Justice sues Louisiana to stop school voucher program - irony overwhelming

There’s an incredible irony there, given who is Attorney General of the United States:

Give Eric Holder credit for cognitive racial dissonance. On nearly the same day the Attorney General spoke in Washington to honor the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I have a dream” speech, his Justice Department sued to block the educational dreams of minority children in Louisiana.

Late last week, Justice asked a federal court to stop 34 school districts in the Pelican State from handing out private-school vouchers so kids can escape failing public schools. Mr. Holder’s lawyers claim the voucher program appears “to impede the desegregation progress” required under federal law. Justice provides little evidence to support this claim, but there couldn’t be a clearer expression of how the civil-rights establishment is locked in a 1950s time warp.

Passed in 2012, Louisiana’s state-wide program guarantees a voucher to students from families with incomes below 250% of poverty and who attend schools graded C or below. The point is to let kids escape the segregation of failed schools, and about 90% of the beneficiaries are black.

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It becomes even more ironic if one considers that the left is all about “choice”, except when it comes to anything but abortion and, a majority of blacks support vouchers, because they realize it means their child can choose a better school and receive a better education.  Louisiana’s Governor, Bobby Jindal had this to say: 

“The Obama administration thinks parents should have to seek their approval any time parents want to send their child to a school of their choice,” Jindal said in a news release. “After generations of being denied a choice, parents finally can choose a school for their child, but now the federal government is stepping in to prevent parents from exercising this right. Shame on them. Parents should have the ability to decide where to send their child to school.”

Why is the DoJ suing to stop a program that helps black children on the 50 year anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream” speech?  Michael Leo Owens figured it out years ago:

Urban black America favors school vouchers, but its leaders don’t. Vouchers transfer authority over the use of a portion of government education funds from bureaucrats to parents, who then may use their grants to send their children to the schools, secular or religious, they believe will best educate their kids.

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A simple but unacceptable loss of power, not to mention catering to an important constituency – the teachers’s unions.  So instead of doing what is best for the children involved, racially divisive leaders like Eric Holder invoke thin arguments about subverting “desegregation” if the program is allowed to happen.  Denying children the ability to improve their education and their lives in order to satisfy unions and keep power over a system that is presently failing them.

You have to wonder what MLK would have to say about that?

No, in all honesty, you really don’t.  And trust me, Eric Holder wouldn’t like his answer.

~McQ

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Ed Morrissey 12:40 PM | November 21, 2024
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