SCHOOL CHOICE?

Jesse Helms, whom the Wall Street Journal laughably calls the ‘conscience of the Senate,’ is trying to pass an amendment that would withhold federal funds from schools which bar the Boy Scouts because of their discrimination against honest gay scouts and scout-masters. Now, let’s get a few things straight here, so to speak. Helms claims that the schools are violating the Scouts’ First Amendment rights. Huh? The Scouts’ First Amendment rights were upheld by the Supreme Court as they should have been. But that doesn’t mean that publicly-funded high-schools are required to give this discriminatory organization any funds or favors. On the contrary, the point of the First Amendment is that it protects the speech of private associations. It does not mandate that the public fund them. I would think this is a pretty basic distinction that conservatives of all people should grasp. Is Jesse Helms now agreeing, for example, that defunding lurid NEA-sponsored public art is a violation of the First Amendment? Secondly: aren’t conservatives supposed to support school independence, choice and autonomy? What on earth is the federal government doing intervening in the decisions of high schools, using money to dictate school policy and practice in a disputed area? Helms is explicit about this: according to Fox News, the point of the amendment is “to force [schools] to change their policy of undercutting the high court’s decision.” I have to say that this legislative initiative is a classic case of what’s wrong with some conservatives today. They are in favor of the First Amendment when the p.c. police are on the march. But they are against the First Amendment when it comes to flag burning or public schools freely deciding not to tolerate discrimination. They are in favor of school independence and choice, and local control of the curricula. But they are against it when they don’t like the results of such autonomy. This is what happens when prejudice clouds the mind. It also poisons the deepest principles of what real conservatism should be about.