Democrat-led states should be tired of their lousy school performance and, instead, take note of what one red state has done to help their students succeed and excel, according to former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson.
"They looked at 23 public schools in Baltimore City to see if kids were achieving at grade level in math. None of them were. There were thousands of kids examined, not a single one," Carson said on "Varney & Co." Wednesday.
"And this is happening in a lot of the blue states," he continued. "Children are simply not being educated. It is almost like it's a purposeful dumbing down of people."
The retired neurosurgeon and former presidential candidate recently wrote an op-ed detailing how Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s education policy has expanded school choice opportunities and returned taxpayer dollars to public schools. States are "not going to be able to" see progress without voter turnout, Carson added.
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"People have to get involved and recognize that if America is going to be successful, the people have to be involved," he reiterated. "You can't just leave it up to politicians."
In his opinion piece, Carson further explained how studies have shown that students living in states with school choice score better on standardized testing and classroom performance. Adding competition to the education market and letting families take charge of their child’s individual needs are key to improvement, the former Trump Cabinet member claimed.
"Parents want an honest teaching of our history for their children – including the good, the bad and the ugly – free from political biases and radical agendas," Carson wrote for Fox News. "By introducing school choice measures, Abbott is empowering parents to fight back against left-wing ideological agendas in our schools and remove their children from what they deem unhealthy influences."
Carson also called out the Democratic agenda that prioritizes social costs, like reparations for Black communities, instead of much-needed education reforms.
"It's not workable because there are a lot of Black people who came to this country after slavery, who were never slaves and their ancestors were not slaves. There are other Black people here who were slave owners. What do you do with that situation?" the former secretary posited.
"If you really want to be smart, you recognize that there is a wealth gap between Black and White in this country, except if you look at Nigerians and Ghanaians," Carson pointed out. "You don't have a wealth gap. What do you notice in those families? A tremendous emphasis on education and family. And if you look at American Blacks who've been here for a long time, where the emphasis is on education and family, you don't see a wealth gap either. Maybe they're looking at the wrong things."
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The reality of education equality isn’t "widely broadcast" by the left, Carson argued, "because it really flies in the face of their narrative that if you have Black skin, you're at a terrible disadvantage."
"The fact of the matter is you're here: you were born in Great Britain, people from Germany, people from Ireland, people from Africa, people from South America," Carson said, "Why did they come here? Because we're better off here, and let's make the most of that. Let's not let someone destroy that for us."
