Jim DeMint Is An Idiot

Check out Senator Jim DeMint's statement on school kids in Washington D.C.

"If you send a kid to [public] school in D.C., chances are that they will end up in a gang rather than graduating."

Please understand that Senator DeMint hails from one of the worst states in the union when it comes to public education and needless to say he was WAY off base.

For the record, DCPS has about a 70 percent graduation rate, which is on par with the national average.

DeMint was arguing in favor of preserving the D.C. Opportunity Scholarships program, an experimental voucher program in the District which is in danger of being killed by language in a Democrat-authored spending bill. (The bill was blocked by Senate Republicans last night, but will likely proceed next week.)

Naturally, the D.C. Council was not pleased. Yvette Alexander (Ward 7) basically called DeMint an idiot: "He has no sense of what D.C. has to offer making statements like that ... If someone outside of [the District] is to make a gross misjudgment like that one, he should keep his comments to himself," she told the Times. Phil Mendelson (D-At Large), defending the District, said, "I'm a public school parent. My daughter is in third grade, and she is not likely to be a gang member." (However, he did damage his creditability somewhat by bizarrely adding, "I am quite pleased with the public school system." That's a pretty tough stance to defend.)

The GOP just keeps on trying to expand that big tent don't they?


(h/t ThinkProgress)