Free Republic

I know that every campaign promise Barack Obama makes has an expiration date ... but this is ridiculous. The confetti is barely off the floor at the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina after Obama’s acceptance speech, and already we find out that he’s flip-flopped. Remember this part of the speech, in which he attacks the Paul Ryan plan to apply free-market reform and cost controls to Medicare? And I will — I will never turn Medicare into a voucher.No American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies. They should retire...

Oh wait, that's not the Tea Party. It's Obama-supporting Democrat-voting* public union teacher protesters -- again.Yes, the Democrat-media complex still smear the Tea Party and anti-Obama conservative Americans as vitriolic and racist, and most recently "the real enemy" who can "go straight to hell." Meanwhile in the real world, actual vitriol and (by the left's own standards) racism occurred at the hands of union protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin both Thursday and Friday.As reported by Milwaukee's local Fox-TV affiliate: Vandals super glued the locks of several doors and a parking gate at Messmer Preparatory School in Milwaukee. School officials believe the people responsible...

The Democrats have consistently cultivated a public image as the party of the little guy, the party that stands up against big interests and protects the rights of minorities. You would think that a program that helps minority students, lowers costs, and increases funds for public schools would be right up their alley. You would be wrong. The Democrats in Congress have essentially killed Washington D.C.’s Opportunity Scholarship Program effectively throwing nearly 2000 disadvantaged students back into one of the worst school systems in the country. The very popular program had a long waiting list and has strong support in...

 The president suggests vouchers for kids trapped in failing public schools.Pro-family education experts are applauding the Bush administration for a bold new school-choice plan they say could help public-school students who are trapped in schools that fail to meet basic standards.Dan Lips, education analyst at The Heritage Foundation, said the proposal would provide $100 million in federal money for local groups to provide options."Basically, it would offer scholarships worth $4,000 for children to transfer out of public schools that have failed to meet adequate yearly progress for six years," he told CitizenLink. "It would give these children an opportunity to...

December 20, 2004 issue Copyright © 2004 The American Conservative Baby Gap How birthrates color the electoral map By Steve Sailer Despite the endless verbiage expended trying to explain America’s remarkably stable division into Republican and Democratic regions, almost no one has mentioned the obscure demographic factor that correlated uncannily with states’ partisan splits in both 2000 and 2004. Clearly, the issues that so excite political journalists had but a meager impact on most voters. For example, the press spent the last week of the 2004 campaign in a tizzy over the looting of explosives at Iraq’s al-Qaqaa munitions dump,...

<p>Parents of inner-city school children locked in failing public school systems should be given school vouchers to attend private or public schools elsewhere, a coalition of black clergy leaders said yesterday.</p> <p>"For the 26 years I have been in New Jersey, there have been a host of public school reform proposals, a multitude of major state Supreme Court rulings and billions of dollars spent to achieve parity and improve test scores," said the Rev. Reginald T. Jackson, executive director of the Black Ministers Council. "Yet, the fact remains, that with few exceptions, urban schools and most minority students still do not meet minimum state standards or receive a quality education," Jackson said, speaking at a news conference in Trenton.</p>

A Republican-led push to let parents send disabled children to private school with government money failed Wednesday as the House passed legislation renewing a 28-year-old law governing special education. Critics said the school choice proposals amounted to a dangerous expansion of the voucher program. Almost every Democrat and about one-fifth of Republicans joined to reject the ideas. The proposals were a major point of contention in the debate over reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The bill passed by a 251-171 vote. One plan would have enticed states to create private school options so parents could use public...