Teacher Unions, Dems vs. kids of DC

By Thomas Lifson

A majority of the Washington, DC city council has sent a letter to Education Secretary Arne Duncan expressing solid support for the imperiled DC voucher program:

Earlier this year Illinois Senator Dick Durbin added language to a spending bill that phases out the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program after next year. The program provides 1,700 kids $7,500 per year to use toward tuition at a private school of their parents' choosing. Mr. Durbin's amendment says no federal money can be spent on the program beyond 2010 unless Congress reauthorizes it and the D.C. Council approves.

The teacher unions see vouchers as a threat to their dues income, as once the monopoly of government schools on taxpayer education funds is broken, it will be harder to unionize. No other issue better establishes the self-interested real motives of the liberal establishment. If the DC voucher program dies, more DC children will be condemned to inferior schools, but then teacher union will get its dues. The ball, as thew WSJ editorializes, is in the Democrats' court.

Hat tip: VM