Saturday, January 24, 2009

End of "Choice" in Wisconsin?

This report is not clearly worded, but it is portentous.

Heritage Foundation's analysis of the "stimulus" package includes a reference to "choice" schools.

The House bill also creates a $79 billion State Fiscal Stabilization Fund to help states pay for public services, 61 percent of which must be spent on education. “[This money] comes with new federal restrictions designed to please leftist constituency groups,” say the authors. “For example, the legislation [...] require[s] that ‘no recipient of funds under this title shall use funds to provide financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools.’”

In the longer run it makes no practical difference whether the bill prohibits Stimulus dollars to be used for 'financial assistance.....' or whether it prohibits non-Stimulus disbursements for the same purpose.

That's because, in the longer run, the purpose of the "Stimulus bill" is to facilitate Washington command-and-control of damn near everything.

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