Grosse Pointe State Rep: Public Schools Must Control 'Who Is Allowed to Attend'

Attempting to block integration at the University of Alabama, Gov. George Wallace stands defiantly at the door while being confronted by Deputy U.S. Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach.

State Rep. Timothy Bledsoe, a Democrat from Grosse Pointe, said he's worried that a statewide, mandatory schools of choice program would be the "death blow" to local control of schools.

Every time you hear “public schools have to accept all kids,” remember these words from Rep. Bledsoe: "If your school board cannot control its boundaries and who is allowed to attend your schools, there just isn't much left that Lansing can't determine," Bledsoe told The Associated Press.

Rep. Tim Bledsoe, D-Grosse Pointe

That’s right. Parents’ freedom to choose a better school for their kids is a “death blow” to public schools that can’t “control … who is allowed to attend….”

I wonder if Rep. Bledsoe thinks a child suffers a “death blow,” or perhaps something less severe, when he or she is assigned to a failing school, and the people who run the better public school down the street stand in the schoolhouse door to keep that child out.

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