Hollow victory for voucher foes

I've posted the transcript of the 20/20 piece that aired on Friday, Stupid in America, at www.tilsonfunds.com/Personal/StupidInAmericatranscript.pdf

 

Wow!  FINALLY, a show that really gets to the heart of the matter!  One of the people John Stossel interviews is Kevin Chavous, former head of the Education Committee of the Washington DC City Council, who is now Chairman of Democrats for Education Reform (Amy Wilkins is Executive Director -- what a dynamic duo!).

 

Gotta love Stossel holding Randi Weingarten's feet to the fire.  Very easy to tell she's not accustomed to this!:

JOHN STOSSEL:  Unionized monopolies like yours fail.  In this case, it is the children who you are failing.

RANDI WEINGARTEN: We are not a unionized monopoly.  And ultimately those folks who want to say this all the time, they don’t really care about kids.

JOHN STOSSEL:  Those who criticize a monopoly don’t care about kids?  Nonsense.

And the teacher who brought the suit that the Florida Supreme Court recently (mis)ruled on:

JOHN STOSSEL: Last week’s Florida court ruling against vouchers came after this teacher brought a suit.

RUTH HOLMES CAMERON (FORMER TEACHER): To say that competition is going to improve education, it’s just not going to work.  You know, competition is not for children.  It’s not for human beings, it’s not for public education.  It never has been, it never will be.

JOHN STOSSEL: Why not?  Would you keep going back to a restaurant that served you a bad meal?  Or a barber that gave you a bad haircut?  Competition makes everything better.  Why would schools be different?  In the few places where vouchers have been allowed, like Milwaukee, the kids who used vouchers did better.  And the kids in nearby public schools did better.

Competition is "not for human beings"?!  If that doesn't sum up the battle we're fighting, I don't know what does!