United Liberty

A brand new, government-subsidized shopping center recently opened on Alabama Avenue, providing one of the few full-service grocery stores in the area, along with a new sit-down restaurant and mainstream bank branch. But reformers are finding that such initiatives won’t fix decades of market dysfunction overnight.

The Democratic Party takes black voters and gay voters for granted, just as the Republican Party takes pro-lifers, religious voters and gun owners for granted. We’ve already seen this with Democratic silencing of the D.C. voucher program, which benefitted low income black students (many of whom were big supporters of Obama during the election). Now, with D.C. voting to accept gay marriages, it’s time to see if the Democrats are willing to crap on another loyal voting bloc:

A new study shows that school vouchers in DC bring better results at a fraction of the cost:

The latest federal study of the D.C. voucher program finds that voucher students have pulled significantly ahead of their public school peers in reading and perform at least as well as public school students in math. It also reports that the average tuition at the voucher schools is $6,620. That is ONE QUARTER what the District of Columbia spends per pupil on education ($26,555), according to the District’s own fiscal year 2009 budget.

Better results at a quarter the cost. And Democrats in Congress have sunset its funding and are trying to kill it. Shame on them.

The Kausfiles blog at Slate notices Obama’s Secretary of Education breaking with the pack (sorta) on vouchers:

WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.

Duncan opposes vouchers, he said in an interview with The Associated Press. But he said Washington is a special case, and kids already in private schools on the public dime should be allowed to continue.

“I don’t think it makes sense to take kids out of a school where they’re happy and safe and satisfied and learning,” Duncan told said. “I think those kids need to stay in their school.”

Not because I believe in bigger government, I don’t. -Obama

 

Many of you watched Obama make his first address to Congress tonight. His speech was concentrated nearly entirely on the economy. He started out by talking about the pitiful state of our economy, and how it is affecting everyone either directly or indirectly. He reiterated the point that America will prevail and recover. I don’t doubt that we will prevail and recover, but not because of Keynesian economic policies that the Democratic Party and Neocons are implementing. Not because of the spending, bailing out, and intervention of the Federal Government.

I really don’t like school.

This has been a constant since I was a kid. As a child, I never paid attention and didn’t really learn to read, until I found a reason to outside of school by way of my enthusiasm for comic books. In my opinion, school was nothing but a good way to get harassed by other children with dominating personalities and humiliated by psychopathic teachers desperate for a government wage.

I read plenty of classic books in high school, but not on assignment from classes. I was reading Kurt Vonnegut and Malcolm X’s autobiography while considering dropping out of the public school system altogether as a freshman. While community college was an improvement in terms of intellectual quality, I still don’t see the reasoning of why people must dedicate so much money and time to higher education just to spruce up their resumes for employers, who offer jobs in which experience is far more important.

Washington Post reported last month that the Obama daughters will be attending an elite private school:

Continuing a tradition among Washington’s power elite, President-elect Barack Obama and his wife have decided to send their kids to Sidwell Friends School.Michelle Obama confirmed yesterday that Malia and Sasha, the incoming first daughters, will enroll at the pricey private school when the family moves into the White House in January.