The new do-as-I-say double standard.

May 5, 2009

By William McGurn

Some hypocrisies are apparently more equal than others. If, for example, you are a politician who preaches “traditional values” and you get caught in a hotel with a woman who is not your wife, the press is going to have a field day with your tartuffery.

If, however, you are a pol who piously tells inner-city families that public schools are the answer — and you do this while safely ensconcing your own kids in some private haven — the press corps mostly winks.

Tomorrow afternoon at 1 o’clock in Washington, we’ll learn if anything has changed. Two groups — D.C. Children First and D.C. Parents for School Choice — are holding a rally at Freedom Plaza, just across from the offices of the city government. As their flier explains, “D.C. families deserve the same kind of choices that the Mayor, City Council Members, and Federal leaders with children have.”

The precipitate cause of this rally is the Democrats’ passage of an amendment tucked into the omnibus spending bill. Sponsored by Sen. Richard Durbin (D., Ill.), the amendment effectively ended the Opportunity Scholarship Program, a lifeline now used by more than 1,700 schoolchildren to escape one of America’s most miserable public school systems. Rally organizers say that the silence from local leaders was a big reason the Democratic Congress felt free to kill off the program.

“This rally is the first step in what is the biggest civil rights issue for this community,” says Kevin P. Chavous, a former D.C. council member who is one of the organizers. “We intend to show that there is huge support for this locally, that this support is growing, and that we’re not going away.”

It ought to make for an interesting event. In addition to Mr. Chavous and former mayor (current D.C. council member) Marion Barry, speakers will include former mayor Anthony Williams — whose leadership played a pivotal role in establishing the Opportunity Scholarships five years ago. Mr. Chavous also says there will be figures from black entertainment, as well as moms and dads and schoolchildren.

As strong as the outright opposition may be, perhaps the biggest problem faced by these parents is the Beltway’s complicity in a smarmy double standard. Two weeks ago, the Heritage Foundation highlighted this double standard with the release of a new study showing that 38% of the members of Congress are sending or have sent their children to private schools.

That’s more than three times the rate for rest of America. For Democrats especially, their choice of a private school for their own families tends to make them opponents of choice for others. The bargain the teachers unions offer is this: We won’t fuss about private or parochial schools for your children, provided you don’t help any other kid get the same chance.

For the most part they fall in line. And so we have today’s Washington, a city where none of the major players making decisions about the D.C. public schools have any skin in the game:

- President Barack Obama. Though the president talks a good game about putting kids first, and could save the Opportunity Scholarships Program with a few words, he remains silent — even as his daughters attend the exclusive Sidwell Friends School.

- Education Secretary Arne Duncan. When Mr. Duncan chose a safe suburban school in Virginia for his kids, he explained it this way: “I didn’t want to try to save the country’s children and our educational system and jeopardize my own children’s education.”

Fair enough. Mr. Duncan also stated that the children who now have scholarships should be grandfathered. This reporter called his office to ask what, specifically, his department is doing to make that happen. A spokesman said they are working on a budget request — though the administration has not yet decided whether the funding would be just for their existing schools or stay with them through high school.

- Mayor Adrian Fenty. The mayor nominally favors the Opportunity Scholarships, but he’s been an uncertain trumpet — and his lack of leadership was a green light to a Democratic Congress itching to end the program. Though the mayor has promised that his two sons will go to D.C. public schools come fall, right now they too are in a private school.

- Sen. Durbin. In his floor statement defending his killer amendment, Mr. Durbin admitted he chose Catholic schools for his own children. “If I entrusted my own children to [private education], I certainly believe in it.” But he went on to say this choice should be there only for Americans who pay for it.

Hmm. Wonder if Mr. Durbin’s voting record reveals a consistent respect for not funding things when Americans can’t afford them — or if this fiscal rectitude is reserved only for programs that rile his friends in the teachers unions?

There’s only one institution capable of holding these leaders’ feet to the fire: the national press corp. Parents and their children will be rallying just a few blocks from the White House. What are the odds that our networks and newspapers will think it is worth covering?

Read at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124147923132785121.html

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