Obama, Congress Throw DC Underprivileged Children Under the School Bus

It has been a fear of many poor children and their parents that live in Washington DC that a Democratic-led government would cut funding to a successful program that would give scholarships to children, so they can go to private schools, instead of the abysmal DC public schools. Unfortunately, their fears have recently been realized:

Black leaders say that President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and Congress have put politics ahead of helping low-income children in the District of Columbia by refusing to support a program that allows 1,700 children to go to a private school, including the school Obama’s two daughters attend.
 
Congress did not reauthorize funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) in the 2010-11 federal budget, ending a program that has helped thousands of disadvantaged children attend some of the best schools in the nation’s capitol since its inception in 2004.
 
And while Obama backed Congress’ move to continue funding scholarships for children already in the program until they graduate from high school, no new children will receive the $7,500 annual tuition scholarship.

 
Juan Williams, a Democratic pundit from Fox News, took a huge exception to this turn of events:

“The cancellation of the program, in my view, has been an unprecedented move by the federal government, because this is a historic moment, historic government spending in our nation’s history – a time when the U.S. Treasury is giving hundreds of billions of dollars to Wall Street bailouts,” Juan Williams, political commentator, said at a press conference held last week at the National Press Club in Washington.
 
“Congress chose, in the midst of all this spending, to end a very small, $13 million dollar program that, according to the Department of Education (DOE), has increased and improved the reading scores of low-income children here in the District of Columbia,” he said.
 
“The move is a matter of politics, in my opinion, plain and simple,” Williams said. “Powerful special interest groups like the National Education Association are clearly committed to destroying and denying these programs as they benefit low-income families and denying them the same opportunities that powerful Washington politicians and privileged people take for granted – the power to choose a safe and effective school for their children.”
 
Williams, a Democrat and regular commentator for National Public Radio, said his own personal story – growing up in poverty with a single mom devoted to seeing that her children got an education – makes helping disadvantaged children a moral imperative. He also said Obama, who attended a private school on scholarships while growing up in Hawaii, should share his passion for school choice.

Arne Duncan, Obama's Secretary of Education, showed little reluctance to pulling the plug on the successful program, while giving a lame excuse:

As CNSNews.com reported, when asked why the Obama administration did not support the reauthorization of OSP, Duncan said in a statement that school vouchers would not fix D.C.’s failing schools.
 
“I appreciate the desire of every family to have the best possible education for their child,” Duncan said. “I also understand that our role is to support children, parents and educators. That is why this Administration is devoting more resources and supports more ambitious reform of our public school systems than any administration in history.”

Let me translate more "resources" means more money. Just like the Democrats always do, they want to throw money at the broken system hoping that the money will magically cure all of the system's ills.

Instead they should change the system and give more money to the students so that they can attend the school's that are doing it better, until the public system improves.

Why won't they do it that way? Two words: teachers' union.

Peaceful Muslim Prayer Meeting in Front of US Capitol Disrupted By Mostly Christian Hecklers//What's Up With Dat?

Yesterday, there was a huge religious rally in Washington DC in front of the Capitol building. It wasn't a Christian rally. It was a Muslim rally:

About 3,000 Muslims gathered Friday for a first-ever prayer service in the shadow of the U.S. Capitol in what turned out to be a peaceful assembly despite the taunts of Christian evangelists on the surrounding sidewalks.

This is what I don't understand. Some Christians complain about losing their religious freedom and rightfully so. Their rights are under attack from secular progressives all the time. Christians will keep fighting to keep those rights, but some of the same people won't give the same consideration for other religions.

As a Christian, I know how Christians' religious rights are being chipped away. We can't pray or even talk about God in school. We can't post anything remotely religious on government property. Christmas, "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust" are both under constant attack.

We should be able to sympathize with them and let them be as long as they are peacefully assembling. They have the same rights of religion, religious expression, and peaceful assembly as the rest of us do. The Bill of Rights was written for everyone not just Protestant Americans. If we want them to respect our ways, we must, also, respect theirs.

"What we've done today, you couldn't do in any Muslim country," said Imam Abdul Malik, 42, of Brooklyn, N.Y., the rally organizer who made a 40-minute address to the crowd. "If you prayed on the palace lawn there, they'd lock you up."

That is really what makes this country great. We have freedoms that other people can only fantasize about having. This what our Founding Fathers fought for with their lives. They escaped religious persecution in England so that they may praise and worship as they pleased here in America. Anyone from any religion should be able to come to the United States and not feel restricted with regards to their religious beliefs and expression. We, Christians, must remember where we come from, so we don't make the same mistakes good ole King George made.

Democrats Sell-Out Poor Children in DC; Robert Gibbs Can't Defend Action As His Wheels Fly Off During Questioning

Obama Sells Out African-American Children
March 3, 2009
Posted by John at 6:33 PM

A little-noted provision of the Democrats' budget bill would kill a scholarship program in the District of Columbia that allows some children to escape from the District's awful public schools and attend private schools, like the Obama girls. In today's Wall Street Journal, William McGurn profiles Sarah and James Parker, who attend Sidwell Friends with Sasha and Malia Obama:

"Unlike the Obama girls, they could not afford the school without the $7,500 voucher they receive from the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship program. Unfortunately, a spending bill the Senate takes up this week includes a poison pill that would kill this program -- and with it perhaps the Parker children's hopes for a Sidwell diploma. ...

"Deborah Parker says such a move would be devastating for her kids. ...

"That's the reality that the Parkers and 1,700 other low-income students face if Sen. Durbin and his allies get their way. And it points to perhaps the most odious of double standards in American life today: the way some of our loudest champions of public education vote to keep other people's children -- mostly inner-city blacks and Latinos -- trapped in schools where they'd never let their own kids set foot."

That is, indeed, one of the great scandals of American politics. But with the Democrats in the saddle in Washington, the teachers' unions expect the escape hatch of school choice to be slammed shut, so it will be.

In today's press briefing, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about McGurn's article and Obama's opposition to school choice. He was not able to muster a coherent response:

QUESTION: On education, there's a provision in the omnibus spending bill that would sunset the D.C. voucher plan. And I'm wondering -- there's been a lot of publicity about this brother and sister pair at Sidwell who use their voucher money to -- to pay for tuition at the same school the president chose to send his children. I'm wondering if you could restate the president's opposition to the D.C. voucher plan and why he's...

(CROSSTALK)

GIBBS: Yes, I -- I would -- let me go -- I've not read the article today, if there was one. I think the...

QUESTION: Well, it's just about two kids who use their voucher money to go to Sidwell. I mean...

GIBBS: Right. I mean, I think -- right.

QUESTION: I mean -- I mean, and they would -- in other words, if they cut the voucher program, they couldn't go there.

GIBBS: Why are you even providing me the opportunity to be the middleman? I mean, again...

QUESTION: Well, could you just restate the president's position?

GIBBS: Well, I think the president has concerns about -- concerns about taking large amounts of funding out of the system to -- to address this, that the president obviously believes -- and I think you'll hear him talk about and has talked about -- the need for reform in our educational system, but -- but has not agreed with the program in the past. I'll see if there's anything to update on that.

Of course, it's hard to answer a question when you can't tell the truth. Gibbs couldn't very well say that President Obama and the Democratic Party are in the bag for the teachers' unions and don't much care what happens to inner-city kids. Could he?


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http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/03/022968.php

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My Thoughts

Could some one help Gibbs find his wheels? They had completely flown off during this exchange.

As much as the Democrats love to "champion" the poor and minorities, it amazing how quickly they will throw the poor, mostly minority children under the school bus in favor of the teacher's union.

Maybe why Gibbs can't come up with a good excuse as to why they would to this to DC poor children is because there isn't one.