Obama Takes Away Students' Scholarships; Parents Ask 'Why?'

Far from being a courageous leader, in many instances, Barack Obama has shown himself to be a coward and his administration just as cowardly.

Take for example the D.C. Scholarship Program which allows low-income students, who would otherwise have to attend woefully failing public schools that the D.C. School Board absolutely refuses to fix, to attend private schools that improve their chances for making a better life for themselves. Obama stopped this program even though he chose to use his own upper-class privilege to send his daughters to the prestigeous and private Sidwell Friends.

Reason has the story and video about this:

The program is wildly popular with parents and children—there are four applicants for every available slot—and a recent Department of Education study found that participants do significantly better than their public school peers. Indeed, after three years in private schools, students who entered the program at its inception were 19 months ahead in reading of applicants unlucky enough to still be trapped in D.C.'s public schools.

But, Obama and other Democrats killed the scholarships despite successes of the program:

Yet working with congressional Democrats and despite his pledge to put politics and ideology aside in education, the Obama administration has effectively killed the program through a backdoor legislative move. "[Education] Secretary [Arne] Duncan will use only one test in what ideas to support with your precious tax dollars," says the president. "It's not whether it's liberal or conservative, but whether it works."

And now the parents want to know why. I can guarantee you that Obama will never have the courage or integrity to answer that question. In his world it is okay for him to send his own children to a private school to get a superior education, but others must have their children recieve an abysmally lower quality education at the hands of failing public schools.

A mother asks of Obama:

"We voted for you, we walked, we went to the parade, we stood freezing. Why?...Can you get this tape over to Obama and have him answer our questions? Why, sir, why?"

Obama will never show any real courage until he looks that mother and her daughter in the eyes and answers their questions directly.

You can access the article and video on-line here:

Barack Obama & The DC School Voucher Program
Reason.tv
May 4, 2009