Alexandria Ocasio Cortez is all in for Bernie, all in for dancing in the streets with striking teachers and all in for zip code zoned schools—except when it comes to her own education and, it turns out, the education of her god-daughter. Like so many before her, she has taken that over-used page out of the progressive playbook to stand up loud and proud to deny educational options and freedom to one group of people while ensuring she and her people enjoy access to those very same options.
Now, AOC didn’t volunteer the information about how she finagled her god-child into a charter school in The Bronx. And she never mentioned it while she was vilifying Betsy DeVos and nodding along in agreement with Diane Ravitch and cozying up to AFT president, Randi Weingarten. But she did share it in a Facebook Live video in 2017 that the New York Post now has up on its website.
Some have expressed surprise at her hypocrisy but to many of us, it was only a matter of time. It is always the same hypocrisy with those who proclaim to be progressive (and even socialist in AOC’s case.)
The reality is, AOC does not have much to say about the huge achievement gaps that plague her “progressive city” of New York and she makes nary a mention of the fact that nationally, 90 percent of black 8th grade boys don’t read on grade level. She blathers on about “privatization”, seemingly unfazed by the fact that her own city of New York spent $325 million on private school tuition for students with disabilities. But public schools take all kids, right Alexandria?
AOC’s rhetoric does not match her actions and that makes her the quintessential progressive. Choice for me, not for thee is a self-centered philosophy that defines so many of these folks and serves as an important reminder of how little they care about the education of the actual people they were elected to serve.
