‘Washington politics is a game and selfishness, out-sized egos and corruption are predictable. But over the last week I find myself in a fury.The cause of my upset is watching the key civil rights issue of this generation — improving big city public school education — get tossed overboard by political gamesmanship. If there is one goal that deserves to be held above day-to-day partisanship and pettiness of ordinary politics it is the effort to end the scandalous poor level of academic achievement and abysmally high drop-out rates for America’s black and Hispanic students,’ at Fox News’ forum.

He goes on to take a look at the DC voucher program which has been destroyed by the current administration.

But last week Secretary Duncan announced that he will not allow any new students to enter the D.C. voucher program. In fact, he had to take back the government’s offer of scholarships to 200 students who had won a lottery to get into the program starting next year. His rationale is that if the program does not win new funding from Congress then those students might have to go back to public school in a year.

He does not want to give the students a chance for a year in a better school? That does not make sense if the students and their families want that life-line of hope. It does not make sense if there is a real chance that the program might win new funding as parents, educators and politicians rally to undo the “bigotry of low expectations” and open doors of opportunity — wherever they exist — for more low-income students.

And now Secretary Duncan has applied a sly, political check-mate for the D.C. voucher plan.

Research has proved that voucher programs are extremely helpful for public and private schools, and for students of both kinds of institutions. These programs increase competition, and force public schools to improve themselves. These leads to a higher quality of education across the board. Those interested do well to read “School Choice: the Findings” by Walberg, published by CATO (a libertarian think tank).