am now. I didn’t particularly care for his politics, but I didn’t think of him like I do Pelosi or Reid either.
Go Joe!
I used to have reserved respect for him UNTIL he joined Gore as his running mate, he immediately sold his soul and principles for the ‘honor’.
I do not understand “vouchers” but if they come with strings attached I would be against them too. Only on a personal level.
I had children in a private school 30 years ago and when we entered them the Pastor told us that if we ever accepted government assisstance for our children being in his school, we would be asked to remove them. I understand and agree with that sentiment - again, just for me and mine.
The DNC has done far more to destroy the Black Family than the KKK could ever imagine. Course the two have always been connected, just don’t tell the Coloreds.
Pray for W and Our Troops
You’ve hit on the issue I have with vouchers, too. I’m scared that if they do come into being, once a private school is starting to get federal funding, the federal government will start to pressure and force the schools into various things that may be against the entire point - like forcing the incorporation of ‘diverse viewpoints on Christianity’ of some such garbage.
Every time the government gives money away, it isn’t free. There are always strings attached.
The program gives scholarships so 2,000 mostly low-income, minority students in the worst public school system in the world can attend private or parochial schools.
Fixed
Democrats oppose private schools. It interferes with the government run public education monopoly and is at odds with the teacher’s lobby that they cater to. Not to leave out the fact that they oppose vouchers simply because it’s a Republican creation.
On rare occasion you will find a Democrat or two that puts politics as usual aside and uses their own independent judgment and common sense but monments like those are few and far between.
I agree. Letters to both expressing appreciation would not be unwarranted if they represent you.
How about letting me at least write off my kids tuition then?
Give Joe his props just for that.
Thanks NucSubs.
......I would be against them too. Only on a personal level.
I understand and agree with that sentiment - again, just for me and mine.
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