Reply #13: Klein needs to get his facts straight [View All]

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HOWARD DEAN: We've seen what vouchers have done in the South. They've essentially resegregated the school system. My great fear about vouchers is that you'll have the Catholics here, the Jews here, the Protestants there.

JOE KLEIN: Those weren't vouchers in the South. Those were just Christian academies.

HOWARD DEAN: But there's a huge movement for vouchers, and in some cases, they--

JOE KLEIN: Most of the movement for vouchers is in the inner cities, places like Cleveland and Milwaukee, where parents don't feel that their children have the option of getting a good education.

HOWARD DEAN: It's true that there's some support in those places, but the truth is that most of the voucher systems weren't proposed by people in Milwaukee and Cleveland. They were proposed by conservative Republican governors in those states and rural capitols--

JOE KLEIN: They control the legislatures. Where has it ever passed?

HOWARD DEAN: It is done in Milwaukee.

JOE KLEIN: Yes, but it's been done by mostly Democratic city councils. It hasn't been conservative vouchers. It's been liberals.


Klein is living on planet bizarro here. First, there have been several movements in the South to use voucher money just like Dean said (Fordice wanted a MS constitutional amendment to let this happen to cite just one example). Second, in Cleveland, where I am exceptionally familiar with, nearly all the pro voucher movement was among Republicans in the state legislature. The city council came out against them. I know that. Klein should too. The Cleveland vouchers were passed by the state (Republicans), administered by the state (Republicans), and were by and large lobbied for by Republicans at the state and local level. Klein shoujld know better. That he doesn't is apalling.