…have against equal opportunity?
The Justice Department is trying to stop a school vouchers program in Louisiana that attempts to help families send their children to independent schools instead of under-performing public schools.
The agency wants to stop the program, led by Republican Gov Bobby Jindal, in any school district that remains under a desegregation court order.
Because, you know, helping students actually to do better so that they can be effectively integrated with their age peers is a Bad Thing.
The federal government argues that allowing students to attend independent schools under the voucher system could create a racial imbalance in public school systems protected by desegregation orders.
After all, parents of underperforming students might wind up aggregating them into schools that actually teach and get academic results in their students. Since most of the underperforming students in Louisiana tend to be minority children, especially black children, this might tend to aggregate black children into those successful voucher schools rather than leave them trapped in Louisiana’s failing public school system.
Eric Holder’s DoJ made their argument with a straight face. Consummate actors, they are.
Let’s look at that “minority” status in the Louisiana schools, though.
The New Orleans public school system is 88% African-American. Now, how could allowing 570 kids to flee the public school system possibly “create a racial imbalance”?
Oh, it’s those minority white students, who would become even more concentrated, that Holder is worrying about. Yeah, that’s the ticket. We’ll go with that.
Jindal had this about Holder’s move:
After generations of being denied a choice, parents finally can choose a school for their child, but now the federal government is stepping in to prevent parents from exercising this right. Shame on them. Parents should have the ability to decide where to send their child to school.
Can you say disparate impact? This is the racist outcome—intended or not—of using this meme, even sotto voce.