“From liberals like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton to conservatives like George H.W. Bush and John McCain, our political landscape is full of people who talk the talk but don’t walk the walk,” notes the WorldWide Education Blog. “They oversee budgets, funding, and legislation, but they don’t deem public schools suitable for their own children…just yours.”
Earl Butz, the Nixon-Ford era cabinet member remembered mostly for his mouth, famously got himself in hot water with his quip about the Pope’s stance on contraception, “He no play-a da game. He no make-a da rules.” I’ll just say it might inspire more confidence if more of our top elected officials played the game. Or had the courage of their convictions.
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Sorry, but you don’t get to play politics with where people choose to send their kids to school. You also don’t get to say someone doesn’t have the courage of his convictions if he makes a choice based on what school is available to him where he lives, rather than on the general health of the district in which he resides. You just don’t: it’s both arrogant and asinine.
I think you misinterpreted what I wrote — or I was unclear. To my mind, having the courage of your convictions means this: if I, as an elected official, believe that all children should attend public schools, then I ought to send mine there too. If, as a politician, I believe the schools aren’t good enough for my child, then I ought to do everything I can to make sure other people’s children have the same right and access to a good education as I do. Be consistent, is my point. I’m not taking a position here, but to pick an obvious example, what does it say about about an elected official who sends his children to a private school, then opposes school choice, charters or vouchers? To me it says “double standard.” That is arrogant and asinine indeed.
And don’t forget about those elites who send their kids to government-run schools in affluent neighborhoods and then oppose programs offering less-well-off families educational choices. It’s all very easy to say “I believe in public education” when one is living in Scarsdale, NY, or Palo Alto, CA, or Fairfax, VA, or some other tony suburb. It’s not *THEIR* child who’s stuck going to some truly dreadful school.