The FCTA makes me laugh

When I watched the debate on the Fairfax County budget a couple of weeks ago, I saw Arthur Purves speak. After making some claims about education (which I'll address in a later post), I decided to check his organization's website out. I found some interesting items but the most thought provoking was that according to Mr. Purves, I'm a slave driver.

From the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance:

"Because of the public schools’ century-old hostility to phonics, low-income children do not learn to read, thus making them dependent of government welfare. Before the Civil War, it was illegal to teach a slave to read because the ability to read, it was thought, would empower an individual to be independent. Not much has changed. Slavery destroyed families at the auction block. Today welfare destroys families by incentivizing out-of-wedlock births with free housing, food, childcare, and healthcare. It is government schools and government welfare that turn our vulnerable youth into felons and feeds Virginia’s prison population, which is growing four times faster than overall population. Government has become the modern-day plantation."

Of course he provides no background information or proof to back up his assertions, but why let that stop the man from making an erroneous point!

There are more great quotes from Mr. Purves on the way!