Sure They Care

Sure, Liberals Care About the Welfare of the Poor.

Star Parker's latest column posted on Town Hall's web site addresses the ACLU, teacher unions and People for the American Way's fight to stop Florida's Opportunity Scholarships and the threat it poses to the freedom of school choice when it comes to the quality of education parents can obtain for their children:

"The constitutionality of Florida's Opportunity Scholarship Program is being challenged because it affords the opportunity to use a voucher, financed by public funds, to pay to attend a private school, including religious schools. This option may be exercised when a public school is found to be failing. Parents can pull their child out of the school, pick a different public school, or use a voucher to finance attendance at a private school."

Keep in mind that this is even in spite of the positive results the program has produced. As Ms. Parker points out:

"Performance data show dramatic improvement in test scores and graduation rates in Florida since the implementation of the Opportunity Scholarship Program. A study conducted in 2003 showed direct correlation between school improvement and the option to take a voucher and go to another school. Harvard researchers report that the Florida program is more successful than the federal No Child Left Behind program."

Ok, let me see if I can get this straight. The Liberal Left doesn't want the Opportunity Scholarship Program to continue, even though it is very successful, and beneficial to Florida children's educational needs, because opening up a diverse set of educational options threatens government school attendance. Hey! Wait a minute! I thought liberals were for diversity?!?!

So, what gives? What could be behind this anti-diversity attitude coming from the left towards our children's educational opportunities? Ms. Parker makes the following astute observation:

"Should Florida's Opportunity Scholarship Program be found unconstitutional, it will be yet another defeat of the poor and disenfranchised at the hands of a pretentious and self important elite. Opportunity scholarships are an important ticket out of failing public schools for the poor. Yet, these elites, a good portion of whom can themselves afford options to public schools if they so chose, for their own ideological reasons, want to preclude choice for poor families."

Ah ha! So that is what is going on? This is just a good example of good old fashion liberal elitism. What's good enough for their children isn't necessarily good enough for the children of parents less fortunate economically than they.

After all, liberals can't have the ones who are to be eternally grateful to them for their "compassionate concern" receive an education that could potentially raise them up beyond their state of need and become equals. How are liberals to maintain their corner of the market on compassion if they allow the poor to elevate their status beyond the state of permanent dependence?

You see, once you get beyond the liberal rhetoric, and actually examine what they fight for, (or in this case, fight against), it becomes clear that their "concern for the poor of this country" is nothing more than a "dog and pony show".

Liberals need to be able to count on votes from the poor. Without an underprivileged class to make promises of hand outs to, who would vote for liberals? Without the poor to feel sorry for, how could the Hollywood left, and other entertainment stars show off their compassionate concern to the rest of America by donating their millions of dollars to liberal socialist programs?

Public education, (which liberals have been fiercely defending, both tooth and nail), has been ailing for quite some time now. Public schools have become nothing more than institutions that propagate liberal propaganda.

Dangerous programs like Outcome Based Education attempt to churn out students who will be poorly educated, possess a false sense of self esteem, and utterly unprepared for success in the job marketplace. Sexual Education programs draw students' attention toward sexual practices and behavior which promotes promiscuity that will no doubt produce more abortions, more teen pregnancies, more single mothers trapped in poverty, all of this guarantees the perpetuation of a poor, underprivileged class, a class of people ripe for manipulation.

Socialism, (the government of choice for liberals), needs a dependent class of people in order for it to thrive. You can't steal from the rich and middle class and promise to give their money to the poor and needy if there aren't any, um...well, poor and needy. The larger the poor population, the more socialism thrives.

The better the quality of education a person has, the better the opportunities that person has to better his economic position. What better way to ensure a permanent lower class than to ensure that free public education is poor and ineffectual?

Why wouldn't liberals feel threatened by educational free choice? It is essential for the survival of their ideology that the children of families that are less fortunate economically have no other choice for education than government schools.
Government schools that just happen to be dominated by liberal philosophies on education. Students must be brainwashed with liberal ideas from day one to ensure they graduate with a paper diploma, an "I'm a victim" attitude, poor, forever dependent, with their hands out to the liberals for help.

Unless you believe that providing an education that teaches one to trade his or her dignity for constant hand outs from the government equals compassion on the part of liberals, it's not hard to see past the lies of their rhetoric and discover what the liberal movement is really all about.

There is an ancient Chinese Proverb that goes: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime." The poor in this country have an electoral choice affecting their future. They can vote for the Democrat party, remain poorly educated and dependent on the government for their one fish a day, or they can vote for the Republican party, gain the opportunity to obtain a better quality, "government free" education, become self sufficient, retain their dignity and enjoy fish for a lifetime.