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i agree Sen. obama should be for vouchers. For those of us for whom the Bible is not just a book and evolution is a theory with many holes in it not a law, we should have a right to let our children and grandchildren know more than what mainstream ublic school systems want them to know. Sorry about the technical difficulties. i also think he should reconsider his views on Roe vs Wade.

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So sad, Mr. Martin that you are stuck to the racist right wing flypaper on the voucher issue. Study after study shows that you should be in the Obama camp on this issue. The most recent was highlighted in the LA Times' Lincoln High School experience with the same curriculum, same teachers, same poverty levels as Blacks and Chicano kids, Asian students in the same ghetto outperformed even the most prestigious private schools in the country. Part, a significant part, of the success of the Asian phenomenon is the Obama meme of responsibility and expectations. Asian parents, as a rule, intensely monitor, motivate and help their children achieve to the highest expectations. Other minorities generally suffer from low expectation home environments, parental indifference and peer disdain of high academic achievement. Where minority homes enrich and are part of the education of our children, our kids outperform their peers…even in “war-zone” schools. In the Lincoln High Study, a Chicano student who excelled was ironically elected president of the Asian Club. While there is much to criticize about the public schools such as the NEA's resistance to outcomes evaluation of teachers and the subtle racism of even minority teachers in expecting less of their minority kids, vouchers are an escape from a democratic quality educational goals where common values should be nourished and the foundation for a cohesive society is initiated. While it may be a sign of “getting even” for minorities to support vouchers and provide some emotional relief from the vicious burdens of racism, such a position is not based on sound educational theory. Minority kids do very well in parochial schools where many of teachers are neither certified nor credentialed. So the “crappy teachers” argument is not enough. As Obama so truthfully and painfully reminds us minorities, when we expect public institutions to compensate for centuries of deep and virulent racism, we need now to focus on meeting them half-way by our own higher expectations and “work on our own game”…that's where an equal and just society is born.