You know how, um, the Left is really, uh, compassionate and the right, ah, doesn't care about anyone?

To, I'm sure, the discomfort of anyone who lacks the courage to face the truth about our public school system, Waiting For Superman, the new documentary about the failure of our schools, is attracting a lot of attention. A lot. Oprah had the filmmaker and cast on for an hour, followed by another hour with Cory Booker (Mayor of Newark), Chris Christie (Governor of NJ), both intent on educational reform, and the founder of facebook, Mark Zukerberg, who has donated $100 million to the Newark public schools. Her website provides seemingly endless information about failing schools, cutting-edge reformers and videos of the two shows. Oprah's embrace of what many believe is THE civil rights issue of our time will reach people who, in the past, either ignored the problems or pretended they didn't exist at all.

Thank you, Oprah.

But she did vote for Barrack Obama who, after watching Waiting For Superman recently said,

"Oh, it's hearbreaking...And when you see these parents in the film you are reminded that … their stake in their kids, their wanting desperately to make sure their kids are able to succeed, is so powerful…. It’s obviously difficult to watch to see these kids who know that this school’s going to give them a better chance-and that should depend on the bounce of a ball." 

Then why, Mr. President, did you, your administration and your party decide to end the D.C. Opportunity Schlarship Program (OSP) in 2009, a program that has saved 3,300 children from one of the worst school systems in the country. Did you not watch this?



Or, more importantly, this?



For a more complete overview of the program, read this.

On March 16, 2010, the US Senate rejected the bill that would have kept the funding for OSP in place, a year after Education Secretary Arne Duncan revoked scholarships from 216 children who were already enrolled for the 2010-2011 school year.

Please read that again, out loud.

Why? Money, power, unions, money, power, unions...what else? It's more important to keep the unions happy - who, in turn, vote for the politicians, putting their own interests before the children's - and it all pays off because there is always a union contract to be renegotiated, and another election to be won. Nearly all of the votes against reauthorization were from the Democratic side while the majority of the votes supporting the program came from the *Republicans.

Almost forgot, what about Waiting For Superman?



Waiting For Superman website

* The Republicans, especially career politicians, share plenty of the blame for failed schools ~ unwilling, as they are, to rock the boat. That said, they overwhemingly voted for reauthorization of funding OSP.