Posted on 08/26/2022 8:32:41 AM PDT by george76
Pennsylvania Senate hopeful John Fetterman (D.) opposes vouchers that let children in failing public school districts attend private and charter schools. But the progressive champion, who lives in one of Pennsylvania’s worst performing school districts, sends his kids to an elite prep school.
Fetterman’s kids attend the Winchester Thurston School in Pittsburgh, where parents pay up to $34,250 for a "dynamic" learning environment and an "innovative" approach to teaching. They would otherwise go to schools in Woodland Hills School District, where graduation rates are far below the state average. The local elementary school that serves Fetterman’s town of Braddock is in the bottom 15 percent of the state in academic performance. Fetterman and his wife Gisele have sent at least one of their three kids to Winchester Thurston for the past seven years. A 2018 news article mentioned that Fetterman sends his kids to a private school in Pittsburgh, though the school was not identified. Gisele Fetterman has been a "WT parent" since at least 2015. Last year, Winchester Thurston praised Gisele, a "WT Mom," for her help on an art project.
Fetterman’s embrace of school choice for his own family opens him up to allegations of hypocrisy on several fronts. Fetterman, the lieutenant governor, has made his Republican opponent Mehmet Oz’s wealth a centerpiece of his campaign. He has also called for increased funding for public schools, though by sending his kids to private school he is diverting funds from Woodland Hills under a state funding formula that awards money to districts based on enrollment.
While sending his kids to Pennsylvania’s 11th best private school, Fetterman has publicly opposed vouchers that parents in poor-performing districts like his own could use to send their kids to private and charter schools. In 2018, he told an organization founded by Bernie Sanders supporters he opposed vouchers for families in Philadelphia on the grounds that they "[take] money away from public schools" and give it to private and charter schools. Roughly one-third of Philadelphia school kids go to charter schools because of the city’s dismal public school system.
Fetterman’s children will likely benefit academically from attending Winchester Thurston, though they will be deprived of the racial diversity Fetterman claims to embrace. Woodland Hills is 62 percent black and 25 percent white. Just 36 percent of Winchester Thurston’s students are minorities, though the school has a fully staffed "equity and inclusion" office.
Winchester Thurston has a 100 percent college acceptance rate, and an average SAT score of 1330, well above state averages. Woodland Hills, the district the Fetterman kids would otherwise attend, has just an 85 percent high school graduation rate, far below the state average. Woodland Hills has a 75 percent minority student body.
"Shame on him," said David P. Hardy, a distinguished senior fellow at the Commonwealth Foundation and co-founder of Boys’ Latin of Philadelphia charter school.
"Fetterman could send his kids to [Woodland Hills], but he's got money, so he can send them somewhere else," Hardy told the Washington Free Beacon. "But the poor people there are stuck going to those schools, and he doesn't give them any way out."
Fetterman’s opposition to vouchers has won praise from teachers’ unions and is in line with the Democratic party’s national platform. But it puts him in tension with a majority of Americans who support school choice. Fifty-eight percent of Americans—and 69 percent of black voters—say they support vouchers, which have been linked to higher graduation rates. The Pennsylvania State Education Association endorsed Fetterman earlier this year, lauding him for "oppos[ing] tuition voucher programs." Fetterman touted the union’s endorsement, saying he is "a proud product of Pennsylvania public schools."
The union in April blasted a Republican effort to provide vouchers for families in districts in the bottom 15 percent of the state. The voucher program would benefit students in districts like Woodland Hills, which has three elementary schools that fit that criteria. Wilkins Elementary STEAM Academy, the elementary school that serves Braddock, is required under a separate voucher-like program to offer scholarships to students to transfer to other public or nonpublic schools because its math and reading test scores are in the bottom 15 percent of the state.
It is unclear whether all three of Fetterman’s kids—who range in age from 7 to 12 years old—attend Winchester Thurston. It is also unclear how Fetterman has covered tuition there. Winchester Thurston participates in the state program, the Opportunity Scholarship Tax Credit Program, that offers scholarships to students in poor-performing districts. Fetterman’s father may also help with the tuition. Fetterman lived off his dad, an insurance executive, until he was in his late 40s. Fetterman's campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
Fetterman has suggested that his kids go to public schools. "American history must be taught in America's public schools—the good, the bad, and the horrific," he said this year in an apparent reference to the debate over the teaching of critical race theory. "That's what @giselefetterman and I want for our kids."
Fetterman joins a long list of Democrats who publicly criticize school vouchers while sending their kids to private schools. Rep. Elaine Luria (D., Va.) has spoken out against school vouchers and charter schools but sent her daughter to a private middle school and served on the board of a private high school, the Washington Free Beacon reported. House candidate Christina Bohannan (D., Iowa) has criticized school choice while sending her daughter to a private school so she could receive a "personalized education."
And Lurch’s daddy insurance bucks surely foots the bill.
More and more the mask is dropping. The ruling class lives well, and has a different set of rules as opposed to the rules for the peasants. The country is turning into a giant dumpster fire.
And like in other nations who went socialist, the peasants don’t seem to care. Sure, there are “extremists” who talk about things like liberty, and opportunity. But the average American is much more concerned with their perceived virtue. That is, until they have to start killing zoo animals to get a decent meal.
Statistically speaking, I have far too long left on this planet. I hate watching this all happen.
The hits keep coming. The people that needs a voucher is the most he’s willing to deny them a chance to get ahead. Hey stay in your own little shit holes. If you’re not on board after what Joe Biden said last night you are now part of the problem. He threatened every MAGA person last night. He’s through telegraphing he’s sticking it right in our faces.
I find that absolutely IMPOSSIBLE to believe! Retract that article! No way that can be true.
A far-left Democrat politician who says one thing but does the exact opposite? I can't believe that any far-left Democrat politician would ever say and do such a thing!
/s
Take a deep breath stop stop hyperventilating. It is true no tears it is true. My head is hanging down in disbelief.
How DARE you! Leave Uncle Fester out of this! He never hurt anyone and wouldn’t hurt a fly! Just because Uncle Fester sleeps on a bed of nails doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person.
Nobody wants their kids going to school in a jungle.
I’m sure you saw the /s at the bottom of my post. ;)
Why don’t we just embellish this shit just a little bit. John Fetterman is opposed to giving the poor school vouchers but he wants to give illegal immigrants children school vouchers.
Absolutely my remark was supporting your position and a little bit of sarcasm thrown in against this communist!
HE is living in Daddy’s basement & HE has kids?????
Issue on a silver platter for Oz.
“Roughly one-third of Philadelphia school kids go to charter schools because of the city’s dismal public school system.”
And this is the display of how liberals think. Don’t take any actions to make the dismal schools better which would justify your job. Force the schools to malfunction worse and fail to distribute the education benefits they are supposed to distribute.
In the meantime, brainwash the kids and parents into thinking things are being done with this peanut level dollar amounts being save, and probably being spent on pork projects, and continue down the path of recognized nonperformance of both the schools and the people who are supposed to support them. But they are doing something, like here, when they don’t let anyone do something for themselves. They harm everyone equal.
wy69
Of course he does, just like almost every other politician. The only ones who should be allowed to vote on this should be those who send their kids to public schools.
Who am I kidding? The plebes don’t matter as long as their goodies are safe.
Uncle Festerman For Senate....sarc
The sole purpose of all the totally insane stuff that Democrat/RINO politicians advocate (and Democrat/RINO voters excitedly vote for) is to eventually turn the American people into mindless simps totally dependent on government (aka, Democrat/RINO politicians) for almost everything. Democrat/RINO politicians expect that will enable them to remain in power forever. I think the majority of American voters still don't realize that painfully obvious fact.
$34k Elite? My daughter went to a boarding school a decade ago, and that was almost 2x this price. Only $10-15K was room and board. Somehow, as a white middle class kid she received a very generous scholarship.
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