The American Federation of Teachers, one of the nation’s largest unions, went into a Twitter meltdown after President Trump mentioned school vouchers in his speech Tuesday night.
The union pumped out more than two dozen tweets attacking the idea in the minutes after Trump mentioned it, with several of the comments using all caps to emphasize that vouchers were bad, bad, bad ideas.
“REAL NEWS: VOUCHERS TAKE MONEY AWAY FROM NEIGHBORHOOD PUBLIC SCHOOLS,” shouted one tweet from the union’s official account.
Another exclaimed: “BAD: PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS INCREASE SEGREGATION.”
A third tweet said: “ICYMI: PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS LACK ACCOUNTABILITY.”
Another tweet by the union said: “NEWS FLASH: PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS OFFER FALSE CHOICES.”
NEWS FLASH: PRIVATE SCHOOL VOUCHERS OFFER FALSE CHOICES https://t.co/VtmUNtOPmZ #Jointsession
— AFT (@AFTunion) March 1, 2017
The tweets were prompted by these remarks from Trump’s speech: “I am calling upon members of both parties to pass an education bill that funds school choice for disadvantaged youth, including millions of African-American and Latino children. These families should be free to choose the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school that is right for them.”
Trump then followed up with the story of Denisha Merriweather, a student who had struggled in school until she enrolled in a private school through a tax credit scholarship program.
“Today, she is the first in her family to graduate, not just from high school, but from college. Later this year she will get her masters degree in social work. We want all children to be able to break the cycle of poverty just like Denisha,” Trump said.
Teachers unions hate voucher programs because they argue the programs draw funds away from public schools in favor of private ones, hurting poorer students.
Public schools are also heavily unionized while private ones are not as well organized by unions, so diverting resources to private schools or charter ones is also a threat to the unions’ strength.
