Posted on 07/01/2002 8:35:45 AM PDT by wcdukenfield
Until 1995, Cleveland public schools were a disgrace. Students left them with the worst record of academic performance in the state of Ohio, and among the worst in the nation. They had a dropout rate of almost 70 percent. As a result, most families that could afford to pulled their children out of the public schools, leaving mostly children from low-income or minority families sentenced to a life of poverty and ignorance. To solve this problem, Ohio created a financial-aid program that enables parents to lift their children out of this swamp by giving them vouchers to pay tuition at private schools. A group of Ohio taxpayers sued to block the program, arguing that it illegally provided financial aid to religious schools. The federal courts found that the program had the primary effect of advancing religion in violation of the Constitution and blocked it. On Thursday, the Supreme Court disagreed, upholding the Cleveland vouchers program in a decision that will transform American education.
Writing for the majority 5-4 majority in the Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris case, Chief Justice Williams Rehnquist said, "That the [Cleveland] program was one of true private choice, with no evidence that the state deliberately skewed incentives toward religious schools, was sufficient for the program to survive scrutiny under the Establishment Clause." The point is inescapable: If the choice is made by the parents, not the state, the fact that the parents choose to pay the money to religious schools is irrelevant to determining whether the program is an unconstitutional action imposing religion.
Educrat groups such as the National Education Association (NEA) condemn the decision because it takes money and students out of the failed public schools. NEA's condemnation rings awfully hollow. If more money were all that is required, why do Cleveland public schools that receive more than $7,000 per student every year produce such dismal results? The answer is that they face no competition. Not only that, but they also absorb money without being accountable for how it is spent. Any monopoly, including public schools, always finds competition unfair. But with this decision, Cleveland schools — and all other public schools around the country — will have to compete for money and students. They will have to produce smarter children, not just whine about insufficient federal and state funding.
There is no more American a concept than freedom of choice, and that is what school vouchers are all about. Every state in the union should take advantage of this decision and force competition into public education. Many will, and as Landmark Legal Foundation President Mark Levin said, "the same organizations that have fought school choice in Ohio will try to use the courts to stop vouchers in other states." The battle is far from over. Both the American Civil Liberties Union and a number of Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League, say vouchers threaten religious liberty. But the Zelman vs. Simmons-Harris decision gives parents real hope. It's time to free children from the shackles of a public education system that doesn't educate. School vouchers are one great way to do it.
And correct me if I'm wrong, but none of Bush's handful of Federal judge appointments had anything to do with this case. And Bush has no appointments to SCOTUS.
So why is it that the cast of usual dunces is protesting BUSH, and blaming him for the fact that voucher programs are now legal?
If I didn't know better I'd SWEAR there was some sort of agenda there.
bluh-gluh? shoam fis' goffer onglatie?
You may identify with whichever you will.
The more shrill and mouth-foaming the Left gets in situations like this, the more you may be sure that THEY have read the tea-leaves and know their sinecure is in grave danger of being terminated.
They become absolutely comical in their antics.
Expect more and more entertainment value as voucher laws come into being over the next few years.
In the metropolitan areas, you have your fast-paced style of life, along with your many suburbs. On the other hand, in the rural areas, you have your slower pace of life. It's pretty much universal.
I can't believe that people try to make the south out to be a cultural backwater, very much different from the rest of the country when it is simply not true.
H*ll, just a few fashion tips from me would do 'em a WORLD of good!
I wonder just where it is you think I live.
H*ll, even the accents are merging.
Oh, and your comment is wasted on folks like surfin. He's the type who wants to believe the "Yankees" and "Southrons" are a completely different species and can't even cross-breed.
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