Parenting & Family Quote by Jim Doyle

The line is built to do two things at once: absolve and accuse. Jim Doyle frames Wisconsin's children as innocent hostages in a fight between levels of government, then turns "Washington" into the convenient villain. It works rhetorically because it uses a moral absolute - kids - to yank education policy out of the realm of budgets, test metrics, and federal mandates and into the realm of basic decency. "Shouldn't be allowed" is the key phrasing: failure isn't presented as an outcome of poverty, underfunding, or uneven schools, but as something adults permit. That quietly indicts anyone who votes no, drags their feet, or hides behind process.

The subtext is classic governor-versus-capital theater. "Washington" isn't just a place; it's a shorthand for distant dysfunction, partisan paralysis, and unfunded promises. In the mid-2000s context, you can hear the echo of No Child Left Behind: strict accountability rhetoric paired with state complaints about resources and flexibility. Doyle's sentence tries to claim the high ground for the state: even if the federal government sets the rules poorly or fails to pay up, Wisconsin will refuse to let students be the collateral damage.

There's also a strategic shield in it. By externalizing blame, Doyle invites voters to see state-level reforms or spending as protective, even defiant - not as partisan preference but as triage. The emotional leverage is deliberate: argue with the policy details if you want, but first you have to explain why kids deserve to lose because adults in Washington can't get it together.