In Whose Best Interests?

Democrats have long told anyone who would listen that they "care more" about the poor and oppressed, but do they really? I wrote earlier about how the only way Democrats would address the taxation without representation of the residents of Washington DC was if it would guarantee them another seat - never mind the Constitutionality of the plan. Well my friend Gary Gross has yet another example of the Democrats "caring" ways.

Based on what the Washington Post is reporting, House Appropriations Chairman David Obey has shown the middle finger to DC’s school children. Here’s how the Washington Post ripped into Chairman Obey:

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.

He followed that post up with this - a report on the Chicago Tribune's taking the Democrats to task on DC vouchers.

We wrote last week about Democratic efforts to strip 1,900 low-income Washington children of $7,500 "opportunity scholarships" to attend private schools.

It's an experiment in school vouchers, an experiment with little potential downside. But it's an experiment that was launched in 2004 by a Republican-controlled Congress. Today it's on the verge of extinction because the Democratic-controlled Congress wants to do the bidding of public-school teachers unions. The unions see vouchers that let poor kids go to private schools as aiding the enemy.

I want to stop here and bring your attention back to the last sentence.... "The unions see vouchers that let poor kids go to private schools as aiding the enemy..." so people who want to educate kids in a non-traditional manner are the enemy? Gotcha...

Now to be fair - the Obama Administration is on the record as supporting the DC Voucher plan....for the moment...

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said Wednesday that poor children getting vouchers to attend private schools in the District of Columbia should be allowed to stay there, putting the Obama administration at odds with Democrats trying to end the program.

MN Rep. Mark Buesgens has been pushing for this kind of a voucher program for Minneapolis and St. Paul children for years - putting him at odds with the Democrats in the MN State House. Six other states have school vouchers and the grand-daddy of the all is the Milwaukee Public School voucher system which went into effect in 1975. Vouchers are just one tool in the box for parents who are looking for creative ways to help their children learn. Yet Democrats are opposed to it.

Now one could speculate a number of reasons why the Democrats are so opposed to vouchers. You could go the hyperbolic theory (as Democrats do to Republicans when the oppose bad legislation that is supposed to be "for the children") and say Democrats HATE children. Now we all know that is a patently false generalization. We could also go with the cynical theory and say that Democrats will do anything to appease their special interests groups. Cynical as it may be, that theory does seem to have some merit - all the proof we need is in the so-called "stimulus" bill and the omnibus spending bill. While there is some truth in that theory, I am leaning toward a third theory....the theory that supposes that the Democrats are so beholden to the Unions that they will do whatever the Unions want - whether it is card check or killing vouchers regardless of the consequences or who it hurts....and that is the scariest theory of all.