Sharpton says what we all knew

NEWSFLASH! Hell freezes, Sharpton exposes liberal racism on schools

By: Mark Tapscott

They must be having snowball fights in Hell this morning or how else to explain this statement by the Rev. Al Sharpton concerning the need for school choice for black kids in the nation's catastrophically failing inner city classrooms:

"I'm not anti-charter schools. I'm pro-good charter schools. We want what's best for our kids, even if it doesn't follow the liberal status quo," Sharpton told The Wall Street Journal.

"I think there's a new leadership in the black community, and we're not wedded to the [teachers] unions calling our shots," he said. "I think accountability must be part of what we do to make sure kids have the education they need to close the achievement gap."

Hallelujah, hosanna and how about that!

Successive generations of black and other minority kids have been trapped in horrendously failing public schools and for decades the only response from liberal politicians who depend upon the National Education Association and American Federation of Teachers for campaign cash and volunteers has been massive resistance to reform proposals such as charter schools and vouchers.

You want to see liberal racism in person? Just check out the providers and recipients of the NEA's $31 million in campaign contributions since 1990.

Why do I say that? Spend a little time this morning thinking about this from the same WSJ editorial in this morning edition of that illustration daily:

"According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, an estimated 365,000 students in the U.S. are on charter school wait lists. Studies have shown repeatedly that poor and minority kids have the most to gain from charters and other forms of school choice.

"Of the country's 20,000 high schools, only 2,000 produce about half of all dropouts. And a black child has a 50% chance of attending one of these "drop-out factories." The urban school problem isn't too many charters but too many failing schools."

There are too many failing public schools because for decades liberal Democrats in Congress, the White House, and wherever else education budget and policy decisions are made have resolutely opposed all efforts to expand charter schools and voucher programs like the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships Program. As the WSJ editorial proclaims in its title, this situation is "morally inexcusable."

Virtually everywhere such programs have been allowed to function, they have compiled proven records of dramatically improving the educational outcomes for minority and other free-lunch kids. To read the rest of the WSJ edit, go here (subscription required, though).

If you get the impression that this is an issue I care very deeply about, you are right: When I was a teenager, the image of George Wallace standing in the school house door at the University of Alabama was burned into my mind.

I only see one difference between Wallace and the teachers unions: The former Alabama governor was blocking black kids from getting into schools that could liberate them. The teachers unions are blocking black kids from getting out of schools that too often trap them in lives of failure, desperation, and outrage.

Is there a politician anywhere in this country with the guts to stand in the door of America's failing inner-city public schools and demand that the kids trapped inside be set free from the chains of the teachers unions?

How much longer will we allow this to go on in America?