Obama's Hypocrisy on School Vouchers and Responsible Parenting

Damon W. Root | July 20, 2009

President Barack Obama spoke last week at a gala event celebrating the NAACP's 100th anniversary. After some words of praise for the group's history and accomplishments, his focus shifted to the youth of today:

To parents, we can't tell our kids to do well in school and fail to support them when they get home. For our kids to excel, we must accept our own responsibilities. That means putting away the Xbox and putting our kids to bed at a reasonable hour. It means attending those parent-teacher conferences, reading to our kids, and helping them with their homework.

That certainly sounds good, but as the Cato Institute's Adam Schaeffer reminds us, Obama recently turned his back on a group of students and parents struggling to succeed in one of the country's worst school districts:

This, from the man who supports killing the DC voucher program, the ONLY education reform empirically proven to work through multiple random-assignment studies. These are thousands of young lives we are talking about.

This, from a man who sends his daughters to one of the most expensive private schools in the country, rather than the miserably failing and unsafe schools in their backyard.

Make no mistake, President Obama knows exactly what he's doing and what his action and inaction means.

Back in May, Reason.tv's Nick Gillespie and Dan Hayes spent some time with Mercedes Campbell, one of the 1,700 students in the DC voucher program that Obama effectively killed. Click below to see her side of the story.

Comments

|7.20.09 @ 10:49AM|#

No matter what Obama does about vouchers, DC's 3 electoral votes are going to the Democratic party. Voters in failed school districts are still going to vote overwhelmingly blue team. As a Detroit native and current resident I know of which I speak here.

OTOH, Many AFT and NEA members reside in competitive districts and swing states and could turn an election or two by keeping their dollars and votes at home.

2+2 = Fuck those poor kids in Detroit Public Schools, we've got elections to win.

|7.20.09 @ 11:03AM|#

But what about the children?

Perhaps we should redouble our efforts.

Xeones|7.20.09 @ 11:09AM|#

Perhaps we should redouble our efforts.

Agreed. Let's double the Department of Ed's budget. We can pay for it with, i don't know, a tax on paper and caffeinated beverages.

kinnath|7.20.09 @ 11:09AM|#

No child of a sitting president will ever attend a publi school. The secret service would basically have to shut the school down for security purposes.

That being said, Obama is a hypocritical, lying sack of shit.

Gunboat Diplomacy|7.20.09 @ 11:09AM|#

Elite prep school for the president's children.

Tiny American flags for everyone else!

Barry Loberfeld|7.20.09 @ 11:11AM|#

WHY LIBERTARIANS - CIVIL AND UNCIVIL - SHOULD OPPOSE VOUCHERS

Mad Max|7.20.09 @ 11:17AM|#

Are the voucher kids in DC turning to private philanthropy? If so, how is it working out?

Mad Max|7.20.09 @ 11:20AM|#

I see that the Children's Scholarship Fund is seeking donations to help send kids to private schools.

|7.20.09 @ 11:27AM|#

I watched the NAACP speech and was shocked at the inherent condescension from using his "black preacher" voice.

Judging from the wet eyes and standing ovation, those in attendance felt otherwise.

|7.20.09 @ 11:30AM|#

I see that the Children's Scholarship Fund is seeking donations to help send kids to private schools.

As I told the crew I was shooting with this weekend - cut my taxes, and I'll give more to charity. As long as my effective tax rate, all in, remains well north of 40%, though . . . .

|7.20.09 @ 11:35AM|#

Barack Obama doesn't care about black people.

Zack Baum|7.20.09 @ 11:37AM|#

Why does Obama's lack of support for vouchers make him a hypocrite for saying we should spend more time with our kids? That doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to me.

Ben Kenobi|7.20.09 @ 11:57AM|#

Why in the first place is the President telling people how to parent? Is that in his job description now? Jesus.

Warty|7.20.09 @ 12:18PM|#

I watched the NAACP speech

You watched a speech? To think I used to think you were cool, you degenerate skank.

|7.20.09 @ 12:30PM|#

How 'bout some reading comprehension Zack. Nice try with the strawman argument though.

hy·poc·ri·sy (h-pkr-s)
n. pl. hy·poc·ri·sies
1. The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
2. An act or instance of such falseness.

He's a hypocrite because one side of his mouth talks about Saving Teh Childrenz, and the other side cancels the DC voucher program, and he's sending his own kids to an elite private school while forcing every DC schoolkid that wants out of the DC public school system to stay in crappy schools.

He's saying one thing and doing another. That's the definition of hypocrisy.

Gunboat Diplomacy|7.20.09 @ 1:16PM|#

"No child of a sitting president will ever attend a publi school. The secret service would basically have to shut the school down for security purposes."

Bullshit.

|7.20.09 @ 1:19PM|#

You watched a speech? To think I used to think you were cool, you degenerate skank.

It's rough, but I'm 100% committed to seeing it live when one of the H&R regulars pops a cap in him. I've consumed three times my body weight in anticipatory popcorn.

Art-P.O.G.|7.20.09 @ 1:47PM|#

2+2 = Fuck those poor kids in Detroit Public Schools, we've got elections to win.

Is that New Math?

Zeb|7.20.09 @ 2:00PM|#

I have to agree that no president's child will (or should) ever attend a public school. The security required (or at least provided) would be incredibly disruptive. I also think that the president should never leave the Whitehouse for purposes not absolutely required by the office for the same reason.

Zack Baum|7.20.09 @ 2:50PM|#

I still have to say: just because he's sending his kids to a private school and is against a voucher program doesn't make him a hypocrite. One can both believe in private schools and *not* in voucher programs without contradicting oneself (as I do).

Further, what he says about parenting has nothing to do with private school or vouchers.

How's that for reading comprehension. :)

JB|7.20.09 @ 2:58PM|#

Obama hates black children.

|7.20.09 @ 4:37PM|#

"Obama hates black children."

That's so American.

|7.20.09 @ 4:44PM|#

Zack, if you don't believe the voucher program is the way to go, what solution would you propose to help the DC kids gain access to better schooling? And I don't mean "clean up the DC public schools", because as long as the teachers unions' have as much support as they do, we all know that ain't gonna happen.

T|7.20.09 @ 5:57PM|#

WHY LIBERTARIANS - CIVIL AND UNCIVIL - SHOULD OPPOSE VOUCHERS

Keep dreaming the dream, Barry. Good luck with that.

Zack Baum|7.20.09 @ 6:37PM|#

well, I would say "clean up the DC public schools". Personally, I don't think that would have much to do with teacher's unions, but more with govt. spending, although I would agree that unions tendency to keep older teachers on staff regardless of their quality is unfortunate.

Vouchers seem to be more of a way of getting around the problem by spending the money on private schools, than actually dealing with it.

|7.21.09 @ 8:49AM|#

By "getting around the problem", do you in fact mean "solution"?

Is there something inherently wrong with spending money on private schools? You stated earlier that you support private schools.

There's an odd disconnect in your logic that I can't understand, because you seem incapable of articulating anything other than platitudes about public schools.

Here's a homework assignment for you, Zack. Look up the price-per-student of a voucher to a private school. Look up the cost-per-student for attending a DC public school. Look at the results.

But they're just trying to get around the problem.