Let Freedom Ring by Sean Hannity

Author:Sean Hannity [Hannity, Sean]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

JOE CLARK IS RIGHT

You think I'm critical of urban education? You should meet Joe Clark. The African-American

former principal of Eastside High School, an inner city school in Paterson, New Jersey, Clark is

practically a legend in the history of modern public schools. Almost single-handedly he battled

the entire liberal public school establishment in his attempt to drive drug-pushers and gang-

bangers and other deadbeats from the high school he ran. He fought to raise standards. He fought

to inspire teachers and students. He fought to give parents and their children and their

community some hope where most hope had been lost. His story was so inspiring that it was

turned into a fantastic Hollywood film, Lean On Me. (If you haven't seen it, go rent it today.) But

that didn't stop the powers that be from getting rid of him anyway, proving that no good deed

goes unpunished when it comes to the liberal education bureaucracy.

I've interviewed Joe Clark many times over the years-not just because he knows the strengths

and weaknesses of public schools inside and out but also because he's a hero. He's been there. He

knows how badly parents feel when they see their kids trapped in schools that stink, and he

understands the moral necessity of setting those parents free.

"I want to ask Joe Clark this," I told him one night on Hannity & Colmes. "I'm a big supporter

of vouchers. We spend three hundred and eighty billion dollars a year on education. If you have

those schools competing for that three hundred and eighty billion dollar prize, you're going to see

excellence in education because the parents are going to send their kids to schools where there is

discipline, where there are no problems, where their kids will get a good education, and we'd see

test scores go through the roof. You agree?"

"Yes. I'm a supporter of teachers," Clark responded. "I'm a supporter of public education. And

let me just state this for the record. Teachers by and large do a good job under adverse

circumstances. They're overworked, underpaid, and denigrated for everything that goes wrong.

But basically, public education-especially in the inner city-is brain-dead. It's the dog that won't

hunt because it's antithetical to the premise of democracy, which is free enterprise."

When Alan began to disagree about vouchers, Clark didn't back down. "I can say this to you,"

Clark told him, "the Ku Klux Klan must be jubilant over the fact that the lives of black

individuals in the inner city are being categorically destroyed."

I thought Alan was going to have a stroke.

"And let me go one step further," Clark continued. "If private schools are good enough for

Congress and the Black Caucus, then it [should be] good enough for the downtrodden in the

city!"

A few months later, Clark was gracious enough to come back on Hannity & Colmes and

clarify his case even further.

"I certainly believe in the voucher system," he told Alan and me. "I think that the government

school is antithetical to the premise of democracy, which is competition. If there is no

competition, there can't be any accountability." A few moments later he added that "our

[government] educational system is .

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