Education Secretary Betsy DeVos slammed socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for her hypocritical claim that she got her goddaughter into charter school–despite her apparent opposition to school choice.
An unearthed 2017 video first reported by the NY Post shows the self-described democratic socialist saying, “This area’s like a lot of where my family is from. My goddaughter, I got her into a charter school, like, maybe a block or two down.”
The Post points out that the New York City Democratic Socialist party platform on charter schools states, “Charter schools act as tools for privatizing education and weakening the power of unionized teachers.” It also calls for ending the creation of new charters schools as well as “[banning] the expansion of existing charter schools, and transform[ing] existing charter schools into public schools.”
Last January, AOC tweeted in opposition of charter schools and wrote, “Tens of thousands of LA public school teachers, parents, and students are on a historic strike to improve + protect local public schools from privatization. This is inspiring!”
Secretary DeVos called out AOC’s hypocrisy on Twitter and wrote, “How nice that @AOC claims to have helped her goddaughter get into a public charter school. It’s a shame she works to deny that opportunity to every other disadvantaged family in America. ‘Good for me, but not for thee,’ indeed. #EducationFreedom.”
How nice that @AOC claims to have helped her goddaughter get into a public charter school. It’s a shame she works to deny that opportunity to every other disadvantaged family in America. “Good for me, but not for thee,” indeed. #EducationFreedomhttps://t.co/a2RhOEeU0o
— Secretary Betsy DeVos (@BetsyDeVosED) February 24, 2020
Director of education policy at the Manhattan Institute, Ray Domanico, told the NY Post, “I am not surprised by the hypocrisy. Charter schools are incredibly popular with the communities and populations that a lot of these Democratic politicians claim to be representing … People in the Bronx can find a good school for their young ones now as the congresswoman apparently did for her goddaughter.”
