Voting against kids

Over at Red State....

The U.S. Senate had the opportunity tonight to give 1,700 low-income children in the District of Columbia the chance for a better education. Instead, voting mostly along party lines, 58 senators sided with liberal special interests to defeat an amendment saving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), who attended a private high school and sent his kids to private school, inserted a provision in the $410 billion omnibus appropriations bill that puts the program in jeopardy. An amendment offered by Sen. John Ensign (R-NV) would have stripped the language, but the Senate defeated it tonight, 58-39.

The 58 senators included four Republicans: Mike Crapo (R-ID), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME). Their action tonight doesn’t end the program, but makes it much more difficult for 1,700 mostly poor black students to achieve the educational dreams that these scholarships offer.

A number of years ago, I had a conversation with a liberal friend of mine who told me that he was against vouchers. It struck me as especially ridiculous since he was spending money for tuition already.

GG - Why are you against vouchers? That would help you out with your tuition.

Liberal Friend - Because I don't won't kids who's parents don't care about their education populating the schools where my kids are.

GG - Wait a minute, you're always blasting me about doing stuff for the poor, what's this attitude?

Liberal Friend - Look, I will see that my kids have the educational advantage that other kids don't have and I'll pay the price for it. And besides, I already pay for public schools our kids don't use.

So once again, for liberals, it's do what I say not what I do.

I don't know what the teachers union has on the democratic party. The democrats are always willing to sell out the AFL CIO and the Teamsters when it comes to issues like the environment, NAFTA and CAFTA. But when it comes to teaching poor kids in horrible school districts, poor kids will always lose over the NEA.

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