Trump VP Contender Tim Scott Falsely Claims Biden’s Education Policy ‘Resegregates’ Public Schools
The inner circle of presumed Republican nominee Donald Trump is intensifying their attempts to court Black and other minority votes. In a recent interview, a front-runner for Vice President under Trump made a bogus assertion that President Joe Biden was resegregating US public schools.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, who has been vocal about wanting to be on Trump's VP ticket, made one of the most outrageous statements yet, The Guardian reported. He portrayed Biden as an advocate for racial segregation in public schools during an appearance on CNN's State of the Union.
“We need four more years of common sense under Donald Trump, and not four more years of segregation under Joe Biden,” Scott, who is African American, said. Upon being questioned by CNN anchor Dana Bash about whether implying that Biden supported segregation was exaggerated, Scott attempted to defend the claim by stating that “the elimination of charter schools under Joe Biden resegregates schools in America.”
Sen Tim Scott is unwilling to answer a question and lies about the current state of the US
— Gregory, PhD (@theGreatsOfMath) May 26, 2024
The most egregious one is his claim that limiting charter schools increases segregation
Time after time after time, studies have shown charter schools oft lead to more segregated schools
Scott added, “Joe Biden’s Department of Education has halted the growth of charter schools that provide greater diversity,” which he claimed was resegregating schools in the biggest cities. Charter schools, which are publicly financed yet operate outside of state education systems, are supported by federal government funds totaling $440 million per year through the Charter Schools Program. This figure has stayed unaltered since 2019 during the Trump administration.
It is also debatable if Scott's claim that charter schools increase diversity is valid. In honor of the 70th anniversary of the historic US Supreme Court decision, Brown v. Board of Education, which forbade segregated schools, Stanford University and the University of Southern California conducted a new study that showed segregation has been gradually returning for the previous 30 years. Completely contrary to Scott's assertion, the sociologists found, that the growth of charter schools has been one of the primary forces behind the return of segregation.
Recent polls suggest Biden is losing support from Black voters, a critical constituency for his reelection, per The Hill. In a survey conducted earlier this month, the New York Times/Siena College/Philadelphia Inquirer revealed that Biden was ahead of Trump among Black voters, 63 percent to 23 percent. Despite a sizable difference, this is a decline from the 87 percent of Black voters who supported Biden in 2020.
Trump has started courting voters of color. In the South Bronx, one of the most diverse and resolutely Democratic regions of the nation, where 95% of the population is Black or Hispanic, he just organized a demonstration.
At the gathering, Trump made a shameless attempt to court Black votes by inflaming his anti-immigration rhetoric with racial overtones. “Millions and millions of illegals coming into the country,” he claimed, had a detrimental effect on communities of color. “African Americans are getting slaughtered. Hispanic Americans are being slaughtered,” he said.
