Homeschooled kids are the best-educated, followed by children who attend private or charter schools, Ben Carson said at a poverty forum Saturday morning.
Children who attend public schools in the U.S., are in last place, the presidential contender and retired neurosurgeon claimed. He added that not all of the country’s public schools offer subpar education.
“The people who are best-educated are homeschoolers,” Carson said at the event hosted by the Jack Kemp Foundation in South Carolina. “The next best are private or charter-schoolers and the final are public schoolers. And I think the only way to solve this problem is to provide school choice.”
Carson and two opponents, former Govs. Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, were discussing poverty reduction in an event moderated by House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.
Asked by Ryan how he’d approach education policy, Carson said he’d back as much federal deregulation as possible. He said he wants to send federal money back to the states as block grants, and give states more freedom to run their educational systems.
“In inner cities, why are 50 percent of those kids dropping out of high school?” Carson said. “Well, those kids are observant and they’re looking around and saying, ‘I’m not getting educated.'”
