Growls

On March 1, we growled about tax money spent for a leftist art show at Arlington’s central library, primarily because of it’s focus on “social justice.” Now comes more taxpayer money being spent to preach “social justice,” but this time the vehicle is the Arlington Public Schools.

This evening, the Arlington School Board approved a so-called “exemplary project” for Ashlawn Elementary School. You can read all about it at the School Board’s Board Docs website (it’s agenda item E.3.).

ACTA’s president testified, and urged the School Board to reject the project. His comments included the following points, which are adapted from Discover the Networks’ Social Justice issue paper (Discover the Networks is a project of FrontPageMag.com):

• The quest for social justice is perhaps the foremost stated objective of the modern Left.

• The culmination of centuries of ideas and struggles became known as classical liberalism. And it was precisely in opposition to this liberalism that Karl Marx formed and detailed the popular concept of “social justice.”

• The unbroken line from The Communist Manifesto to its contemporary adherents is the notion that economic inequality is the monstrous injustice of the capitalist system, which must be replaced by an ideal of “social justice” -- essentially a rejection of capitalism and economic freedom.

With virtually no discussion by the School Board, they approved the project 5-0. But a rejection of the project, or even a deferral for some serious reconsideration and scrubbing, would indeed have been a surprise for many Arlington taxpayers.

Oh, the annual cost for this little project? Initially, it will be $41,000 (page 11 of the report).