This may shock you. Al Gore opposes school choice for kids trapped in failing schools. Instead he supports the same old throw-more-money-at-it, keep-the-bureaucrats-in-charge “solutions” that haven’t worked for decades.
But after choosing a former school choice advocate to be his running mate, Mr. Gore made a remarkable concession. Here is what he said: “If I was the parent of a child who went to an inner-city school that was failing … I might be for vouchers too.”
Huh? I am shocked. A career politician, who knows the right thing to do, but lets politics get in the way? Shocking. Al Gore has dug in his heels in defense of the public school monopoly and has no solution to offer parents at all. Though as a politician he opposes school choice for others, he sends his own kids to private schools. He is not alone.
A Heritage Foundation survey of Congress found that many of the same Congressmen who send their kids to private schools also oppose vouchers. A 1999 education bill would have allowed children in dangerous schools to choose another school using vouchers. Fifty-seven members who believe in school choice for their own kids, cast a no vote. Had they all voted yes, the measure would have passed.
The pattern has been repeated many times. We get political lip service on how much politicians care about education. But they don’t have the guts to fight for what they know is right if it means losing support from special interests. That’s our most serious educational failure.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.