Posted 7:29 PM by steve

Conservative critics of the Democrats (effectively) eliminating school choice in DC are offering up some decidedly non-conservative criticisms...

For example, the argument that every kid ought to have the right to attend a school such as Sidwell Friends, the private - and expensive - school the Obama kids go to... and that it is hypocritical for Obama to give his kids opportunities that other kids don't have.

Well, the kids have the right to attend that school or any other private school (provided they are accepted), they lack the funds to pay the tuition. And a bedrock of conservative economic philosophy is that people can buy only what they have the money to pay for.

Conservatives have never accepted the argument that someone has a right to get what they don't have the money to pay for themselves. We don't accept that someone without money has a right to receive the same medical care as someone with more money in the bank. We don't accept that one has a right to just as nice a house or as nice a car as someone who makes ten times the money.

And conservatives aren't supposed to be advocates for the government handing out money. We're supposed to be the ones arguing for less government spending, not more. We aren't supposed to be the ones arguing for government to write checks to cover the costs of going to Harvard because it's so much nicer than going to the local community college.

Yes, the public schools in DC suck. Yes, (some) parents are understandably interested in giving their kids better educational opportunities. But that doesn't mean the government has the obligation to pick up the tab. The government offers educational programs; if some number of parents don't like the government provided services, they're welcome to pick up the tab themselves for sending their kids elsewhere... but they're not entitled to demand that I pick up the tab.