According to far-left activist and sometimes MSNBC host Al Sharpton, the Trump administration wanting children to return to school is racist. On Saturday evening’s PoliticsNation, Sharpton railed against President Trump’s plea to reopen schools this fall. The Democrat then urged viewers to vote the Republican president out of office.
Sharpton claimed that Trump is only pushing to reopen schools this fall to make the country feel more normal:
You want to send them back to school at any cost in a misguided attempt to restore some sense of normalcy in this country. You want to shift the focus from your mishandling of the pandemic that has cost, so far, in the United States over 100,000 lives by sacrificing the health and safety of school children, faculty, staff and their families.
Trump and members of his administration, like Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, have consistently stated that the safety of students and faculty members is their number one priority, yet Sharpton continued to make baseless claims about the President’s agenda. In normal race-baiting fashion, Sharpton ranted:
Your insistence that public schools be forced to reopen isn’t just self-serving and dangerous it’s racist.
Sharpton blamed this supposed “racist” policy on the basis that schools that minority students attend are “underfunded and crowded” and that students and teachers will not be able to abide by social distancing requirements: “Even these very basic precautions will be out of reach for many students of color who disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and overcrowded.”
What Sharpton declined to mention in his “Memo to Trump,” is how low income students were the ones that were hurt the most by the schools closing in the spring. During the months of remote learning forty percent of black students received no instruction during the coronavirus outbreak, while only ten percent of white students received no instruction. Only fourteen percent of black students received average or above average remote instruction, and forty-six percent received low quality instruction. Black students lost on average 10.3 months of learning, compared to white students who only lost 6 months of learning.
Based on all available data, school closures hurt minority communities, specifically black communities; which is why it is so important to reopen schools this fall.
Sharpton eventually revealed his true motivation for the tirade. It was not about racism, children’s safety or education, he only cared about getting Trump out of office:
Luckily for the American people, Mr. President, you don't have the power to force any public schools open and if you still don't have a grasp of how governmental authority is split three and a half years into your term, it's time voters teach you a valuable lesson at the ballot box.
Sharpton made the segment entirely about urging his viewers to vote Trump out of office, rather than talk about actual educational issues black students had to deal with when schools are closed. Click
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"Expand" to read the full transcript:
MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with Al Sharpton
07/11/2020
5:30:23 PM
AL SHARPTON: Though you do have claimed to have just aced a test, despite being cagey about the details, so maybe you're turning over a new leaf? Forgive me if I take the cynics’ view here, but I don't think you care about the education of America's children. You want to send them back to school at any cost in a misguided attempt to restore some sense of normalcy in this country. You want to shift the focus from your mishandling of the pandemic that has cost, so far, in the United States over 100,000 lives by sacrificing the health and safety of school children, faculty, staff and their families. You've threatened to pull funding from schools that don't reopen.
Once again, portraying your complete misunderstanding of how government works in this country. Public schools are primarily funded by states and localities and what federal funding they must get must be approved by congress, not by decree from a despot wanna-be in the oval office. Your insistence that public schools be forced to reopen isn’t just self-serving and dangerous it’s racist. Here’s what your own CDC Director said about safety guidelines.
(clip of CDC Director)
ROBERT REDFIELD (DIRECTOR OF THE CDC): I think we have to continue to work with the schools to look between the six feet apart, wearing face coverings, social distancing the seating, looking at changes in schedule to have different crowding.
SHARPTON: Even these very basic precautions will be out of reach for many students of color who disproportionately attend schools that are underfunded and overcrowded. How do you stay six feet apart when your school stuffs more than 30 students into a classroom with outdated or broken ventilated systems? How do teachers find money for sanitizer and disinfectants when their budgets don't even leave room for papers and pencils? But you don't care about that.
You think even these bare bone precautions to keep students and teachers safe are impractical and too tough, even as your own CDC reports that black and Hispanic people are at the highest risk at any age. But obviously these are lives you're willing to sacrifice if it means you can have a temporary win with the optics. Luckily for the American people, Mr. President, you don't have the power to force any public schools open and if you still don't have a grasp of how governmental authority is split three and a half years into your term, it's time voters teach you a valuable lesson at the ballot box.
