DEBORAH SIMMONS: Hillary Clinton on school choice and vouchers

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Republican voters in D.C. are scheduled to begin divvying up delegates on Saturday. But the scene stealers next week will be delegate-rich Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida, where Republican and Democratic debates were held this week in Miami.

Hispanic-centric Florida is the biggest stake in Tuesday’s primary game for Hillary Clinton, whose handmaidens get to see Bill’s wife up closer and more personal than Bill himself has in recent months.

So I got to thinking inside the bubble, “What domestic issue is as important to blacks and Hispanics in Florida as it is to the blacks and Hispanics elsewhere?”

Hillarycare? No, no, no.

The word “education” popped out of my pie hole.

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Here’s a rundown of the five-time first lady of Arkansas, two-time first lady of America, one-time senator from New York and two-time Democratic presidential candidate on public education, courtesy of OnTheIssues.com.

Head’s up: Hillary talks in terms of schools and systems, not children and students — which means she not only willingly accepts the unions’ endorsements but also discusses education from their perspective.

• “I have advocated for highly structured inner city schools. I have advocated uniforms for kids in inner city schools. I have advocated that we have to help structure people’s environment who come from unstructured, disorganized, dysfunctional family settings. Because if you do not have any structure on the outside, it is very difficult to internalize it on the inside.” Source: May 18, 1996, speech at Drew University, Madison, New Jersey. (Note: “Inner city” is code for “ghetto.”)

• “I believe strongly in a parent’s right to choose the best education for his/her child. We have a proud tradition of parochial and private education in America. We also know that the majority of children are educated in the public education system. So we have to support the public education system whether or not our children are in it or whether or not we have children. The public education system is a critical investment for the well-being of all of us.” Source: 1997 “The Unique Voice of Hillary Rodham Clinton,” page 173.

• “Charter schools can play a significant part in revitalizing and strengthening schools by offering greater flexibility from bureaucratic rules, so that parents, teachers, and the community can design and run their own schools, and focus on setting goals and getting results. Many of these schools are meeting the needs of students who had trouble succeeding in more traditional public schools. Every child deserves a quality public education as part of their American birthright.” Source: Aug. 4, 1998, remarks at Charter School Meeting, Washington D.C.

• “Charter schools are a way of bringing teachers and parents and communities together instead of other efforts — like vouchers — which separate people out, siphon much needed resources; and weakening the school systems that desperately need to be strengthened.” Source: Aug. 4, 1998, remarks at Charter School Meeting, Washington D.C.

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• “I stand behind the charter school/public school movement, because parents do deserve greater choice within the public school system to meet the unique needs of their children. Slowly but surely, we’re beginning to create schooling opportunities through the public school charter system — raising academic standards, empowering educators. When we look back on the 1990s, we will see that the charter school movement will be one of the ways we will have turned around the entire public school system.” Source: July 5, 1999, remarks to the National Education Association in Orlando, Florida (Note: As she positioned herself for the 2000 U.S. Senate race.)

• “I’ve visited schools throughout the state and some of them are among the finest in the world that you could find anywhere. But others are overcrowded, under-resourced. That’s why I put forth a plan to try to get the teachers that we need and to provide the funds that are required for modernizing our schools, as well as setting high standards, making them safe from violence. I do not support vouchers. And the reason I don’t is because I don’t think we can afford to siphon dollars away from our underfunded public schools.” Source: Sept. 13, 2000, debate with Senate candidate Rick Lazio in Buffalo, New York

Fast forward to her run for the 2016 presidential nomination:

“I’ll tell you why I won’t support vouchers. Number one, I don’t think they’re constitutional. But number two, I don’t see how you would implement them without having a lot of people get vouchers for schools that would be teaching things antithetical to American values. I actually do believe in charter schools.” Source: April 12, 2015, Forbes magazine article

And then, leave it to conservative extraordinaire Michelle Malkin to provide the 2016 exclamation point on the story, “Hillary’s Federal Education Jackboot Squad.”

Said Ms. Malkin in her column on Wednesday: “Clinton wants a cadre of new government educrats to undo the decades-old damage of old government educrats in America’s worst public schools. She pitched her creepy proposal at the Democratic presidential debate in Michigan on Sunday for an ’education SWAT team’ to swarm down and rescue students from failing districts in decrepit cities such as Detroit (run by whom? Oh, yeah. Democrats!).

“’I want to set-up inside the Department of Education, for want of a better term, kind of an education SWAT squad, if you will,’ Clinton explained in a bizarre, semi-blaccent, ’where we’ve got qualified people, teachers, principals, maybe folks who are retired, maybe folks who are active, but all of whom are willing to come and help.’”

Please check the graves of Thomas Jefferson and Booker T. Washington to make sure their remains are still there.

And, ahem, it’s certainly worth noting at this point in the election calendar that Florida’s Hispanic electorate in 2016 is not what it was in 2008 or 1998. Whereas past voters could be depended on to be anti-Castro, younger Cubans are more liberal, and U.S. voters are pouring in from destitute Puerto Rico. And Colombians, Mexicans and Venezuelans are bolstering their ranks in Florida, too.

Buckle your seat belts, America, it’s gonna be a bumpy multicultural ride.

• Deborah Simmons can be reached at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.