{"id":10680,"date":"2016-10-19T23:09:59","date_gmt":"2016-10-20T03:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10680"},"modified":"2024-01-14T23:12:45","modified_gmt":"2024-01-15T04:12:45","slug":"rep-brad-roae-compares-school-board-members-to-hitler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10680","title":{"rendered":"Rep. Brad Roae Compares School Board Members to Hitler"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"news-wrap\">\n<div class=\"single-box\">Marc Stier | <time>10\/19\/2016<\/time><\/div>\n<div class=\"single-box\">\n<ul class=\"news-category\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/krc-pbpc.org\/type_of_document\/blog\">Blog<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"post-3070\" class=\"item entry\">\n<div class=\"storycontent\">\n<div class=\"row row-archive\">\n<p>This week, in a Facebook discussion with a person who seems to be one of his constituents, Representative Brad Roae (R-Crawford\/Erie) felt it was appropriate to compare school board members in Pennsylvania blaming charter schools for the financial difficulties of their districts to Adolf Hitler blaming Jews for \u201ceverything that was wrong with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not sure whether I should be more offended as a Jew or as a policy analyst by Representative Roae\u2019s remark.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-10681\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rep-roae.png?resize=500%2C419&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"419\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rep-roae.png?w=500&amp;ssl=1 500w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rep-roae.png?resize=179%2C150&amp;ssl=1 179w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rep-roae.png?resize=150%2C126&amp;ssl=1 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is, of course, morally offensive to anyone who grasps the evil of Hitler\u2019s murder of 6 million Jews, to compare it to any other crime. A general rule of thumb about Hitler comparisons is to not make Hitler comparisons. But to compare it to a public policy choice like the opposition of school boards to charter schools would be doubly offensive if it were not so utterly ridiculous.<\/p>\n<p>The proper place of charter schools in our education system and, to take another issue Roae raises, the best way to provide pensions to teachers, is a complicated issue that deserves careful and detailed analysis\u2014the kind of analysis we try to produce at the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. (And the kind, by the way, that has not in the past led us to oppose all charter schools or all changes in our pensions.)<\/p>\n<p>Rhetorical bombshells like those produced by Roae, are the opposite of that kind of detailed and careful analysis. If Roae were interested in honest thought rather than propaganda he would recognize that school boards who oppose pension \u201creform\u201d might actually have a good point\u2014that hiring and retaining good teachers is impossible if we don\u2019t pay them well (which is a lesson people, like Roae, who support the free market always seem to forget when it comes to public employees.)<\/p>\n<p>Roae\u2019s rhetorical bombshell demeans not just the work of those of us who try to analyze and advocate honestly for good public policy, but also the work of the many legislators on both sides of the aisle who take their responsibility to help produce good public policy seriously. Roae owes all of us an apology.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marc Stier | 10\/19\/2016 Blog This week, in a Facebook discussion with a person who seems to be one of his constituents, Representative Brad Roae (R-Crawford\/Erie) felt it was appropriate to compare school board members in Pennsylvania blaming charter schools for the financial difficulties of their districts to Adolf Hitler blaming Jews for \u201ceverything that was wrong with the world.\u201d I\u2019m not sure whether I should be more offended as a Jew or as a policy analyst by Representative Roae\u2019s remark. &nbsp; &nbsp; It is, of course, morally offensive to anyone who grasps the evil of Hitler\u2019s murder of 6 million Jews, to compare it to any other crime. A general rule of thumb about Hitler comparisons is to not make Hitler comparisons. But to compare it to a public policy choice like the opposition of school boards to charter schools would be doubly offensive if it were not so\u2026 <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/?p=10680\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1896,"featured_media":10681,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[169,263,197,205],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rep-roae.png?fit=500%2C419&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p35YuU-2Mg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1896"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10680"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10682,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10680\/revisions\/10682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marcstier.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}