Trump Calls School Choice ‘The Civil Rights Statement Of The Year’
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that school choice is the “civil rights statement of the year.”
“School choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond,” POTUS said at a White House press conference Tuesday. “Because all children have to have access to a quality education. A child’s ZIP code in America should never determine their future.”
Parental choice, or school choice, allows parents to choose the public school their child will attend, rather than having their child assigned to a school based on where the family lives. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has focused many of her efforts on expanding school choice since she became the education secretary in 2017.
WATCH:
President Trump:
“School choice is the civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond. Because all children have to have access to a quality education. A child’s ZIP code in America should never determine their future.”pic.twitter.com/BE5d8Vccq0
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 16, 2020
The presidents comments came after Vice President Mike Pence accused 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday of preventing black parents from obtaining the American dream by blocking them from picking where their kids go to school.
The vice president discussed Biden’s White House bid on “Fox and Friends,” noting the former vice president’s assertion that everyone should have a fair shot at success. His comments came as demonstrations nationwide continue over the death of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, video showed.
“Biden says everybody ought to have a fair shot at the American dream,” Pence said. “We would say, ‘Well, why don’t you support allowing African-American families to choose where their kids go to school?’”
President Donald Trump has “stood strong” for school choice, Pence said, noting that the Trump administration has doubled the educational choice program in Washington, D.C.
“We really do believe that you shouldn’t be denied the ability to choose where your kids go to school just because of your zip code or because of your income,” he added. “We also, as you said, under this president’s policy, we had the lowest unemployment level ever recorded for African-Americans.”
Biden’s “Plan for Education” states that he will “ensure that no child’s future is determined by their zip code, parents’ income, race, or disability” by tripling the funding that goes to schools “serving a high number of children from low-income families,” improving teacher diversity, and building “innovative” schools in low-income communities.
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