Hillary's School for Racists and Terrorists

In a rather strange harangue last Tuesday, Senator Hillary "We Are the President!" Clinton tried to voice her opposition to the private school voucher system in such a way as to please everyone. Ms. Clinton appealed to teachers, unions and blacks, while at the same time trying to strike the pose of a national security hawk.

Full of hesitancy and confused pauses, the senator from New York struck out against vouchers with the following argument (paraphrased): If we allow vouchers for private secular and conventional religious (for example, Catholic and Jewish) schools, then how do can prevent giving vouchers for bad schools (her examples: "the School of the Church of the White Supremacist" or "the School of the Jihad"). In essence, according to Hillary, school vouchers will lead to government-funded schools for racism and terrorism.

As pointed out by The Independent Conservative, this is just a bunch of malarkey!

I’m not sure what brand of stupid juice some politicians are drinking this week, but she’s telling one of the boldest faced lies I’ve heard all year! No school receiving vouchers would be able to discriminate based on race, given it is unconstitutional. Individuals can choose to attend a school that endorses a faith and use a voucher, given the individual and not the government selects the school. But the government can withhold vouchers from a school that engages in racism. This is supported by the 8-1 US Supreme Court decision in Bob Jones University v. United States. ... An overwhelming majority of the US Supreme Court decided that the government can adjust the tax status of an institution engaging in blatant racism in the name of religion. So the government would be able to deny vouchers to schools that try and teach racism. Of course any school teaching radical Islam would be shut down, never mind them trying to get vouchers.
[Emphasis added by Songbird.]

FOX News Channel's Hannity & Colmes invited conservative columnist and radio talk show host Larry Elder on the show Wednesday night to talk about Sen. Clinton's assertions. (See the full interview on video at Expose the Left.) Elder quickly exposed the basis behind the attack:

Hannity: "I think everything she does is politically calculated now. What is the politics behind this?"

Elder: "Unions. Teachers unions. They oppose vouchers, they oppose (quote) 'anything that's going to take money away from the school system.' So they oppose merit pay. They support things like social promotions. They have stood in the way of virtually every kind of innovation that we could propose. The Democratic Party is wedded to the unions and the unions..." [The rest is indecipherable, as Alan Colmes begins speaking over the guest.]

Mr. Elder just as easily dismisses the assertion that the government cannot control which types of schools would be eligible to use vouchers. It is already being done at the college level.

"We have that kind of system with colleges and universities. We have, in a sense, a voucher -- a Pell Grant. And you can take it to Notre Dame; you can take it to a state school, a private school. And because of that competition, our colleges and universities are among the best in the world."

Alan Colmes tries several weak arguments to either back Ms. Clinton's assertions or distract Elder from the main topic, but Larry just uses facts and reason to hammer the point. As is often the case, the liberal Colmes is defenseless against such weapons.

(Transcript follows of most of the second half of the interview. Visit Expose the Left for the full video, including Hillary's statements.)

Colmes: "You know that vouchers are pushed by people who have a religious agenda. They want to be able to have the money go to their schools. Yes, their pushed by Christian groups [sounded more like he said Christian kooks to me] -- that's where most of the money comes that's pushed vouchers because they feel they're underserved by the public schools. So if you're gonna say this is a Catholic school and we give you a voucher, government voucher; this is a Jewish school -- as she said. A Jihadist school comes forward, theoretically, and says, 'We're gonna do this kind of school,' who decides what a religious group is?

Elder: "There're going to be all sorts of ties and strings, just as there are ties and strings for Pell Grants. One of those would be, if you advocate the violent overthrow of this country, you cannot get a voucher. I mean, come on!"

Colmes: "Alright, but let's say you worship the Church of Satan. You don't want the overthrow of the government, but you have some reli-- Who decides what a religious group is that's worthy of a voucher? Someone's gonna have to make that determination."

Elder: "How are we doing it at the college and university level? We're giving Pell Grants to people that want to go to Notre Dame, Jesuit schools, Jewish schools, private schools, state schools."

Colmes: "But with vouchers, anybody can set themselves up as a school based on any religion that they choose to call a religion. Someone's gonna have to make a determination and say, 'You get a voucher. You don't get a voucher.' That's what Hillary was talking about, and that's a very realistic scenario."

Elder: "Because someone has to make that determination, therefore we ought not have vouchers? [Colmes tries to interrupt, Elder keeps going.] You said that people pushing this are people that want religious schools. In the inner city, in California where there was a referendum on vouchers -- it failed, but it passed in the inner city. It wasn't a religious agenda. They know that there's a 50% dropout rate in the inner city, and parents who care want to have a choice! Hillary had a choice, she sent her daughter to Sitwell Friends in Washington, DC. She just doesn't want other people to have a choice."

[...snip...]

Colmes: "It takes money, Larry, out of the public school system and puts it into private vouchers..."

Elder: "So what?"

Colmes: "... and takes the people ... the greater group of people who need public education -- because even with private vouchers you're gonna have to spend money that the vouchers don't cover. So it's only gonna serve those who have the most amount of money to go to private schools. The greater number of people, the poorest of the poor, are ill served by the voucher system."

Elder: "In Cleveland and in Milwaukee, where they have vouchers, it has not destroyed the public school system."

Colmes [interrupting]: "Not yet!"

Elder: "In fact, there is some evidence that the public school system has gotten better because of the competition. What you don't get it, the 50% dropout rate in the inner city, the bad schools, the schools that have the low expectations -- this is really hurting people that can't get to the middle class! And parents want out! They want options!"

Colmes: "Someone has to decide what a religion is, who gets the vouchers. Someone has to be the arbiter of that. The government should not be..."

Elder: "... By the way, private schools and parochial schools are about 50% less than what we're spending on public education. We're spending $10,000 a pop in California."

Colmes [interrupting]: "Then put the money in public school." [What?!?]

Elder: "$10,000 a pop. They always want more money."

Hannity: "Larry, you're exposing the unions here, who've got to hold the alliance with Democrats, number one. And number two, liberals are not pro-choice, are they?"

Elder: "No they're not!"