RGF: Driving liberals nuts!

Our true mission here at the Rio Grande Foundation is the pursuit of economic freedom. A secondary, but equally-enjoyable mission is to drive left-wing liberals crazy. Check out this screed by ardent leftist (he told me once that FDR was “too conservative” for opposing public sector collective bargaining) Arthur Alpert.

Another leftist attacked me for having the audacity to be on the board of a startup charter school.

I’ll address these two in order. It almost seems that if lefties simply throw the names Koch, ALEC, and Cato, at you like a slur or an incantation, it should be enough to simply discredit one’s views. In his article he cites the role government played in laying the groundwork for innovations like the Internet, but fails to appreciate that it was the private sector that turned a defense industry initiative into a user-friendly, multi-billion (or trillion) dollar industry. If government was so great, why isn’t Communist Cuba an economic powerhouse?

Regarding Mr. Corso’s rant, he attacks charter schools, but doesn’t explain why, in New Mexico and across the country, parents of all socio-economic backgrounds continue to choose to send their children to charters. Charters are by no means “free market,” but they do represent a mild form of choice in an otherwise monopolistic, socialistic education universe.

Rather than leaving decisions up to the educrats like Corso who always seem know what is best for others’ children, I trust parents. If they don’t choose charters, then they will go away.