This week North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, declared a state of emergency over the Legislature's approval of a bill that would give parents vouchers to send their children to the school of their choice — public or private.
Although the governor vetoed the bill, it's clear that lawmakers have the votes to override Cooper's veto. Republicans have a supermajority in the state legislature.
"It's time to declare a state of emergency for public education in North Carolina. There's no executive order like with a hurricane or the pandemic, but it's no less important," the governor claimed.
"I'm declaring the state of emergency because you need to know what's happening. If you care about public schools in North Carolina, it's time to take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation."
GOP lawmakers in at least eight states have approved some form of school choice so far this year, primarily in response to the poor handling of the pandemic by public educators.
For example, since January the states of Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, and Utah have approved education savings accounts (ESAs) for all K-12 students, giving families the ability to apply a given sum of money to place their children in the school of their choice.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce his presidential bid on Twitter tonight (Wednesday), touted the legislation at a Miami bill-signing ceremony in March.
"Florida is number one when it comes to education freedom and education choice, and today's bill signing represents the largest expansion of education choice in the history of these United States," said DeSantis, a Republican.
Arkansas GOP Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders was even more optimistic at her own bill-signing ceremony.
"I am not interested in being a caretaker of the failed status quo. I vowed to be a change-maker for our people," she said. "Today, I am delivering on that promise, and will sign into law my transformational education plan, unleashing a new era of freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all."
But where the Florida and Arkansas governors envisioned freedom, opportunity and prosperity in school choice, the North Carolina governor could only see a "scheme."
"Their private school voucher scheme will pour your tax money into private schools that are unaccountable to the public and can decide which students they want to keep out," Cooper said.
He should have stopped at that point but he didn't. He dug himself into a hole.
"They want to expand private school vouchers so that anyone, even a millionaire, can get taxpayer money for their children's private academy tuition," the North Carolina governor said.
Newsmax host Chris Plante observed on "The Right Squad" Tuesday night that Cooper "sent this two kids to private school that cost $62,000 a year for each of them." He called it a case of "the rich guy keeping everybody out of the school that his kids go to."
Hypocrisy? "Right Squad" member Mark Morgan thought so. He said, "You've glossed over hypocrisy here. It's alive and well in the Democratic Party."
The former acting U.S. Customs and Border Protection commissioner added, "I'll put this out for the governor right now. I'll pay for him to come down to the border with me to see a real crisis."
Union-dominated public schools largely closed their doors during the COVID-19 pandemic, with devastating results, according to the Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank.
It reported that "Students and educators continue to struggle with mental health challenges, higher rates of violence and misbehavior, and concerns about lost instructional time."
Brookings found that while test scores dropped significantly across the board, what was "more concerning, test-score gaps between students in low-poverty and high-poverty elementary schools grew by approximately 20% in math and 15% in reading ... "
School choice programs are geared to benefit students from low income homes. But apparently they're the very students North Carolina's governor wants to keep out of private schools and away from his own kids.
And things got worse once public schools reopened for in-person instruction two years later. Students were taught "skills" having nothing to do with preparing them for adulthood: things like critical race theory and gender fluidity.
Students began pledging allegiance to BLM flags and LGBT banners, and girls had to share restrooms with boys, and compete on the athletic fields with those same biological males.
But ultimately Cooper, despite being a state governor, doesn't understand that America is based on freedom of choice.
We can have Coke, Pepsi, or RC. Or we can save a little money and grab an off-brand. The choice is ours.
That's America. Freedom of choice and equal opportunity.
Michael Dorstewitz is a retired lawyer and has been a frequent contributor to Newsmax. He is also a former U.S. Merchant Marine officer and an enthusiastic Second Amendment supporter. Read Michael Dorstewitz's Reports — More Here.
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