VELA Con 2025 Hosts Robert Bortins and Andrew Clark School Choice Debate
“What happens when we take government money is we take healthy families and marry them to a sick government. We take a corrupt system and import it into a healthy system, and that ultimately is going to destroy the healthy system.” – Robert Bortins
VELA hosted a 45-minute school choice debate between Robert Bortins, CEO of Classical Conversations, and Andrew Clark, President of yes. every kid. The men delved into and debated questions such as:
- Does school choice help or harm families?
- What are the strings of public money?
- What are the realistic solutions to education issues?
- Has school choice worked before?
- Do families have private funding alternatives?
If you are new to the school choice debate, unfamiliar with the arguments for and against, or want to reexamine your position, this is the debate for you.
All in all, both sides want healthy families, healthy education, and a healthy country. The question that remains is “how do we get there?”
The Path of Education Independence
Robert Bortins makes the case that the path to healthier families, education, and country is not through the school choice Marxist redistribution of wealth, but through education independence and private charity.
As Bortins said during the debate, “I have never received freedom from the government giving me money.” Even Clark admitted during the debate that government money always comes with strings attached.
We should not ask ourselves, “How thin can we make the government strings?” but “Should we accept strings at all?”
Choose Education Independence
Education independence delivers freedom, choice, and blessing. School choice brings oversight, regulation, and inflation. Learn more about how you can make a better choice of education independence by watching the debate and reading our other articles.
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