Indiana Continues to Bear the Hideous Fruits of Unchecked Conservative Governance

[Trigger warning for disablism, classism, and racism.]

Me, in February, responding to Most Willfully Stupid Person in the World David Brooks' gushing boycrush on my garbage governor Mitch Daniels:

[N]aturally Daniels proudly "spoke of...the education program that will give scholarships to students in failing schools so they can choose another." And while he talks a good game about how students from low-income families should have the same chance to attend a private school as students from wealthy families (as if a scholarship program for some poor kids really levels the playing field), the Indiana Coalition for Public Education has quite rightly noted that "taxpayer money shouldn't be directed to private schools, which can deny admission to certain students." The proposal thus stands to "reverse the state's progress on desegregation efforts."

Mitch Daniels' policies are consistently rooted in the conservative pipedream (which Brooks sooooooo loves) that there's no such thing as institutional bias and everyone can achieve precisely the same things if only they work hard enough. Just give poor people the same opportunities, and failure can thus be regarded as unassailable evidence of laziness.

Except: Shitty healthcare they can't afford and competition for education vouchers that favor low-income students who come from home environments that already give them a good chance of success, despite poverty, does not the same opportunities as wealth provides make.

Especially when rerouting tax dollars to private institutions that may select for existing biases means marginalized students may end up with the choice between shitty private schools and a shitty public school system. Swell.

The Associated Press, yesterday: Indianapolis Chief: Charter Schools Turning Away Homeless, Disabled: "The superintendent of the state's largest school district requested a state investigation Monday into his allegations that charter schools are turning away homeless and disabled students in violation of state and federal laws."

This, despite the fact that the same superintendent last week swore: "We take everybody that come through the door, whether they are blind, crippled, crazy."

Yeah, he's a real charmer.

Suffice it to say that discriminatory policies that target students by wealth disproportionately affect students of color, so in addition to being explicitly disablist and classist, this alleged practice is implicitly racist, too.

Anyway. Welcome to Indiana: What happens when you let Republicans run rampant with no meaningful checks or balances. Bootstrap Paradise.

[H/T to Shaker PK.]