Cesar Cota: Glenn Beck- 'School Vouchers Killed By Democrat Congress'

Source:Cesar Cota- Glenn Beck, talking about school vouchers.

"School Vouchers Killed by Democrat Congress" 

From Cesar Cota

I'm for all sorts of freedom of choice in education, as well as a lot of other areas that I've blogged about as well. But I'm also for a couple of other things as well, as a Liberal who believes in limited government and federalism, which are states rights as long as states live within the U.S, Constitution, as well as their own Constitution. And local control, again as long as cities and county's live within the U.S. Constitution and their own Constitution. 

I don't support private school vouchers on principle because I believe tax revenue for education should be used to finance public schools. But if states and local government's want to have private school choice as part of their education choice, then thats their right and they should finance that on their own. 

Washington is a big city of over 600K people and their population is rising after decades of losing people to its suburbs. They are also one of the wealthiest cities in the Union. (Top 3 if not the wealthiest city in the nation) Other big cities like Chicago and Detroit, Philadelphia would love to have the financial resources that Washington has. 

If Washington wants to have a private school choice program, then thats their right as a city. But it shouldn't be forced on them by the Federal Government or anyone else. Washington does have one of the worst public education systems in America at least amongst big cities. And they have been working to improve their PES over the last few years and have the responsibility to reform their own PES. And the Federal Government shouldn't be down their backs forcing reforms on them as long as Washington is operating within the U.S. Constitution as well as their own Constitution. 

What the Federal Government can do for Washington is to work with them to reform their PES but not force it on them. Just like they would work with any other city or state to reform its public education system. 

Anyone who truly believes in limited government and federalism doesn't want Uncle Sam to dictate how states and cities run their public education systems. 

What the Federal Government can do is encourage states and cities to reform their public education systems not dictate how they do that. And they can do this by encouraging as well as supporting including with resources. 

The Federal Government could encourage things like public school choice so parents can send their kids to the best school thats for them. Rather than sending them to the closest school thats to them physically. 

As well as eliminating teacher tenure and judging educators based on how well they do their job. Instead of how long they've been doing their job. 

Merit pay, paying good teachers more, low-performing teachers less. 

Retraining or laying off low-performing teachers, encouraging well-qualified new educators to teach in under served areas and paying them more if they do that. 

More money for school construction and renovation. 

If private schools as well as states and cities want to have their own private school scholarship program, then of course they can do that themselves. So-called Conservatives for eighty years or more have been arguing for states rights and local control. Except of course for the City of Washington and of course as long as they are doing things that they support. 

But if a State were to decriminalize marijuana or legalize gay marriage, then of course these so-called Conservatives believe the Federal Government should step in to stop that. For states rights and local control to be anything and other clever terms, then they have to have meaning and be enforceable.