Tweet Of The Day

Via NOM's blog:

DC Councilman Tommy Wells — who not that long ago actually supported school vouchers — has just written an open letter to Senate subcommittee Chairman Dick Durbin strongly opposing the reauthorization of the DC school voucher program this year. Why? Because some of the kids in the program use the vouchers to attend Catholic schools, and the Catholic Church opposes same-sex marriage. That’s right. Although he generally favors vouchers in general, Councilman Wells wants to punish the poorest of DC kids stuck in dead-end schools in order to get back at the Catholic Church for its opposition to the same-sex marriage bill pending before the DC Council.

What Wells' letter says:

We believe the program has placed too many District students in underperforming private schools and supports discriminatory employment practices at religious-based schools, in violation of the D.C. Human Rights Act. DCOSP provides vouchers for students to attend some schools that are seriously deficient. Specifically, these schools were not accredited or even in the process of becoming accredited, and employed teachers who had not graduated from college. According to a report by the General Accountability Office, these schools: “Did not meet basic requirements to operate in the District. For example, a few had no certificate of occupancy on file with the District or had certificates that did not specify educational use.” We acknowledge that some of our publicly funded voucher students attend high-performing private schools. A small minority attend Sidwell Friends, St. Albans, and John Carroll High School. However, too many attend schools with fewer resources and lower standards than those of our public schools.

What Wells is saying is that the DC voters should not pay for private school vouchers for school that cannot provide a decent education AND that taxpayers shouldn't have to support schools that encourage bigotry. I have no problem with this. If public school isn't good enough for you, pay for private school with your own fucking money.