congress this week is supposed to vote on the omnibus spending bill. this is big news in my world because one of the thousands of little components of this porky bill that will pass through unchallenged is the D.C. voucher law. basically, congress was unable to pass a law creating a voucher program in D.C., and so republican voucher hounds are slipping it through the back door.

people argue that vouchers are more democratic than public schools. this argument is so ludicrous to me, it would be laughable if it weren't so lamentable. the only way such an argument makes sense is if you buy into the greater conservative philosophy, one that's currently picking up speed in this country, that says that consumer freedom is the same thing as political freedom. that making choices as a consumer is exercising your democratic will. this is the thinking that got people to go shopping to fight terrorism.

now, anyone who's taken Econ 1 knows that free markets breed inequity. they exclude from participation those who aren't educated enough to make smart choices; they create dual markets for basic things. if you've been to a grocery store in a poor neighborhood and had to pay ridiculous prices for healthy foods, then gone to a suburban shopper's warehouse accessible only by car and paid half as much, you know what i mean. vouchers do the exact same thing. first, even if they are geared toward the poor (and please don't tell me you believe that any of these programs aimed toward the poor will stay that way for long), vouchers exclude parents who don't know enough english or aren't socially connected enough to go through the application process. if being making consumer choices is excercising democratic will, then these people are disenfranchised. vouchers have been known to increase socioeconomic segregation in other countries and they'll do it in D.C.

this bill is so undemocratic it's unbelievable. D.C. has no voting representation in congress; the mayor may say he supports vouchers, but the people of D.C., in poll after poll, do not. it's a terrible civics lesson - maybe even a worse one than i got in my public high school.