The public-schools lobby loves to prattle on about how students must learn to "respect differences" in our multicultural society. But when it comes to really important things -- like money -- tolerance, it seems, is the first thing to fly right out the window.
For example. Two parent-teacher associations in Fairfax County, Virginia, recently sent letters home with students warning parents about a state legislative effort to establish tax credits for private school tuition. The letters encouraged parents to attend an anti-tax-credit rally being held in Richmond. People for the American Way, whose local contact information was listed on these fliers, offered rides to the rally -- a blatant violation of Virginia lobbying regulations, according to the state's attorney general.
And when the scam was reported in the local papers? The president of one of the two PTAs involved distanced her group from the effort, claiming it represented the views of just a single member, not the whole organization. But it's not clear which is worse: the PTA turning students into political pawns, or one member abusing her access to students and parents to promote a personal agenda.
What is clear, in either case, is that these PTA types were clueless about why they were on the defensive in the first place. Because when a few members of the Fairfax County school board publicly objected to their letters -- board member Mychele Brickner correctly observed that students should never be turned into political "carrier pigeons" -- the president of the county's umbrella Council of PTAs reacted with bewildering hostility. "Our school board members are supposed to be out there working for public education," Rosemary Lynch told the Washington Post. "I would hope that Mrs. Brickner's actions do not mean she is in favor of vouchers or tax credits; if she is, she should not be on the Fairfax School Board."
That's the spirit. Isn't tolerance beautiful?