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Conservative Chronicle
EDUCATION: November 30, 2016
DeVos: Great pick for education secretary
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2016 election cycle $33,623,843 on with compensation over $100,000, political contributions and $3,077,849 with president Weingarten standing at on lobbying to advance their special- $543,150. Regarding the claim that schoolinterest agenda. choice programs drain funds from EVERY AGENDA is, of course, public schools, American Enterprise special interest. Betsy DeVos’ special Institute scholar Gerard Robinson, interest is advancing freedom by bring- former commissioner for education in ing education opportunities to poor Florida and secretary of education for children. The unions’ special interest Virginia, reports that inflation-adjusted is keeping a stranglehold on public spending on education since the end of schools and looking out for their mem- World War II has increased 663 percent, with virtually no change in readbers and their left-wing agenda. According to the Bureau of Labor ing and math scores since 1992. In 2016 the Department of EducaStatistics, the average salary for a high school teacher in 2014 was $56,310, tion will spend $79 billion, up 67 perwith the average in the highest 10 per- cent from 2000. A headline on the National Educacent at $88,910. The Center for Union Facts shows tion Association website says, “Transthat there are 198 employees at the gender students thrive in supportive ACCORDING TO the American American Federations of Teachers schools.” Can you imagine the NEA Federation of Teachers, the appointment shows that Trump’s administraGOVERNMENT: November 30, 2016 tion will focus on “privatizing, defunding, and destroying public education in America.” But the school-choice movement, where Betsy DeVos has been an activist and leader for years, is not about or more than a half-century, it term peaceful solution. Separation any of this. It is about what the teachhas become abundantly clear and independence do not require that ers unions hate the most: Freedom. that our nation faces increas- liberty-loving Americans overthrow It is about an outrageous idea that ing irreconcilable differences. At the the federal government any more than parents should have the power and root is the fact that there is one group they required Gen. George Washington freedom to decide where and how to of Americans who mostly want to be to overthrow the British government in educate their children. left alone and live according to the rule order to secede or required his succesFreedom is what I thought defined of law and the dictates of the U.S. Con- sor secessionist, Confederate President our country, the secret sauce that stitution while another group of Ameri- Jefferson Davis, to overthrow the U.S. made, and makes, America great. It is cans wants to control the lives of oth- federal government. crazy that in something as fundamen- ers and ignore both the rule of law and tal as education we have so little of it. constitutional restraints on the federal YOU SAY, “All those government And for those with the least power, the government. Should those Americans acts that you say violate the rule of law poor, parents are totally locked into who favor the rule of law and consti- and the Constitution have been ruled failing schools controlled by bureau- tutional government fight against or constitutional by the courts!” That’s crats and unions. yield to those Americans who have true. The courts have twisted If giving parents education choice contempt for the rule of law and conwas a bad idea, why do so many want stitutional government? Let’s look at a it? few of those irreconcilable differences. Thirty years ago, school-choice programs didn’t exist. Today, accordSOME AMERICANS prefer to (c) 2016, Creators Syndicate ing to the organization EdChoice, manage their own health care needs. around 400,000 children attend private Others wish to have the federal gov- the Constitution, but Thomas Jefferschools in 29 states with help from ernment dictate their health care. Some son warned, “To consider the judges some type of public funding — vouch- Americans want their earnings to be as the ultimate arbiters of all constituers, tax credits or education savings taxed only for the constitutionally tional questions (is) a very dangerous accounts. mandated functions of the federal gov- doctrine indeed and one which would According to the National Alliance ernment, which are outlined in Article place us under the despotism of an olifor Public Charter Schools, more than 1, Section 8 of the Constitution. Oth- garchy.” a million children are on waiting lists ers think American earnings should be State governors and legislators to be accepted in charter schools. Yes, taxed for anything on which Congress ought to summon up the courage our the charter schools that Hillary Clinton can muster a majority vote. Though Founding Fathers had in their response criticized during the presidential cam- there is no constitutional authority for to the fifth Congress’ Alien and Sedipaign to cozy favor with the teachers federal involvement in public educa- tion Acts in 1798. Written by Jefferson unions. tion, some Americans want the fed- and James Madison, the Kentucky and American Federation of Teachers eral government involved. The list of Virginia Resolutions of 1798 and 1799 President Randi Weingarten said that irreconcilable differences among the stated that those states’ legislatures Betsy DeVos “uses her money to game American people is nearly without end. considered the Alien and Sedition Acts the system and push a special-interest These differences survive because of unconstitutional. They said, “Resolved, agenda.” the timidity of those offended and the That the several States composing, the This is laughable, coming from a brute power of the federal government. United States of America, are not unitunion official. I think reconciliation is impossible; ed on the principle of unlimited subThe two teachers unions spent in the therefore, separation is the only long- mission to their general government f the teachers unions are outraged by Donald Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos as the new secretary of education, our presidentelect must have made a good choice. The two major unions are beside themselves that Trump picked schoolchoice advocate and activist DeVos, who chairs the American Federation for Children, an organization that fights for school choice, with a focus on low-income communities. The National Education Association’s press release says DeVos supports “failed schemes, like vouchers” and “a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education.”
worrying about Christian children getting biblical values? Parents should be free to choose a school embracing transgender values or Christian values. It should be up to them, not unions or bureaucrats. HAVING KNOWN Betsy DeVos for years, I am confident that unions will find their fears justified, and that our new secretary of education will provide leadership to significantly improve education in our country by bringing freedom and choice to families. This column is by Star Parker, an author and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. Contact her at www.urbancure. org.
Have courage: Let’s fight tyranny
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Walter
Williams
... and ... whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force.” The 10th Amendment to our Constitution holds, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” The federal government should not be permitted to determine the scope of its own powers. Alexander Hamilton, in Federalist No. 28, said, “The State governments will, in all possible contingencies, afford complete security against invasions of the public liberty by the national authority.” One response to federal encroachment is for state governments to declare federal laws that have no constitutional authority null and void and refuse to obey them. In other words, they should nullify federal laws that violate the Constitution. In good conscience, liberals could not object to nullification. There are hundreds of so-called sanctuary cities in the U.S. — liberal places that have chosen to nullify federal immigration laws and harbor immigrants who are here illegally. FORMER SLAVE Frederick Douglass advised: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. ... The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” We Americans appear to have very limited endurance in the face of tyrannical oppression.