When it Comes to Options that are Actually Good for Children, Progressives Pick Mandates over Choice EVERY Time
Want to abort your child seven days after it’s born? Your choice. Want to allow your minor child to have body parts removed and be put on hormone blockers/therapy? Your choice. Want to take your child to a drag queen show in an adult bar and expose them to overly sexualized and inappropriate entertainment? Your choice.
Want to get your child out of a failing school and take him/her to a good school where he/she can succeed? Whoa, wait a minute. Progressives can’t have that. They think that is dangerous.
It makes me wonder why.
When I was teaching, the argument was always the same. “If we take kids out of some public schools and allow them to go to better public or private schools, it will leave the public schools decimated. “
And the people who said this always followed it up with, ” School choice is racist and elitist.”
Here’s a sample of that opposition from the Baltimore Sun Op Ed section: Md. BOOST program helps private schools at the expense of public ones – Baltimore Sun
The “best” argument of all was “public schools can’t succeed if we take the best kids out.” Wow. And they called those who believe in school choice racist and elitist? It’s kind of like when Joe Biden said, “Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as White kids.” Biden says ‘poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids’ (nbcnews.com)
But he’s not racist. No. Never. But you people who support school choice, shame on you.
I was a teacher and my husband and I took our kids out of public school. We did it because I saw the decline in our local system, the overcrowding in classrooms, and the general lack of motivation to allow all children to achieve to the best of their ability. We took them out in elementary school and left them in private school until they were ready to go to high school where they could have some flexibility in their classes. I never regretted it. Neither did my children. They actually learned how to meet academic standards that mattered.
I caught a lot of grief from my public-school bosses and some of my colleagues. One even threatened to get me fired.
There were also many colleagues who completely understood my reasons.
It was a financial struggle. It probably cost us some retirement funds and a high credit score. If I could go back, I would do it all over again.
Not all parents have financial resources to do that. And that is what school choice is about, allowing ALL parents to make a choice for their children who are trapped in failing public schools. That’s why it puzzles me when Progressives are dead set against school choice.