CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos, Democracy and Vouchers

CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos, Democracy and Vouchers:

DeVos, Democracy and Vouchers

First came the LA Times op-ed co-authored by Randi Weingarten (AFT) and Jonah Edelman (Stand for Children). This in itself is another troubling move by Weingarten (add it to the list) because astroturfist Edelman is no angel when it comes to support of public schools. The op-ed tweaked a lot of antennae because buried in the condemnation of vouchers was a ringing endorsement of charters. 

Almost instantly, a response came back from the American Federation for Children, a group founded and financed by Betsy DeVos. Kevin Chavous, the legal mouthpiece for the group broke out the high dudgeon.

But I want to skip past all of that for the moment and focus on one statement from the AFC response:

It is school choice–directly empowering parents to choose the best educational environment for their child–that is the most democratic of ideas.

Nope. Nope nope nopity nope. There are arguments to be made for parent choice, but "it's the essence of democracy" is not one of them.

Democracy, even the sort-of-democracy practiced by the USA, is not about saying, "I want to make this personal choice, and I want everyone else to pay for it."

Democracy is not saying you want a six-lane highway to run back the lane where only your CURMUDGUCATION: DeVos, Democracy and Vouchers: