September 3, 2009 8:34AM # Captain Louis Renault Award: Politics in Government Schools?!\* By [Adam B. Schaeffer](https://www.cato.org/people/adam-b-schaeffer) --- SHARE As [Neal](https://www.cato.org/2009/09/02/thanks-for-the-wakeup-call-mr-president/) and [Andrew](https://www.cato.org/2009/09/03/actions-speak-louder-than-words-mr-president/) have already covered extensively, President Obama is set to [address](http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/academic/bts.html) the nation’s school children, and the Secretary of Education has sent out marching orders to government teachers and lesson plans for the kids. The administration has now [backpedaled](http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/02/wh-deletes-line-about-schoolkids-helping-obama-from-speech-prep-materials/) from a classic political [gaffe](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinsley_gaffe) and cleaned up the most offensive aspects; asking kids to write about how they can help, explain why its important to listen to political leaders, etc. But I think a couple of points deserve repeating. From a push for vastly expanding federal involvement in preschool and [early education](http://www.ed.gov/about/inits/ed/earlylearning/elcf-factsheet.html) to [home visitations](http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Health-bill-proposal-for-_home-visitation_-sparks-Big-Brother-fears-8097026-53050972.html) in the health care bills, the government remains intent on expanding its dominion (And hot on the heels of President Bush’s massive [expansion ](http://www.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml)of federal involvement in schools). But this problem didn’t begin with Obama and won’t end with him. Politics in the schools is what we get when the government runs our schools. Don’t want your kids indoctrinated by government [bureaucrats](http://wpblog.ohpinion.com/2009/08/22/texas-plans-to-politicize-textbooks-the-conservative-republican-way/), [special](http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_060131.htm) [interests](http://cei.org/gencon/004,02412.cfm), or the President? Private school choice is the **only** remedy, and **[education tax credits](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8812)** are the increasingly [popular](https://www.cato.org/2009/05/13/school-choice-going-going-gone-bipartisan-in-some-states/) and [successful](https://www.cato.org/2008/12/16/school-choice-saves-money-and-children/) way to deliver it. When will a critical mass of the people realize that it is dangerous and destructive to allow the government to control the education of our children and finally do something about it? \* [Captain Louis Renault](http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/20/ramirez-the-captain-louis-renault-award/) reference ##### Related Tags [Education](https://www.cato.org/education), [Center for Educational Freedom](https://www.cato.org/center-educational-freedom) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).