RALEIGH – The Democrats are so interested in education for the kids that they oppose every effort to actually expand education opportunities for North Carolina children, even those specifically aimed at low-income kids trapped in failing schools.

Doesn’t make sense? Of course it doesn’t; the Left’s natural mind state is one of cognitive dissonance, only numbed by aiming rage and blame at Right. An example of this jumbled take in action can be found in the pages of the Charlotte Observer, in which the Editorial Board labels Republicans’ school choice efforts (Opportunity Scholarships) a scam.

These are scholarships aimed at helping lower-income students trapped in woeful schools pay for a private school option. Governor Roy Cooper has called to end the program, Democrats in the legislature constantly vote against its funding, and the Leftist activists in media help to frame it as ‘stealing from public schools.’

Here’s the take:

NC Republicans just exposed their own school voucher scam

Senate leader Phil Berger has long described the school voucher program he pushed through in 2013 as a way to enable poor families to afford private school tuition. Now that claim is being dropped in favor of offering vouchers to families earning well over the state’s median income. […]

‘Those DAMNED Republicans! They want school choice to be offered to even MORE students that are (relatively) LESS poor!’

The editorial drones on about all the times Senate Leader Phil Berger and other Republicans have described Opportunity Scholarships as a way to present low–income kids with more options. Apparently to the Left, now that Republicans have proposed to extend these opportunities to more students, this represents some sort of ‘Gotcha!’ moment.

“What was true then, isn’t true now. Problem is it was never true. The low-income kids were props for launching a program to expand school choice overall.”

They are saying that Republicans are sneaky and evil because they always wanted such school choice to expand to everyone, and they only started with low-income kids because it tugged the heart strings.

We won’t dive into the amount of psychological projection revealed of the Left here; we’ll just get right to Berger’s terse response:

NC’s largest newspaper today called school choice a “scam.”

The prominent Democrats they called upon to kill Opportunity Scholarships sent their own kids to private school.

Denying kids of less means the same opportunity is pure hypocrisy. #ncpol
https://t.co/whuLqqbG41

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) May 6, 2021

The only scammers here are the “social justice warriors” who say private school for them, but not for you.

They relegate children born into tough circumstances, who are still reeling from months of school closures, to a system they wouldn’t even send their own kids into. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) May 6, 2021

ALL children, not just those from wealthy homes, deserve a choice in their education.

Education funding should follow the child.

Fund students, not systems. #ncpol

— Senator Phil Berger (@SenatorBerger) May 6, 2021

The Democrats very clearly want to fund, protect, and rule the ‘system’ that is Public(only) Education Establishment. That’s why they frame the entire school voucher debate in terms of stealing money from public schools with no regard for the actual reasons education funds should follow a student; they don’t want that money following a student, because that means a student can leave. If the students can leave, many public schools just might find out they don’t have the level of control they need to exert Woke pressure and shape the curriculum. They won’t have the leverage to constantly demand funding increases, while facing zero accountability for well-funded education failures that one can find around the state.

Vouchers, school choice, education freedom — these things represent a threat to the Left, and we know that for sure because of the way they treat them, as evidenced above.

Which is all Republicans and school choice advocates really need to see to know that what they are doing — extending school choice opportunities to as many North Carolina kids as possible — is exactly the right policy to pursue.

If you’re catching flak; you’re over the target.