Democrats and Teachers Unions: Putting Children Last

The Democrats and Teachers Unions are trying to kill the Washington D.C. Opportunity scholarships. In effect they are Putting Children Last instead of first. Visit the WSJ for the full article. I am going to highlight the most important quotes and statements below.

Democrats in Congress have finally found a federal program they want to eliminate.
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it’s one that actually works and helps thousands of poor children.
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This fight has nothing to do with saving money.
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Kevin Chavis [snip] says, “If we were going to do what was best for the kids, then continuing it is a no-brainer. Those kids are thriving.” More than 90% of the families express high satisfaction with the program, according to researchers at Georgetown University.

Many of the parents we interviewed describe the vouchers as a “Godsend” or a “lifeline” for their sons and daughters. “Most of the politicians have choices on where to send their kids to school,” says William Rush, Jr., who has two boys in the program. “Why do they want to take our choices away?”
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the teachers unions have put out the word to Congress that they want all vouchers for private schools that compete with their monopoly system shut down.
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Ms. Norton contends that vouchers undermine support and funding for public schools.
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The $7,500 voucher is a bargain for taxpayers because it costs the public schools about 50% more, or $13,000 a year, to educate a child in the public schools.
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A new study on charter schools in Los Angeles County finds big academic gains when families have expanded choices for educating their kids.
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The reason unions want to shut the program down immediately isn’t because they’re afraid it will fail. They’re afraid it will succeed, and show that there is a genuine alternative to the national scandal that are most inner-city public schools.

Just think about this story. Vouchers are working in inner-city schools, yet teachers unions don’t care. The teacher unions don’t want competition. They don’t want to help truly educate poor children. They are only interested in money and their own self preservation. The next time you here a union member say it’s for the kids, you’ll know it is not for the kids, it is for the education bureaucrats.

If you are a teacher and you really do care about children’s education. You have to stand up to your union and tell them to stop this madness. If not, you run the risk of being generalized as a education bureaucrat that cares more about your salary, benefits and bloated pensions than the children you are charged with teaching.