I haven't read all of your post yet, but I must say that this quote alone is partly about what is seriously wrong in politics today. The remark is inherently racist and is also indicative of the plantation mentality which permeates the Democrat Party these days.
I'd almost bet my house that Kerry's children have never even seen the inside of a public school building.
A lot of politicians in Massachusetts would fit that bill, I'd be willing to bet! It certainly does apply to well-heeled liberals in other occupations in the "Commonwealth." I even know public school teachers who send their children to "other" schools!
Kerry opposes vouchers and insists that parents would have sufficient valid "choices" within the public school system itself. He is simply afraid of the loss of prestige and "influence" that the socialist bastards would lose. No doubt he argues that radical choice would have unintended consequences, e.g., the balkanizing of American society. Never mind that we already have this in our present public school systems, thanks to the proponents of political correctness, the relative immunity of teachers who promote their particular ideology or pet political ideas (gay rights, e.g.) and hide behind "academic freedom," etc. But the idea of "school choice," in order to have a significant impact upon society and the body politic, must include the validity of options that are totally free of "public school" influence and teacher-union control. Kerry would probably have a fatal coronary incident if he had to consider these ideas: the total separation of school and state, the abolition of the IRS, the definitive privatization of health care, Social Security, etc....
"I like paying taxes, they purchase civilization!" (Oliver Wendell Holmes) "It takes a village to raise a child." (Now, who said that? Hillary Clinton's quote, but Karl Marx and Adolph Hitler also said it in different words - any proponent of whatever variety of socialism!)