Ollie and me
In the classic novel, never read by Republicans and scorned to high heaven by Free Staters who thought the soup was made from porcupines, Charles Dickens’s protagonist Oliver Twist asked a savagely unkind orphanage manager, “please sir, I want some more.” Of course, he was thoroughly thrashed and got no more soup.
We public school supporters in 2026, and for quite some time prior, remain steadfastly in the role of young Oliver. I can see it now. The democratic leadership, hat in hand, knee to the ground, “please ma’am, no more vouchers.” The stalwart ma’am sitting at the center of party power responds, “What? You rat fink commie loser! I too came from the public school setting, and I am a lover of freedom of vouch!”
Enter the Free Staters, those imported rapscallions now firmly entrenched within the party of power. They are evil doers from somewhere else who aspire to kill public education. They dress up as vouchers on Halloween. Their agenda may well be a new holiday for book burning day.
Really, is this the best we can get from our state house? Public education has become a rank smelling conversation at the dinner table. We must change this terribly flawed system of funding our schools through property taxes. The Democrats have offered up “low hanging fruit” to re-capture the long held Republican throne. No more vouchers? Just a bandaid? We are so much better than this!