Arne Duncan’s Questionable Honesty
It’s impossible for me to take Arne Duncan’s statements seriously. I’m not the only person that’s finding it difficult to trust Secretary Duncan’s statements. David Harsanyi’s column indicates that he’s finding it difficult trusting Secretary Duncan’s statements:
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan argues that we have an obligation to disregard politics to do whatever is “good for the kids.”
Well then, one wonders, why did his Department of Education bury a politically inconvenient study regarding education reform? And why, now that the evidence is public, does the administration continue to ignore it and allow reform to be killed?
When Congress effectively shut down the Washington, D.C., voucher program last month, snatching $7,500 Opportunity Scholarship vouchers from disadvantaged kids, it failed to conduct substantive debate (as is rapidly becoming tradition).
Then The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board reported that the Department of Education had buried a study that illustrated unquestionable and pervasive improvement among kids who won vouchers, compared with the kids who didn’t. The Department of Education not only disregarded the report but also issued a gag order on any discussion about it.
Is this what Duncan meant by following the evidence?
Let’s remember that this administration refused to veto the omnibus bill that ended the DC Voucher Program:
REP. DAVID R. Obey (Wis.) and other congressional Democrats should spare us their phony concern about the children participating in the District’s school voucher program. If they cared for the future of these students, they wouldn’t be so quick as to try to kill the program that affords low-income, minority children a chance at a better education. Their refusal to even give the program a fair hearing makes it critical that D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) seek help from voucher supporters in the Senate and, if need be, President Obama.
Last week, the Democrat-controlled House passed a spending bill that spells the end, after the 2009-10 school year, of the federally funded program that enables poor students to attend private schools with scholarships of up to $7,500. A statement signed by Mr. Obey as Appropriations Committee chairman that accompanied the $410 billion spending package directs D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee to “promptly take steps to minimize potential disruption and ensure smooth transition” for students forced back into the public schools.
If there’s anything I get more upset about than politicians cheating the children most in need of help, it’s politicians cheating the children most in need of help, then telling those children’s parents that they’re doing their utmost for the children.
That’s ALMOST the ultimate in moral bankruptcy.
This is the ultimate in moral bankruptcy:
The Department of Education had buried a study that illustrated unquestionable and pervasive improvement among kids who won vouchers, compared with the kids who didn’t. The Department of Education not only disregarded the report but also issued a gag order on any discussion about it.
This is proof that Democratic politicians won’t hesitate in selling out underprivileged children in exchange for the education lobby’s campaign contribution and GOTV assistance. If anything makes my blood run cold, this is it. There’s no excusing this behavior or this policymaking.
Another disturbing portion of this tragedy is what David Harsanyi found out about the depths of the Obama administration’s dishonesty:
When I had the chance to ask Duncan, at a meeting of The Denver Post’s editorial board Tuesday, whether he was alerted to this study before Congress eradicated the D.C. program, he offered an unequivocal “no.” He then called the WSJ editorial “fundamentally dishonest” and maintained that no one had even tried to contact him, despite the newspaper’s contention that it did, repeatedly.
When I called The Wall Street Journal, I discovered a different, that is, meticulously sourced and exceedingly convincing, story, including documented e-mail conversations between the author and higher-ups at his office.
Mr. Duncan is either a liar or an idiot or both. Furthermore, it’s inconceivable to think that President Obama didn’t know about this scholarship program because some of the children receiving this scholarship attend the same school as his daughters:
We would like Mr. Obey and his colleagues to talk about possible “disruption” with Deborah Parker, mother of two children who attend Sidwell Friends School because of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. “The mere thought of returning to public school frightens me,” Ms. Parker told us as she related the opportunities, such as a trip to China for her son, made possible by the program. Tell her, as critics claim, that vouchers don’t work, and she’ll list her children’s improved test scores, feeling of safety and improved motivation.
It’s appalling that the first African-America president would turn his back on inner-city children by exiling them to violence-riddled public schools. If President Obama doesn’t insist that this program gets re-instated in the FY2010 budget, then we’ll know that he cares more about the NEA’s campaign contributions than he cares about inner-city children.
I’m asking thoughtful conservatives to join with me in criticizing, AND ridiculing, the Obama administration for abandoning such a successful government program. It’s time that we told this administration and this president that his doublespeak won’t be tolerated.
It’s time that we told him he must abandon his education policies, not abandon underprivileged children.
Technorati Tags: Education, Vouchers, Private Schools, Sidwell Friends, Poverty, David Obey, President Obama, Arne Duncan, Secrecy, Hypocrisy
Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog