Nancy Pelosi wants to design your school, but not do laundry

OPINION:

And now words of caution: The federal government is coming to help you pay for new schoolhouses and renovations.

This, courtesy of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has no children attending public schools and who can afford to send her grandchildren to the private or parochial of their parents’ choosing.

So what gives?

Well, much of America was enraptured last week by the unveiling of a $760 billion infrastructure framework for school construction.

The proposal includes new construction and renovations, which would likely please at least two Maryland counties; the city of Philadelphia, which has asbestos problems; and the meccas of tourism and mega bucks — California and Nevada.

As is typical of socialist-like propositions, details are not ready for full public scrutiny. Suffice it to say, the devil is twirling his mustache, though.

For starters, there’s not a state or territorial governor in this union who’s going to tell the federal government “thanks, but no thanks” to help finance the building of schools.

They should know that Mrs. Pelosi likes to spend your money but doesn’t do windows or laundry.

Puerto Rico is still reeling from hurricanes, after all, and is licking its chops for the $46 billion and tax credits the White House has proposed as a, shall we say, late Christmas gift.

And elected D.C. officials, who smack down Republicans every chance they get, keep a school fix-it-list on the drawing table at all times — a lesson they learned when President Bill Clinton and House Speaker Newt Gingrich controlled federal appropriations.

The critical thing that libertarians, conservatives, Mr. Trump and the Senate must keep in mind, however, is that when the federal government proposes to spend new money on a new federal mandate, bureaucrats create red tape to disguise the old red tape.

Imagine: Educrats in Washington trying to draw up and approve intricate, detailed plans for schools in Tornado Alley — which includes Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, North and South Dakota, Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Colorado and Minnesota. Dorothy might be back in Kansas, but high-speed internet for school facilities, businesses and landowners throughout much of Tornado Alley is not.

That’s a fact.

That’s also why one of Mrs. Pelosi’s notable remarks about her school infrastructure proposal tugged at the heart, not the head.

“We tell children that education is important, they should study, it’s important to their own self‑fulfillment and to that of our country, and yet we send some of them to schools that are so substandard that it sends a different message,” Mrs. Pelosi said.

One group has since said that many American schoolhouses average around 50 years old. No doubt. But that’s not the case in the nation’s capital, which has rapidly rebuilt and renovated school facilities since Mr. Clinton was president.

However, the federal government should get out of the way and leave schooling in the hands of parents and local and state governments.

Deeper federal involvement in public schooling isn’t something even Mike “I Can Get It Done” Bloomberg would grip — that is, if he’s the smart Mike he keeps professing himself to be.

⦁ Deborah Simmons can be contacted at dsimmons@washingtontimes.com.