President Joe Biden is facing criticism and mockery for unintentionally throwing his support behind school choice, a movement strongly preferred by conservatives.
“I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible. I guess, for some, that isn’t the consensus view,” he tweeted Friday.
Sounds pretty good and sensible, right, especially for a Democrat?
I think every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible.
I guess, for some, that isn’t the consensus view. https://t.co/d1FAeWwKv1
— President Biden (@POTUS) February 17, 2023
Except the president wasn’t actually coming out in support of school choice. He was, in fact, simply taking a shot at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Indeed, his weirdly written tweet linked to a hit piece from The Washington Post that attacks the governor over his threat to nix Advanced Placement school courses.
The piece notes that DeSantis recently complained that the state College Board’s African American studies course contains racial essentialist concepts — the very type of concepts that racists with the Ku Klux Klan would love to see children being taught.
In response, the College Board cried foul, claiming the governor’s correct assessment of the situation amounted to “slander.” It’s in response to this that the governor threatened to nix the state’s AP courses.
Biden opposes the governor’s moves, just as the president also opposes the school choice movement. This is why his seemingly pro-school choice tweet attracted so much criticism and mockery, some of which can be observed below:
Biden doesn’t know it, but he just endorsed school choice! #ampFW https://t.co/EZXj2dow2o
— FreedomWorks (@FreedomWorks) February 17, 2023
Thanks for accidentally supporting school choice!
— Joshua Niday (@JoshuaNiday_) February 17, 2023
Finally embracing school choice? About time. All federal education dollars should be required to be portable to a school of the parent’s choice.
— Jacques Alejandro (@jockohomo_lives) February 18, 2023
If Biden really thought “every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every education opportunity possible,” he’d support empowering parents with school choice, not the union bosses who pushed lockdowns.
— Tommy Pigott (@TommyPigott) February 17, 2023
We agree, which is why school choice is the leading Civil rights movement of today.
Those against school choice are the same people who were against bussing and integration.
— Ross Schumann (@RossSchumann) February 17, 2023
Critics also bashed the president for siding against DeSantis on the AP issue. While depriving kids access to AP courses would indeed be troubling, allowing them to be indoctrinated in the tenets of racism would be worse.
Look:
In other words, you think every kid in every zip code should learn divisive theory and content used to confuse them when they are trying to establish their identify.
And, “the content” is sold to the Federal government by one of your friends.
— Jack Lombardi II (@JackLombardi) February 17, 2023
AP critical race theory is not education, it’s indoctrination of students to hate white people. Florida’s not having it.
— First Words (@unscriptedmike) February 17, 2023
No its the responsibility of every school board to evaluate course material. Not all information is education some is indoctrination. pic.twitter.com/nVrxPhakBP
— Dferrer520 (@dferrer520) February 17, 2023
One critic, meanwhile, wondered why the president had said nothing when California made an attempt two years ago to eliminate its own AP courses because they were allegedly contributing to racism.
“The California Department of Education’s 2021 mathematics framework seeks to end accelerated math opportunities for gifted students due to racial disparities in ‘gifted’ math programs,” the Washington Examiner reported at the time.
Basically, too many Asians and not enough blacks were getting into the “gifted” program, so California decided to eliminate it. And in response, the president said nothing.
Did you say this when California ended its advanced math classes? In the name of equality, it was said that advanced math classes were racist.
— TasiaB (@cmnsenselady) February 17, 2023
All this comes as the school choice moment continues to grow and prosper, much to the chagrin of Democrats like Joe Biden, among many others.
“Finally, we are freeing families from the clutches of the teachers’ unions once and for all, and there’s not a dang thing they can do about it,” Corey DeAngelis, a senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, said this week to Fox News.
He added that the growing school choice movement to allow parents to choose where to enroll their children is weakening the teachers’ unions’ grip on education.
As reported previously, the school choice movement is an effort by some legislators — mainly conservative and libertarian ones — to empower parents with the option to move their children from failing public schools and into well-performing private ones.
But teachers’ unions and their Democrat allies, including Biden, greatly resent this. They want all children to remain in the public school system, even if the system isn’t benefitting them …
Growing movement for school choice finally ‘freeing families from the clutches of teachers’ unions’ https://t.co/6Fd6jbR7mz via @americanwire_
— Bo Snerdley (@BoSnerdley) February 18, 2023
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