Have you ever noticed how the most vocal critics of the push for school choice happily exercise that same choice for their children?
Well, some on social media certainly have, condemning two Democratic governors for their hypocritical stances on school choice.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear co-wrote an opinion piece for USA Today absurdly titled “Welcome to the GOP’s new education agenda: Loot our public schools for private vouchers.”
In the article, published Monday, Cooper and Beshear rehashed all sorts of absurd conspiracy theories regarding the push for parents to be able to choose where to send their children to school.
From asserting that Republicans, in wanting to allocate funds to parents, are “looting” public schools to claiming these policies stem from parents seeking to avoid desegregation (implying that anyone who wants to opt out of a broken public school system is a backward racist), the governors rest their argument almost exclusively on the basest kind of fear-mongering.
“Our segregationist predecessors were on the wrong side of history, and we don’t need to go back,” the Democrats wrote.
If you believe Cooper and Beshear, public schools are the greatest public institution in America and an unvarnished good — one that is threatened by those evil Republicans who want to take money out of the hands of rural parents, who often live in regions with no private schools, and put them in the hands of wealthy parents.
Well, how dare they.
The dirty little secret, of course, is that Cooper and Beshear know virtually nothing about the current state of public schools.
Have public schools damaged our society?
Why?
As reported in Fox News and Reason magazine, their own children didn’t attend public schools.
Beshear’s two young children go to an elite private school in Louisville. Meanwhile, Cooper sent at least one of his three daughters to a private school in Raleigh — despite declaring a “state of emergency” to prevent a school choice bill from passing in his state last year.
Consequently, Beshear’s opposition to a recent Kentucky charter school bill and Cooper’s protests — “If you care about public schools in North Carolina, it’s time to take immediate action and tell them to stop the damage that will set back our schools for a generation,” he said in May — both ring hollow.
Conservative commentator Phil Kerpen made the point in a Monday post on X, saying, “Two Democratic governors who sent their own kids to private schools have taken to USA Today to oppose scholarships that would allow lower-income families to make that same decision. Disgusting.”
Two Democratic governors who sent their own kids to private schools have taken to USA Today to oppose scholarships that would allow lower-income families to make that same decision. Disgusting.https://t.co/80wVD169yK
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 26, 2024
In a follow-up post, he said, “It is so common to see opponents of school choice send their own kids to private schools that keeping the poors in their place has to be a primary motivation.”
It is so common to see opponents of school choice send their own kids to private schools that keeping the poors in their place has to be a primary motivation.
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) February 26, 2024
But Democrats, kept securely in the pocket of teachers unions for decades now, despise the idea of American parents opting out of the traditional public school system.
Instead of advocating for the good of the children, they are focused on preserving the public schools’ power over parents’ tax dollars.
After all, how else would they indoctrinate a new generation of good little liberal voters?
