A recent segment of ABC’s “The View” devolved into a shouting match over the niche but contentious issue of school choice. Proponents of the policy argue that parents should have the right to choose alternatives to public schools for their children. Co-hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farah Griffin became involved in a heated exchange that had to be broken up by Whoopi Goldberg before the show cut to a commercial break to dissolve tensions.
The conversation was initiated by the panel discussing President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet pick for education secretary, Linda McMahon. However, as Hostin delivered a lengthy monologue explaining her stance on school choice, Griffin disagreed with her argument and attempted to interject. However, the two began to shout over each other.
“When you hear about school choice, it’s really connected to the voucher system,” Hostin began her commentary. “The Department of Education is responsible for $18.4 billion that fund high-poverty K-12 schools. Schools where kids are poor. Kids that grew up in neighborhoods like I grew up in the South Bronx projects.”
Continuing, Hostin said, “And what happens with vouchers? The studies show very clearly that they fund students already attending private schools. So people with money get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull that money from the poor schools.”
“Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits, I’m not making this up,” Hostin added, claiming poor families are disproportionately impacted for the benefit of the wealthy. Griffin attempted to express disagreement with this point, stating, “That’s just not my experience, if I may get in just to make it a conversation.” However, Hostin continued to speak, refusing to let Griffin dispute her claims. “I went to public school, I believe you got to go to private school,” Griffin added.
At this point, Goldberg ended the conversation pointing out that the conversation had become unintelligible. “I haven’t gotten a word in, she’s been talking for three minutes,” Griffin said in frustration. Following commercial break, Goldberg claimed that the “The View” thrived on its diversity of opinions, despite Griffin not being able to voice hers a few minutes prior.
Joy Behar insinuated that tensions are high, particularly on the predominantly liberal panel, ever since Trump’s landslide win in the election. “We lost the election. We’re miserable. Half of this country is miserable. And let’s just tell the truth: We hate that he won. We hate it. And everybody is uptight and crazy right now,” she said.
Finally sharing her perspective, Griffins said, “It’s simply that a parent should be able to make the best choice for their student. I also think that there are schools that are falling behind. It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve education, but I don’t think students should be victims of a falling-behind school. Their life is at stake, their future, their earning potential.”
Note: The featured image is a screenshot from the embedded video.
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