Obama Ed. Secretary: Don't Educate Children Until Gun Control Achieved
There was another tragic school shooting in Texas last week, and gun control advocates predictably wasted no time in issuing their absurd hot takes on how best to solve the issue.
Perhaps one of the most absurd was that of the Obama administration’s former assistant secretary of education, Peter Cunningham, who suggested in a tweet that “maybe it’s time for America’s 50 million school parents to simply pull their kids out of school until we have better gun laws.”
Rather than rein in such a ridiculous proposal, Cunningham’s former boss in the Obama administration — former Secretary of Education Arne Duncan — actually doubled down and endorsed the idea as both “brilliant” and “tragically necessary.”
“This is brilliant, and tragically necessary,” Duncan said. “What if no children went to school until gun laws changed to keep them safe? My family is all in if we can do this at scale. Parents, will you please join us?”
This is brilliant, and tragically necessary.
What if no children went to school until gun laws changed to keep them safe?
My family is all in if we can do this at scale.
Parents, will you please join us? https://t.co/Yo4wsFuJI5— Arne Duncan (@arneduncan) May 18, 2018
Pause for a moment and consider that Duncan — who is actually advising parents to hold their children out of school until strict but unspecified gun control legislation is passed into law — was once in charge of the education of our nation’s children.
In an interview with The Washington Post, Duncan attempted to explain his “radical idea,” which he admitted was intended to be provocative but was nevertheless an “aggressive approach” to reform gun laws that was worthy of consideration.
“It’s wildly impractical and difficult. But I think it’s wildly impractical and difficult that kids are shot when they are sent to school,” Duncan said.
“I’m open to other ideas, I’m open to different ideas, but I’m not open to doing nothing,” he added. “We will see whether this gains traction, or something does, but we have to think radically.
“This is not rocket science. This is not a difficult intellectual issue. What we have lacked is political courage, and we need to create the tension that allows us to break through on this issue.”
PJ Media weighed in on Duncan’s statement and pointed out quite succinctly, “Thinking radically is one thing. Thinking idiotically is quite another.”
While rich, elitist liberals like Duncan can afford to pull their children out of school for an indeterminate length of time — does anyone really think Congress will quickly pass gun control legislation that will satisfy the anti-gun crowd bent on bans and confiscation — the same cannot be said for the legion of single-parent households, and even two-parent households, that simply can’t afford to take time off of work, hire a sitter or pay for extra daycare while their child isn’t in school.
Furthermore, exactly how are all these millions of children supposed to receive any sort of education while they twiddle their thumbs at home waiting on Congress to take action deemed acceptable to gun grabbers? What about the low-income students who rely on schools to receive a decent meal or two per day?
Then again, considering the utter failure that our Department of Education has become under decades of progressive guidance by out-of-touch idiots like Duncan — PJ Media noted how billions of taxpayer dollars poured into the system during the Obama years had zero tangible effect on student outcomes — maybe they really wouldn’t be missing all that much.
On top of that, maybe we should credit Duncan with opening a worthy discussion on boycotting public schools in favor of homeschooling. Andrew Pollack, father of one of the victims in the Parkland school massacre, tweeted as much if school security measures aren’t stepped up soon in response to demands from outraged parents.
Summer break is coming up . I suggest every parent contact their principals and school boards to demand that metal detectors and armed security with limited entries are in place for the new school year! If not I would suggest home schooling .
— Andrew Pollack (@AndrewPollackFL) May 20, 2018
Aside from theoretically keeping students safer from potential gunmen at home, they’d also be kept safe from liberal propaganda stuffed into their heads by teachers who care about little else but their union-negotiated benefits and salary, as evidenced by the recent series of teacher strikes across the country.
Or — and this is just a suggestion — we take the obvious steps of increasing school security measures, like limited entrances/exits, armed staff and teachers, dedicated security guards. This seems more practical than risking and delaying a child’s education so anti-gun liberals can push their unconstitutional demands on the rest of the country.
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.
