The right question

It was a bit overstated for the media to characterize conservative outrage over President Obama’s address to the nation’s schoolchildren as “foolish” or overblown, since that concern caused the president to modify his brief remarks and certainly caused the U.S. Department of Education to re-word the materials that directed classroom exercises after the president’s speech. (Never mind that the Department of Education even got involved in the whole affair at all, at what cost, directing what students should ask themselves after hearing the president.)

What has been largely overlooked is the point no one in the media seemed to address, until the WSJ brought it up here.

They would have done far more good joining those who protested on Tuesday against the President’s decision to shut down a school voucher program for 1,700 low-income kids in Washington, D.C.

“It’s fundamentally wrong for this Administration not to listen to the voices of citizens in this city,” said Kevin Chavous, the former D.C. Council member who organized the protest of parents and kids ignored by most media. Mr. Chavous, a Democrat, is upset that the White House and Democrats in Congress have conspired to shut down the program even though the government’s own evaluation demonstrates improved test scores.

The nationwide black/white achievement gap has grown in recent years, and it’s significantly wider than it was two decades ago. Yet the Obama Administration, in deference to teachers unions that oppose school choice, is shuttering a voucher program that is narrowing the racial learning gap.

And….denying parents a real choice in their children’s education. Why won’t the ‘elite media’ cover this?