Moe Lane

[UPDATE]: Welcome, Instapundit readers.

Are you surprised? I’m not surprised.

The leaders of D.C.’s school choice movement, Kevin P. Chavous (former D.C. Councilman) and Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of D.C. Parents for School Choice), today issued the following statement:

“House and Senate Appropriators this week ignored the wishes of D.C.’s mayor, D.C.’s public schools chancellor, a majority of D.C.’s city council, and more than 70 percent of D.C. residents and have mandated the slow death of the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. This successful school voucher program—for D.C.’s poorest families—has allowed more than 3,300 children to attend the best schools they have ever known.

Via Big Government.  You know, there’s a part of me that would almost prefer that this was evidence of some sort of long term payback – one that would have been in the works for about 150 years at this point – against African-Americans by the Democratic party.  At least that would be a reason to wreck school choice.  It would be a conscious decision.  Instead, though, I’m faced with the tawdry reality that the Democratic Party simply just doesn’t care.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.

(Via @magnolia_tree) It’s a marvelous idea, really:

According to the Fox News White House blog:

The White House says that the President has decided to give the approximately $1.4 million prize accompanying his Nobel Prize to charity. They have not made a decision on which charity or charities will receive the money.

Here’s an idea for the President: He could give the 216 low-income kids back the scholarships that his administration took away from them earlier this year.

But if the President was gutsy enough to make that sort of gesture at the teacher’s unions, then those kids wouldn’t have had their program killed by the resegregationists in the first place.

Moe Lane

…is a bit busy. Too much distraction between the words on the screen and the words coming out of Durbin’s mouth. Opinions?

Background on Durbin and his re-segregation efforts here and here.

Crossposted to RedState.

I consider this theory provided by Jim Geraghty plausible.

…one or both of the Obama daughters, knowing that the cancellation of the program would mean some of their classmates would have to leave Sidwell Friends private school, urged their father to keep the program.

…for two reasons:

1. It would involve his family, and I’ve never seen President Obama do anything that crosses his family.  Which is as it should be, of course.
2. It allows me the hubris of pretending that somebody at the White House might actually be reading me*.

Moe Lane

*Admittedly, it’d be better if they were heeding me, too, but it’s always ‘one step at a time’ with this particular administration.

Crossposted to RedState.

The DC School Choice Rally: video and pictures.

[UPDATE] Welcome, Instapundit readers.

I was lucky enough to make it to the DC School Choice Rally (sponsored by DC Children First and DC Parents for School Choice) today, thanks to a (liberal) friend of mine who was able to watch my son for a few hours – and who didn’t mind being asked for a favor like this on very short notice. Then again, she and her husband moved to their current address at least partly to make sure that their kids wouldn’t be stuck in a horrible public school. I understand that sentiment entirely: my wife and I made similar calculations.

The Weekly Standard, Heritage, and the Corner all have some good coverage on the rally (see also Instapundit), so I’m mostly going to just step back and let the videos of Virginia Walden Ford (executive director of DC Parents for School Choice) and the photos speak for themselves.  I will note this, though: this “compromise” that the administration is currently offering is nothing but.  It’s an attempt to get the heat off of both it and the teachers’ unions that are trying to gut school choice.  By keeping the existing program running long enough to finish out the current scholarship roster, the White House hopes to take the personal urgency off of the grassroot activists that are currently raising a stink.

And the grassroots activists know this. (more…)

The one that was partially sponsored by DC Parents for School Choice.

The short version?

There were some very polite and very unhappy parents out there, and while I am not really good at counting crowds, there were a lot of people who wish to know why Congress has decided to gut this program. I have video interviews: I’ll be adding them once I can get Vista to admit that my camcorder exists.

Crossposted to RedState.

I hope that you’re enjoying the White House, by the way.

It’s a pretty cool place for people your age, from what I’m told.

Anyway, I just thought that you should know: do you know Sarah & James Parker? They go to your school.

Yeah, them. Are they nice? I’ve never met them, so I don’t know. I do know that their parents really can’t afford to send them to your school without assistance; it’s called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program, and it lets over 1,700 poor kids in DC get scholarships every year. It’s often called a “voucher” program, although people who like school choice wouldn’t agree: they want everybody to have the chance to pick the best schools for their kid, instead of just a small number. Still, this program is helping people who are usually making about half of much as the federal poverty level; it’s hard to dispute that it’s a good one. I’m sure that Sarah & James think that it’s a good program.

Unfortunately, Senator Dick Durbin (D, IL) wants to throw them out of your school. (more…)