The Education Cartel is Holding America’s Kids Hostage

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Why are leftist politicians like Kamala Harris and the teachers’ unions so intent on taking away the future of poor minority children, who have no choice but to languish in segregated, dangerous, and failing schools?

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In her recent speech before the American Federation of Teachers, newly crowned Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris claimed that “we face a choice between two very different visions for our nation: One focused on the future and the other focused on the past.”

She’s correct in identifying a choice, but wrong to claim that she’s the one “fighting for the future,” especially as it pertains to education.

We’ve seen firsthand the mess her progressive ideology has made of the public school system, and it’s ugly: An alarming number of schoolchildren are functionally illiterate and struggle with basic math and reading skills, yet they can effortlessly rattle off all 72 genders — or however high the number is now.

So, while Harris praises the American Federation of Teachers for doing “God’s work educating our children,” the real question is: Do teachers’ unions and leftist politicians truly care about the “well-being” of kids, as the vice president argued?

The data, as well as Kamala’s own record, says no.

Chicago taxpayers, for instance, shell out a whopping $29,000 per student and still roughly 75 percent of students “cannot read at grade level” and more than 80 percent lack “proficiency in math.”

Meanwhile, New York City taxpayers are responsible for around $30,000 per student, with “fourth-graders scor[ing] below the national average in both math and reading.”

Then there’s Baltimore, just a quick Amtrak ride from the nation’s capital. As we previously reported at the Freedom Center, out of 2,000 students across 23 schools, “not one could do math at grade level.”

Not one!

Oh, and the Baltimore Public School budget is almost $2 billion a year, and the City Schools CEO, Dr. Sonja Santelises, bags a “total compensation” package of $479,000.

Baltimore’s awful track record prompted one resident, Jovani Patterson, to take matters into his own hands. Patterson sued school officials for not living up to their mandate, which is, you know, to teach the kids. He has urged parents to “take your kids out of these schools.”

Most parents would heed Patterson’s advice if they had the resources. They don’t want their kids stuck in a shoddy government structure that neglects reading, writing, and arithmetic, and instead focuses on all things gay.

That’s why school choice is incredibly popular with parents regardless of political identification. Whether it’s through vouchers covering private school tuition or charter schools operating independently of the traditional public school model, these options provide the kind of “choice” American families are craving.

One survey found that a sizable majority of parents wanted this opportunity for their kids, whereas another poll revealed that more than 70 percent of black households were in favor of an alternative.

Why?

As the New York Times explained in a report about the rising success of New York City charters, these schools “typically outperform district schools in math and reading on state standardized tests” even though they “receive less per-pupil funding than district schools.”

In fact, families are clamoring, as the New York Times put it, for more charters, particularly among blacks and Latinos who are more likely than whites to be confined to terrible district schools because of their zip code.

Since government schools have a disparate impact on minorities, school choice has been dubbed the “civil rights issue of our time” and, for that reason, has garnered bipartisan agreement over the decades — from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush to Donald Trump to even Barack Obama, who applauded charter schools for providing “educators the freedom to cultivate new teaching models and develop creative methods to meet students’ needs.”

But times have changed, and the secular left wants to maintain control over America’s young minds. Government schools are how progressives “disciple” the next generation, and they’re not about to give up that captive audience without a fight.

One way they retain this leverage is through artificial caps on the number of charter schools permitted. It’s nearly impossible to lift those caps, especially in liberal-controlled inner cities where teachers’ unions “are major political players and disapprove of the schools, which tend not to be unionized,” to quote the New York Times.

This resistance to expanding school choice brings us back to Kamala Harris and why teachers’ unions have already flocked to her side. As the largest union outlined when Harris joined the Biden ticket four years ago, she “opposed [an] amendment to create tax benefits for tuition at K-12 private schools” and attacked efforts to “divert public school funding to private school vouchers.”

In other words, Harris is one of them.

Despite her praise for teachers’ unions and their noble work, the truth is that the left has no intention of relinquishing their educational monopoly, even if it undermines the very demographics they supposedly champion.

Consider her past actions. In the 2020 presidential primary, Kamala Harris suggested that Joe Biden was a racist for opposing “bussing” as a U.S. senator, a controversial policy that Kamala insisted helped minority schoolchildren like her escape bad schools and move to better ones. The reality was that “bussing” turned out to be a logistical nightmare, with kids being transported to and from distant neighborhoods, and was eventually scrapped across the country.

This leads us, though, to a glaring contradiction: How was it racist to oppose a program that disrupted children’s lives with long bus rides for the sake of diversity, yet it’s not considered racist to continue a government arrangement that keeps black and Latino children trapped in dysfunctional, failing schools?

It’s gotten to the point where desperate families are hoping — nay, praying — that their son or daughter’s name is called in a lottery, securing a coveted seat in a charter school classroom. We’re rolling the dice with these kids’ lives because left-wing politicians refuse to allow enough pathways to meet the burgeoning demand.

And Kamala Harris would even take that smidgeon of hope away.

At the end of her speech to the American Federation of Teachers convention, Harris asked, “What kind of country do we want to live in?”

How about one that breaks up the government’s education cartel and gives parents maximum freedom to do what’s best for their children?

Of course, that means Kamala Harris and her union buddies would lose a great deal of power and money. Don’t count on their support.

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As seen in this article, many K-12 schools now embrace the secular woke agenda and are hostile to Christian beliefs and parental rights. Fortunately, parents don’t have to settle for this. Liberty University Online Academy is a K-12 program designed to educate your children in the ways of the Lord while preparing them to stand firm in their faith when they graduate. Our flexible online curriculum ensures that your student is trained at your convenience and keeps YOU the ultimate educator of your children.