All this really shows Don is that power corrupts and those in power abuse it. Like we didn't already know that?
On 24 Mar, 21:30, Don Johnson <[email protected]> wrote: > Check out this story, broken yesterday by the Chicago Tribune, > illustrating why "equality" isn't all it's cracked up to be. Unlike > medicine, elementary and secondary education in the U.S. is already > almost completely under political control. Defenders of this > arrangement justify it in the name of equality. They do not claim the > current system achieves that ideal, but they do insist that efforts to > reduce political control via vouchers and other forms of privatization > would make inequality worse. > > But the Tribune story shows that political control introduces its own > kind of inequality, to benefit the political class: > > While many Chicago parents took formal routes to land their > children in the best schools, the well-connected also sought help > through a shadowy appeals system created in recent years under former > schools chief Arne Duncan. > > Whispers have long swirled that some children get spots in the > city's premier schools based on whom their parents know. But a list > maintained over several years in Duncan's office and obtained by the > Tribune lends further evidence to those charges. Duncan is now > secretary of education under President Barack Obama. > > The log is a compilation of politicians and influential business > people who interceded on behalf of children during Duncan's tenure. It > includes 25 aldermen, Mayor Richard Daley's office, House Speaker > Michael Madigan, his daughter Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan, > former White House social secretary Desiree Rogers and former U.S. > Sen. Carol Moseley Braun. > > Non-connected parents, such as those who sought spots for their > special-needs child or who were new to the city, also appear on the > log. But the politically connected make up about three-quarters of > those making requests in the documents obtained by the Tribune. > > This is "the aristocracy of pull," in Ayn Rand's memorable phrase. Its > existence is probably inevitable inasmuch as government's is, but its > extent can only increase with the power and reach of government. > > If you and Larry Summers both get sick and need a treatment that the > Medicare Advisory Commission (dysphemistically known as the Death > Panel) deems too expensive, what are the odds that you'll find a way > to get it anyway and he won't? How about the other way around? In the > Soviet Union, those privileged by political connections were called > the nomenklatura. Here, we can call it the Obamaklatura. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/minds-eye?hl=en.
