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Sid Dinerstein: School Vouchers: Who Really Wins? NewsMax.com Wires I am Dred Scott.
In 1847 I tried to buy my freedom for $300. In 1858 Chief Justice Roger Taney, a Democrat, ruled that I must remain a slave. I died the following year.
In 2006, I asked the taxpayers of Florida to buy my educational freedom. Chief Justice Barbara J. Pariente, a Democrat, ruled that I must remain an educational hostage. I died another death.
The five liberal justices on the Florida State Supreme Court took away the Opportunity Scholarships for all Dred Scotts because the receiving schools the private schools weren't "uniform" with the failing public schools. That's true. They were better. Children learned there. Safely. Ritalin free.
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ACLU'ers pick their children's, or their grandchildren's, schools on this "uniform" concept. An ACLU'er can only go to a public school that is "uniformly" excellent, like Dreyfoos or Suncoast or Bok Middle School, or most schools in Boca Raton, Palm Beach Gardens or Wellington (in South Florida).
But try to find an ACLU'er in a "uniformly" challenged school like Glades Central or Roosevelt Middle School, and you will come up empty. ACLU'ers only go to schools that "uniformly" resemble the private schools that they won't let poor children go to.
The liberals on the Court say that "uniformity" is defined by the curriculum. Rest assured. The public schools of the ACLU children have curricula much closer to St. Andrews (private) or The Benjamin School (private) than they do to Glades Central.
All ACLU'ers love vouchers. They love the GI Bill vouchers that sent their uncles to St. John's University. They love the Pell Grant and "Bright Futures" vouchers that send their grandchildren to Florida State University or Palm Beach Atlantic University. They use their own Medicare vouchers at JFK Medical Good Samaritan Hospital. And the only reason we haven't mentioned Food Stamps or Section 8 Rental Housing Vouchers is because ACLU'ers are too rich to need them.
And yet, when the Dred Scotts of today ask for their vouchers, the ACLU just says: "No!"
So what is really going on? The answer is, money.
Dred Scott was sold in 1847 and Dred Scott is being sold every day in 2006. The NEA, the National Education Association, what we often call the Teachers' Union, takes in $350 million each year. And what does it buy? The better question is, "Who" does it buy?
Here are a few:
In other words, this organization, and all of its sister left-wing organizations, takes money from the fabulously rich NEA. And all you have to do is sell Dred Scott, again and again and again. The ACLU takes the money. Dred Scott loses his potential. It's all very black and white.
The Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution has one common theme: 10 times over it says people come before government; by picking their own religion, owning their own guns, keeping their own counsel. And when the Bill of Rights runs out of specific areas to protect the citizens from the government, it adds the blanket statement reminding us that the ambiguous always goes to the people.
The people of the great state of Florida, through their constitution, are no less generous or just. When we ask for quality public schools we seek optimism and opportunity, not pessimism and imprisonment. And when parents have determined that uniform quality public schools require a School Voucher to an outsourced institution, the Bill of Rights reminds us that "we the people" come before the narrow interests of the government schools.
Quality education is the uniformity that our state constitution guarantees, not special interest payoffs from one educational possibility, the local government school district. Dred Scott will return to the government schools when they have earned his participation, no longer at the wrong end of the bullwhip.
If there are lawyers who think I have it wrong, I have two suggestions: First, go back to law school and get a refund. Then go visit the Joseph Littles-Nguzo Saba Charter School and ask them to take your law school money and sell you a heart. School choice is the civil rights issue of the 21st century and the ACLU is the hired gun for the "separate but unequal" crowd.
I believe, upon looking at the faces of the young, that everyone will understand the cruelty of the ACLU. When that happens, free yourself by standing up and saying: "I am Dred Scott!"
Sid Dinerstein is chairman of the Republican Party in Palm Beach County, Fla.
Editor's note:
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