ABC’s The View had a rare moment of actual debate on Wednesday as they clashed over school choice, with anti-Trump Republican Alyssa Farah Griffin getting into a contentious sparing matching with co-host Sunny Hostin about the effectiveness of school choice programs. Farah Griffin even called out Hostin’s hypocrisy in opposing the programs because her family sent her to a prestigious private school in Manhattan.
Hostin obnoxiously parroted unnamed studies she claimed proved that voucher and other school choice systems didn’t work. Despite insisting “I’m not making this up,” she refused to share the sources she was citing:
HOSTIN: And what happens with vouchers, the studies show very clearly that they fund students who are already attending private schools. So people with money, get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools, and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull those money from the poor schools. Those poor schools
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I don't see it --
HOSTIN: Let me just finish this. So, wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits. I’m not making this up. This has been studied.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Who’s that cited? Who’s the study –
HOSTIN: In a 2020 – A 2020 study found that only about half of states with voucher programs required teachers to have a bachelor's degree, required teachers to have training, required teachers to have licensing.
“If I may get in to make it a conversation,” Farah Griffin shot back because Hostin kept trying to dominate the conversation. Hostin tried to use her status as a mother as a cudgel in an attempt to shut Farah Griffin up; telling her to “wait because I have children and because I looked at private schools.”
Seemingly fed up with Hostin’s arrogance, Farah Griffin called out her hypocrisy. “I went to public school. I believe you had to go to private school. You got to go to private school,” she jabbed.
The sniping back and forth occurred during heated crosstalk that was so chaotic that moderator Whoopi Goldberg had to shut it down and send the show to a commercial break. “Because no one can figure out what's being said here! There is no last thing right now! We're going to go to break and then we're going to come back,” she declared.
Following the commercial break and Joy Behar’s meltdown about President-elect Trump, Farah Griffin dropped some truth bombs about the effectiveness of a school choice program she worked on when she was a staffer on Capitol Hill and the support for such programs nationwide:
I personally worked on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program when I was working in Congress. And that program alone, which is a charter school system, it experienced a 21 percent increase in graduation rates.
There are conflicting statistics but according to Morning Consult, the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students. It is my belief as somebody who grew up in the public school system, believes in it and was grateful to be in a good school district. If you're in a school that’s falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up your tax dollars should follow you.
“But see, you went to a good school. I wasn’t in a good school district. That's the inequity,” Hostin argued.
But Hostin was being misleading about her schooling and where she lived. According to a feature published in Westchester magazine, Hostin only lived and went to school in the Bronx for a few years in her early life. “Born Asunción Cummings, Hostin lived in the Bronx until she was 8 years old, when her family moved to Stuyvesant Town because ‘my parents then felt that I’d have a better life in Manhattan,’” Laurie Yarnell wrote.
Stuy Town, as it’s known, is a very well-off, private neighborhood in the East Village.
Hostin’s own website admits she “graduated from the Upper East Side’s prestigious Dominican Academy at 16.” Both of Hostin's children also attended private school growing up, and her son attends a private college: Harvard.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
November 20, 2024
11:08:41 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: And what happens with vouchers, the studies show very clearly that they fund students who are already attending private schools. So people with money, get those vouchers, use the vouchers to pay less for their private schools, and their kids go on to do well. Where do you get the money from vouchers? You pull those money from the poor schools. Those poor schools
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: I don't see it --
HOSTIN: Let me just finish this. So, wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients of school voucher tax credits. I’m not making this up. This has been studied.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Who’s that cited? Who’s the study –
HOSTIN: In a 2020 – A 2020 study found that only about half of states with voucher programs required teachers to have a bachelor's degree, required teachers to have training, required teachers to have licensing.
FARAH GRIFFIN: So, that's just not my experience.
HOSTIN: Required participating schools
FARAH GRIFFIN: If I may get in to make it a conversation.
HOSTIN: Wait, because I have children and because I looked at private schools.
JOY BEHAR: Oh, is that what this is?
FARAH GRIFFIN: I went to public school. I believe you had to go to private school.
HOSTIN: There are zero statistics -
FARAH GRIFFIN: You got to go to private school.
[Crosstalk]
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Because no one can figure out what's being said here!
HOSTIN: One last thing.
GOLDBERG: There is no last thing right now! We're going to go to break and then we're going to come back.
HOSTIN: Yes.
GOLDBERG: You can't -- what's happening is no one can hear anything anyone is saying so everybody has --
FARAH GRIFFIN: [Inaudible] so we can talk.
GOLDBERG: Well, you know.
JOY BEHAR: Well, that goes for you, too.
FARAH GRIFFIN: I haven’t gotten a word in. She's been talking for three minutes.
HOSTIN: You talked the first three minutes.
[Goes to a commercial break]
(…)
11:16:45 a.m. Eastern
FARAH GRIFFIN: I personally worked on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program when I was working in Congress. And that program alone, which is a charter school system, it experienced a 21 percent increase in graduation rates.
There are conflicting statistics but according to Morning Consult, the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students. It is my belief as somebody who grew up in the public school system, believes in it and was grateful to be in a good school district. If you're in a school that’s falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up your tax dollars should follow you.
[Crosstalk]
SARA HAINES: One question Alyssa cause you’re a school charter person. This is the part I don't understand. Doesn't it come down less to the result and more the choice of the par – isn't the fight for the parents to say they choose it? Is that what most people are supporting?
HOSTIN: No.
FARAH GRIFFIN: It's simply a parent should be able to make the best choice for their student. But I also think that there are schools that are falling behind. It doesn't mean they don't deserve education but I don’t think students should be victims of the falling behind at school. Their life is at stake is at stake in it, their future, their earning potential.
[Crosstalk]
BEHAR: Let Whoopi talk.
HOSTIN: But see, you went to a good school. I wasn’t in a good school district. That's the inequity.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Where did you go to school?
HOSTIN: In the south – I had to start school in the South Bronx Projects.
BEHAR: Just jump in Whoopi.
FARAH GRIFFIN: But didn't you get to go to a private school?
HOSTIN: Yes.
GOLDBERG: Here's what's interesting right now.
[Crosstalk]
FARAH GRIFFIN: And look at how good. You’re an example--
GOLDBERG: Because – Don't make me shut this bad boy down again!
(…)
