After-School Special

As we reported earlier, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is downplaying his urging of DOE employees (and not just the political appointees) to take part in last Saturday's Al Sharpton counter-rally in Washington, describing it as a "back-to-school" event. And as CATO's Neal McCluskey reminds us, this all has a familiar ring:

As I just blogged about, last year the Obama administration scared parents and taxpayers across the country by sending politically charged material to all public schools to prepare them for the president’s planned address to the nation’s children. Only after it took serious heat for that did the administration have the most alarming material changed. And then what did it do? Declared that the address would obviously be but a simple back-to-school speech, and tried to make everyone who knew what had actually transpired seem like a partisan attack dog.

Just as bad, says McCluskey, is Duncan's calling education "the civil rights issue of our generation."

This only about a year after helping to kill an education program widely supported by many of the people he and Sharpton insist they want to empower. I’m talking, of course, about Washington, DC’s, Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher program that was proven effective. But the heck with success—Duncan and President Obama let the union-hated program die.

Saying one thing and doing another is called "being hypocritical." Next time, try doing what you say others ought to do. In other words, practice what you preach.

And that's one to grow on.