In his speech about reforming policing, Trump veered off into a bizarre claim that school choice is the “civil rights issue of our time.” See the video here. At a time when hundreds of thousands of people are demonstrating for social and economic justice and against police brutality and racism, it is odd to hear Trump veer off into school choice as the solution for the evils that stain our society.
We have heard this statement before, many times. President Obama said it; Arne Duncan said it; Mitt Romney said it; Betsy DeVos says it often; and Trump said it before in his first State of the Union address to Congress after the 2016 election.
Let me be clear: School choice is NOT the civil rights issue of our time.
Civil rights is the civil rights issue of our time.
By civil rights, I mean the right to vote without intimidation or voter suppression.
I mean the right to equal treatment by the police and the courts and equality before the law without regard to one’s race or economic status.
I mean the right to attend a well-resourced public school that offers an excellent education.
I mean the right to acquire as much education as one desires, without regard to one’s income.
I mean the right to good medical care, so that one’s income doesn’t determine access to health care.
I mean the right to a decent standard of living.
School choice is most certainly not a “civil right,” because it exacerbates all kinds of segregation–by income, by race, by religion, and by social status. School choice undercuts equality of educational opportunity.
Civil rights is the civil rights issue of our time.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Here, a transcript of this. In his typical toddler English, our part-time president in the orange clown makeup, IQ45, struggles, today, to remember an Ed Deform slogan. An uneducated man pontificates about education. A racist man pontificates about racism.
“We’re fighting for school choice, which is really the civil rights [long pause, weird face; he can’t recall the word and finally just leaves it out] of all time in this country. Frankly, school choice is the civil rights [pause; he still can’t find the word] statement [sic] of the year, [he realizes he made a ridiculous gaffe in saying that this was the most important issue of all time; there was, for example, the matter of slavery] of the decade, and probably beyond because all children have to have access to a quality education. A child’s ZIP code in America [as opposed to her ZIP Code in Sri Lanka?] should never determine their [sic] future, and that’s what was happening, so we’re very, very strong on school choice, and I hope everybody remembers that, and it’s happening. [What’s happening? Who knows.] It’s already happening. We have tremendous opposition from people that [sic] know they shouldn’t be opposing it. [These people who oppose it are just perverse. LOL.] School. [pause] Choice. [He says it as though he’s just recently learned the term and expects that other people have never heard it before either. LOL.] All children deserve equal opportunity because we are all made equal by God. So true. [said as if a comment on something a speech he was advised to make, which it probably was.] A great jobs market and thriving economy is [sic] probably the best thing [sic] we can do to help the black, Hispanic, Asian communities.”
Donald Trump likes to think of himself as “the best.” Well, in one respect, this is probably true. Surely this is the whitest white man in America. He doesn’t get it AT ALL.
Geppetto should have written the letters on the teleprompter larger and used smaller words
Just by coincidence, I was reading the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. Article 26 is what they said about education. The other 29 articles talked about other stuff, including the right to enjoy leisure time and have a job that does not oppress them.
https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/index.html
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
There’s also the Declaration of the Rights of the Child. Principle 7 (of 10):
Principle 7
The child is entitled to receive education, which shall be free and compulsory, at least in the elementary stages. He shall be given an education which will promote his general culture and enable him, on a basis of equal opportunity, to develop his abilities, his individual judgement, and his sense of moral and social responsibility, and to become a useful member of society.
The best interests of the child shall be the guiding principle of those responsible for his education and guidance; that responsibility lies in the first place with his parents.
The child shall have full opportunity for play and recreation, which should be directed to the same purposes as education; society and the public authorities shall endeavour to promote the enjoyment of this right.
https://charterforcompassion.org/declaration-of-the-rights-of-the-child-1959
No one wants to deny parents the right to choose to send their kids to a public school or to a private school or a technical school or a religious school or, for that matter, to choose to home school them. That’s what this last clause (3) says. But this clause does not say that parents have a right to take money that would have gone to fund public schools, open to all, to subsidize a private school education.
RT, Thank you for bringing up the 1948 UN Articles. In 1962 James Meredith needed federal troops so that “higher education shall be accessible to all on the basis of merit” at Ole Miss.
You go, girl! Preach!
Can you picture Trump reading a Jersey Jazzman/Mark Weber detailed, cogent article on the realities of charter schools?
Diane, have you seen this?
https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/recode/2020/6/16/21285836/reed-hastings-netflix-teachers-education-reform-park-county-colorado-ranch-retreat?__twitter_impression=true&fbclid=IwAR2OdF7dGH422CxB-tFIWwPpQ5vskFy2Es_zKBxHpOtG-8WKuOhx0jeheF0
I read this. Thank You. I was reminded of a long-ago retreat called the Aspen Institute when it was still in Aspen, Colorado. There were great accomodations for small conferences, summer concerts at the site, and landscaped grounds…all within walking distance to Aspen.
The Hastings venture is a variant of other corporate retreats where gatherings for a week or so are held, with group activities and time for relaxation. One in southern Ohio is called Eureka. The unusual venue is supposed to refresh thinking about any business or project.
Hastings is clueless about education but he is absolutely certain it needs reform… getting rid of school boards and teacher unions, and “unleashing” market forces.
But, today, network news (CBS, headed by a former Fox exec.) made Hastings into a hero for donations to HBCU’s. Reed gets great PR for the donations which masks his other hand taking taxpayer dollars intended for students of the poor, working class and middle class i.e. the kids with parents who actually contribute to GDP, unlike the rich.
Speaking of civil rights and Trump-
“Kamala Harris Learned the Hard Way: Lay Off the Knights of Columbus”. The National Review article (12-9-2019) described K of C’s defender as Tulsi Gabbard. Oh, the irony that blog commenters would label as Putin’s stooges, the critics of the political activities of American Catholic leadership.
The John Paul II Shrine which provided Trump with a photo op (unlike the Episcopalian leadership that showed strong opposition to despots) recently released its spin statement about the event. And, yesterday, Father Peter Daly wrote at National Catholic Reporter, “I’m Done with the Knights of Columbus”. I hope Fr. Daly doesn’t have to “learn the hard way” about criticism of the largest Catholic lay organization in the world.
The K of C’s support for the USCCB and the Federalist Society can be found in the 26-page investigative report at Opposition Notes (Catholics for Choice).
The former head of the K of C was previously director of Norquist’s anti-tax group, Americans for Tax Reform. The current director was formerly a legislative aide to Jesse Helms.
Are the links between EdChoice and state Catholic Conferences coincidence?
Coincidence is an unlikely explanation for a convergence of GOP despots, common goods defunding, and racism and sexism.
It is incredible that there is an expectation that to lead the world we CUT funding for education. Not only in the public schools by taking money for them to squander on less than fantastic money raising projects but at the university level.
Students graduate, at least some do, with such overburdening debt that it keeps them from participating fully in society while other countries make such education free or affordable.
In Portugal, one of the poorest nations in Europe on my first visit some years ago college was free. A few years ago on a visit it cost $100.00 I think for one semester.
Now we are to keep up with them?
It is about as asinine as so many other things this White House occupant and his sycophants are doing.
School choice is as much the civil rights issue of our time as was Citizens United.