President Joe Biden once again showed that his mental dexterity is slipping, as his attack on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis actually supported a GOP education idea.
The left-wing Democratic president is one of the foremost advocates of public school teachers’ unions — to the point that Biden’s Education Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention allowed those unions to dictate federal policy on COVID-19 and school closings.
In recently trying to snipe at DeSantis, Biden actually came across as an advocate of school choice, which the Democratic Party viciously opposes.
The issue involved the Republican governor’s latest brawl with a powerful liberal institution.
In this case, it was the College Board, which administers the SAT exam and the Advanced Placement course curriculum for high schoolers.
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Last month, DeSantis and the Florida Department of Education rejected the Board’s curriculum for an African American studies program because it was filled with woke ideology. Its topics included things like courses in “Black Queer Theory,” and advocacy of reparations for slavery.
After DeSantis objected, the Board announced it had changed the curriculum. The organization either dropped or made optional the topics the state complained about.
Liberals griped — ignorantly and dishonestly — that DeSantis was trying to erase the study of black history. State law requires that public schools teach slavery and other components and features of black history.
The Board then went woke, claiming it had been “slandered” by DeSantis.
“We deeply regret not immediately denouncing the Florida Department of Education’s slander, magnified by the DeSantis administration’s subsequent comments, that African American Studies ‘lacks educational value.’ Our failure to raise our voice betrayed Black scholars everywhere and those who have long toiled to build this remarkable field,” the organization said in a Feb. 11 statement.
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Last week, DeSantis pushed back yet again, noting it was the College Board that drafted the far left curriculum that was offered to states. He also said Florida would “re-evaluate” its relationship with the College Board and the products it provides the state, and may consider taking its business elsewhere.
Biden stepped into the fray, and then immediately misstepped.
On Friday, The Washington Post picked up on the controversy with a hit piece on DeSantis. In response, Biden shared the article, and tweeted, “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.”
What was supposed to be a shot at DeSantis actually could be read as an argument for school choice — a prominent and popular issue with conservatives, and one which the Trump administration tried to advance.
As Fox News noted Friday, some conservatives unloaded on Biden’s tone-deaf tweet.
“Welcome to the #EducationFreedom movement, Mr. President @POTUS @JoeBiden,” tweeted Betsy DeVos, former President Donald Trump’s education secretary and a champion of school choice.
“Um, so school choice? Maybe tell your union, boss buddies, how they aren’t supporting the consensus view,” tweeted Jarrett Stepman of the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank that announced recently it was relocating to Florida because of DeSantis.
Others followed.
Republican Party spokesman Tommy Pigott added, “If Biden really thought ‘every kid, in every zip code, in every state should have access to every educational opportunity possible,’ he’d support empowering parents with school choice, not the union bosses who pushed lockdowns.”
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Corey DeAngelis of the American Federation for Children noted, “thank you for the accidental endorsement of school choice.”
The conservative activist group FreedomWorks pointed out, “Biden doesn’t know it, but he just endorsed school choice! #ampFW.”
Christina Pushaw, spokeswoman for DeSantis’ re-election campaign, needed just two words to describe Biden’s tweet: “Rent free,” a reference to the fact that the governor lives inside Biden’s head.
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