We are now approaching the end game with respect to sanity and the public school system. A homeless woman who registered her 6-year-old son at a Norwalk, Conn. elementary school has been charged with first-degree larceny and conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny for ostensibly "stealing" over $15,000 worth of education. Tonya McDowell, 33, was released after posting a $25,000 bond. She faces a fine of up to $15,000 and as many as 20 years in jail.
Where to begin? Let's begin with the idea that whatever defects of character might be ascribed to Ms. McDowell, it should be noted that schools in Norwalk are considered better than those in Bridgeport. Thus, it is logical to assume that she sent her son there to get a better education. That sentiment was echoed by Conn. Rep. Bruce V. Morris, (D-Norwalk). "She wanted to see to it that her child was given a great education," Morris said. "Education is the equalizer. Equal access to education is the civil rights issue of today and it's something that needs to be addressed across all borders. Connecticut has the largest achievement gap in the country."
Education is the civil rights issue of the day? Not if you're a Democrat. It is the Democrat party which supports the status quo of mediocrity--at
best--in inner city classrooms, as well as a system which constitutes a de facto monopoly. What other definition is more apt for "school districts" which require one to send one's child to a particular school, regardless of that school's quality, based on nothing more than one's place of residence? How many Americans would sit still for government-mandated grocery store districts, or car dealer districts, where one would be limited to making purchases at those locations, based on one's address?
Savvy Americans know what school districts are all about. They are all about eliminating competition between schools. What impetus does any school have to improve if their "customer base" is guaranteed? The answer is simple: none whatsoever, as hundreds of inner city schools mired in decades--repeat decades--of inferior achievement indicate. So why does the insanity continue?
The education establishment. The education unions, and their political enablers, despite all their rhetoric to the contrary, are about maintaining the status quo above all other considerations. What is their primary interest? Job protection. And what could be a better way to protect jobs than to guarantee the aforementioned "customer base" cannot abandon schools, no matter how badly they perform?
Why single out Democrats? Because from 1989-2010,
81 and 90 percent of campaign contributions made by the two largest education unions in the country, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers ((AFT) respectively, have gone to that party. In return, Democrats fight tooth and nail to prevent any changes in the status quo, especially vouchers--which are, in reality, "monopoly breakers" that allow parents to get their children out from under failing schools. The unions and their enablers' rationale? Vouchers "drain money" from the system, putting those students forced to remain in lousy schools at even greater risk.
Translation: if everyone can't escape lousy schools, then no one should be able to.
And now this unholy alliance of Democrat politicians and public school educrats has raised the ante. Trying to save one's child from a mediocre future has become a criminal offense in the state of Connecticut. Better to protect a monopoly and make an example of anyone daring to defy that monopoly in order to "send a message" to anyone else who might be tempted to put their child's future beyond the reach of those who would mortgage it.
But let's be fair here. Most of the really rotten schools are in the inner cities, in primarily minority neighborhoods. The very same minorities, especially black Americans, who vote overwhelmingly for Democrat politicians more than willing to do the bidding of the public school union leaders and the education establishment. The very same "Great Society" Democrats who have aided and abetted the utter destruction of the nuclear family that is Reason Numero Uno for the so-called achievement gap between minorities and whites--as well as Asians. Asians are the real "fly in the ointment" because, while they are every bit a minority group as any other, they have refused to buy into the family-destroying welfare statism that has been accepted--or is that embraced--by the other non-white minorities. Thus, there is no achievement gap for Asians in public schools.
Furthermore, this is one American who is fed up with the progressive notion that "alternative family" lifestyles are equally viable, when anyone not in a coma can see the ongoing scourge that results from millions of kids raised without fathers. It's a scourge that is most acute in black American communities, but like any other virus, it is "going mainstream:" the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development reports that one-four children in the United States is being raised by a single parent. Black America? 72%.
Alternative lifestyles? Try cultural suicide.
As a result, the system is self sustaining. Broken families send their kids to lousy schools where the well-being of children falls in line behind the wants of educrats who underwrite Democrat politicians determined to maintain the status quo in return. The under-educated kids grow up, best prepared to become entrapped in the same government-dependent programs that have morphed from a system of last resort into a regular way of life. The overt plantation system of slave-day America becomes the covert plantation system of the welfare state, aided by the victims themselves in every election. Fugitive slaves? Rounded up and beaten. A fugitive mother? Facing a $15,000 fine and up to 20 years in jail.
Does it get any crazier than this?
