Tom Steyer opposes school choice despite taking advantage of it for his kids

Another double-standard by a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate regarding school choice has been reported.

Tom Steyer opposes “using public money for private or religious education,” he told the Washington Post, which “would deny parents of lesser means the ability to do as he did when he sent his children to the San Francisco University High School, whose annual tuition costs $49,496,” reports The Washington Free Beacon.

The apparent hypocrisy is yet another way that Steyer—a hedge-fund billionaire who now campaigns against both wealth inequality and the fossil fuels from which he is not fully divested—has used his wealth in apparent contradiction to his political views.

Records indicate that Steyer’s four children—all of whom are now adults—attended San Francisco University High School as adolescents.

Steyer’s wealth positioned his family to choose a learning environment outside of the neighborhood public school system, but financial barriers prevent too many families from exercising the same choice. Tommy Schultz, vice president of communications and marketing for the American Federation for Children, called out Steyer for fighting against private education despite sending his own children to a private school.

“It’s far from progressive to exercise school choice for your own politically powerful families while fighting against extending those options to poor families who desperately need educational options,” Schultz said. “It’s simply the height of hypocrisy, and it’s astounding how callous it is for these candidates to openly broadcast that they want to remove a lower-income kid from a school that their family has chosen and to send that kid back to a district public school that their family left because it wasn’t working for them.”

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren’s education platform is also anti-choice, despite sending her son to a private school (and then lying about it) and previously supporting vouchers. According to The Washington Free Beacon, former vice president Joe Biden and former mayor Pete Buttigieg “have also been critical of private education in spite of attending or sending their children to private schools.”