Gene Healy of the Cato Institute says it quite well:
The president isn’t a benevolent father-protector, charged with the welfare of all creatures great and small — and educators do kids a great disservice if they help promote such a childish notion. Still less was he supposed to be the educator in chief, presiding over a centralized education bureaucracy, handing out Title X grants (with strings attached) and falsely promising that no child will be left behind. The framers thought of the president as a mere constitutional officer, whose main job is taking care that the laws are faithfully executed. Students — and presidents — could stand to learn a lot more about how far we’ve drifted from that ideal.
Read his whole op-ed, Hey, Mr. President, Leave Those Kids Alone, and check out more criticism side-by-side with Obama’s speech to kids in school.
i prefer kathleen parker’s take: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802961.html
(she’s conservative, btw.)
Brian replies: Well, conservatives can be statists, too, and not recognize when a politician has over-stepped his job description. See, she’s right on with:
Surely that’s what presidents swear to do in their Oath of Office.
(Sorry for the delay…I thought your comments went up automatically)
i prefer kathleen parker’s take: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/08/AR2009090802961.html
(she’s conservative, btw.)
Brian replies: Well, conservatives can be statists, too, and not recognize when a politician has over-stepped his job description. See, she’s right on with:
Surely that’s what presidents swear to do in their Oath of Office.
(Sorry for the delay…I thought your comments went up automatically)