Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
Earlier this week I had a bit of fun at the president's expense over his budget's ludicrous proposal to step up subsidies for new-technology automobiles purchased almost exclusively by the wealthy. There was another item in that budget, however, from which I could derive no such mirth: his proposal to end funding for the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, the school choice program that has been extraordinarily successful in helping some of Washington's most underprivileged children -- the vast majority of whom are minorities.
That the budget proposal is primarily a political document -- and that the school vouchers will be safe as long as Republicans hold at least one house of Congress -- is a source of comfort, but it still doesn't compensate for the president's betrayal of the minority voters who believed that he would be a transformational figure. As I explain in the opening of my weekly column for the Center for Individual Freedom:
The election of Barack Obama was supposed to be a penitential act. His ascension to office, we were told, was interpretable as an offer of atonement for a nation whose founding promise of equality and liberty was soiled by the original sin of slavery. As a controlling argument for his candidacy, it was thin gruel. It’s an act of electoral malpractice, after all, to ignore a candidate’s beliefs simply because he scratches the vestigial itch of collective guilt. But after Obama decisively carried the 2008 presidential election, even many conservatives consoled themselves with the thought that a new generation of minorities would grow up with factual proof that there was no glass ceiling impeding their ambitions.
Shamefully, however, the release of President Obama’s budget proposal for the 2013 fiscal year earlier this week showed the glass ceiling very much in place. And the president himself was the glazier.
Read the whole thing here.
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Comments:
Jun '10
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
The School Choice program forgot to budget for the campaign kickbacks. That's their problem.
Mar '11
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
Pay to play, baby. Pay to play.
Or in this case, I guess it would be earn to learn.
May '10
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
You have it exactly right, Troy. This is the most disgusting aspect of that jerk's behavior. Play golf while the kids die.
Sep '11
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
One of the things that gets me absolutely apoplectic is the shameless way the Obamas use public school children in D.C. as props for photo ops--and as bargaining chips to curry favor with the teachers unions.
Education? When a photo op is needed, Michelle trots out the (black, low-income) kids from the local elementary school--not the (white, 99th-percentile of income) children from Sidwell Friends (whose annual tuition, I daresay, is higher than the median family income of D.C. residents).
Yup--Barack Obama is a believer in public education. He's just never attended a day of public school in his entire life. And neither have his kids.
I went to 9th grade in the D.C. public schools, about a mile from the campus of Sidwell Friends. It was a cesspool (in some stairwells, literally). It was the first place I ever saw (and eventually held) a handgun.
The D.C. schools should be shut down entirely, and the entire budget used for vouchers. Less money, better education.
But Obama cares more about the teachers unions than about the kids trapped in that system.
Edited on February 17, 2012 at 11:21pmSep '11
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
One more thing:
The elimination of the D.C. school voucher program also means that Obama's children won't have to rub elbows anymore with the handful of the proletariat that have used their vouchers at Sidwell Friends.
We wouldn't want the little darlings to have to put up with those sort of people, do we?
Sep '10
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
remember the end ofthis program was one of Obama's first acts after being sworn in.
I can understand that this is red meat to the Dem's bosses at the teacher's union. But I cannot belp but wonder if the president believes that the students and the nation are better served if these kids are in the DC public schools. I actually prefer to think him a true believer. In that case he just has bad judgment. It is hard to imagine that he understands that they are better off at other schools, but is too cynical to care.
Edited on February 18, 2012 at 12:50amAug '10
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
Great column, Troy.
Feb '11
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
Thank you, Troy, for writing your article, and for caring about these students.
John Murdoch, I share your burning rage at the shamelessness of our First Family in using the students as props.
Aug '10
Re: Obama in 2012: Defunding Hope, Smiting Change
Thank you, Mr Senik.