Education
Would the Party of ‘Real Freedom’ Stand Up?
The Democrats cannot pretend to be a party of real freedom, because every claim they make toward that end turns out to be false.
In his recent speech at the Democratic National Convention, Gov. Josh Shapiro said his party carries the banner of “real freedom.”
Real freedom? Who’s kidding whom?
On everything from abortion (whose numbers have increased since the Dobbs ruling) to fictitious “book bans” (even though anyone can access and read any of the supposedly banned books), Shapiro claimed “real freedom” is on the ballot this November.
But a look at Democrats’ record of heavy-handed rule shows their claims of “real freedom” are a mirage to distract from their real goal of using government force to make Americans comply with their agenda.
Nowhere is this more apparent than in education. In his speech, Shapiro equated “real freedom” with blocking kids from leaving public schools – no doubt a nod to his party’s platform, which officially opposes educational freedom.
In states across the nation, Democrats fight tooth and nail to trap children – mostly minority children and kids in lower-income households – in failing, union-operated, government-run schools.
As children and families crossing all party lines and spanning every demographic strive to escape the government-imposed, zip-code-driven confines that block equal educational freedom, Democrats continue to believe only the rich deserve access to diverse educational options.
Even as they regale us with the virtues of public education, they send their own children to pricey private schools. Their supposed “freedom” ignores the freedom to choose the best educational environment, regardless of zip code or socioeconomic standing, and instead forces children without means to remain in terrible and even unsafe schools.
The Left cannot pretend to support quality education for everyone
The Left raises the ridiculous objection of “taxpayer funding for private education.” But when it comes to higher education, federal student aid embraces no similar discrimination. Furthermore, children are denied even the freedom to cross invisible school district boundaries to attend an alternative but better public school, gutting any claims the Left makes of supporting quality education for all.
Of course, driving Democrats’ anti-educational-freedom agenda are powerful unions that are also behind another of the Left’s false claims of “freedom:” worker freedom.
While President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Gov. Shapiro, and others wax eloquent on the “freedom to join a union,” they oppose the freedom not to join a union or the freedom to leave a union at will. Indeed, Shapiro has repeatedly pledged that as long as he is in office, Pennsylvania will never become a Right-to-Work state – where workers are free to embrace or abstain from union membership without penalty.
Put simply, Democrats believe worker freedom extends only in one direction: toward unionization. And in the Left’s ideal society, workers aren’t “free” to join a union; they are “forced” to join a union in order to fund the union machine that bankrolls Democrats’ political campaigns. The Left’s freedom in theory is little more than coercion in practice.
Worse, central to the Left’s “freedom” is the desire to force Americans to fund anything they claim is a “freedom.”
Living wages turn into no wages
The “freedom to earn a living wage” means government-mandated labor costs that force businesses to lay off workers and even shut their doors. “Reproductive freedom” has gone far beyond abortion’s legality and now means forcing taxpayers to fund abortions.
As for “freedom” of speech? Democrats deem it desirable only provided it doesn’t turn into “misinformation” or “disinformation,” which the Left often defines as anything that challenges their narrative. And where falsehoods actually exist, instead of debunking them, the Left seeks to censor them.
In any discussion of “freedom,” we can’t forget – nor should we – that during COVID, Democrats, who claim they’re the party of “freedom,” set up government reporting hotlines to encourage Americans to report lockdown violators to the authorities. Indeed, in Democrat Tim Walz’s Minnesota, violators could be (and were) thrown in jail simply for seeking to maintain their livelihoods amid random shutdown orders that targeted small businesses while allowing major box stores to stay open.
The Left’s “real freedom” looks an awful lot like tyranny.
Without freedom, our representative democracy is, indeed, at risk. But freedom by necessity includes free expression, free association, educational freedom, and economic freedom.
Americans seeking true freedom must look past Democrats’ rhetoric to their actions and recognize that you cannot claim to support the idea of freedom while opposing its substance.
This article was originally published by RealClearPennsylvania and made available via RealClearWire.
Matthew J. Brouillette is Founder, President & CEO of Commonwealth Partners Chamber of Entrepreneurs, Inc., a membership organization for state and local business and community leaders, philanthropists and successful entrepreneurs, who are dedicated to improving the economic environment and educational opportunities for all Pennsylvanians.
Prior to founding Commonwealth Partners in 2016, Matt served as President & CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation for Public Policy Alternatives for 14 years. Matt joined the Commonwealth Foundation in 2002, previously served as the Director of Education Policy at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan from 1998 through 2002, and before his career in public policy, Matt spent seven years teaching history and coaching football and baseball at the high school and middle school levels. Matt also taught history and economics at the university level.
Matt is a board member of the REACH Foundation, a Pennsylvania school choice advocacy organization, and the Joshua Group, a Harrisburg nonprofit ministry serving at-risk youth. He also served on an advisory board for the Economics Department at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Matt previously served on an advisory council of the E. G. West Centre for Market Solutions in Education at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne in England, on an advisory committee for the New York City-based Atlantic Legal Foundation, and as an advisory board member for the American Academy for Liberal Education in Washington, D.C., a national organization dedicated to strengthening and promoting liberal education through accreditation and research.
Matt received his bachelor of arts (B.A.) in both U.S. History and Education from Cornell College and earned a master of education (M.Ed.) from Azusa Pacific University and a master of arts (M.A.) in history from the University of San Diego. He has also completed three years of doctoral (Ph.D.) work in Public Policy and Administration from Walden University. Matt is married and has four children.
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