VEA Rep Robley Jones Compares School Vouchers To Segregation

As a public school teacher, I often hear colleagues whining about the public perception of our profession. Now, don't get me wrong. The solutions offered by the mainstream of both major parties demonstrates that neither has a clue about education and the challenges that we currently face. However, the NEA and its state affiliates consistently place professional educators before students. School vouchers should be on the table. Programs of this sort have been successful in many places. In fact, a successful one that has provided life-changing opportunities to nearly 2,000 D.C. children, mostly Black, has been canceled by the Democrat Congress and President Hope and Change. Barry Vladimir Hussein Soweto Obama made it clear that elite schools like Sidwell Friends should be reserved for wealthy children like his own and not the rabble from the 'hood. The Tertium Quids blog posted this snippet from VEA lobbyist Robley Jones:

"Second, our current constitution, adopted in 1971, was written as a consequence of the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown vs. Board decision of 1954. It took Virginia seventeen years to accept that decision.

The last time school vouchers were provided in Virginia was when the schools were closed in keeping with Massive Resistance. Vouchers were provided so that white students could attend private schools when the public schools were closed. So, the constitution does address this issue in Article VIII, Section 10 - “No appropriation of public funds shall be made to any school or institution of learning not owned or exclusively controlled by the State or some political subdivision thereof ….”

Jones is using the worst sort of fear mongering to make his case. I guess that makes him a typical Leftist/Statist. He clearly wants the reader to compare voucher proponents to white supremacists who used private schools to avoid integration. The purpose of the clause in the Virginia constitution is to protect children from discrimination not to protect the interests of the teacher's union (yes, I know technically it isn't a union in Virginia). Robley Jones would like to ignore the fact that voucher programs most often assist poor and minority children.

The irony of "good liberals" and their opposition to voucher programs is that they are the true heirs to Massive Resistance and other such segregationist notions. It is not about children to them. It is about teachers first and foremost. It is the Leftist/Statist who stands in the door of a failing school and says to the children, "No, you cannot leave for a better school. You must settle for a substandard education."