ICYMI: Politico – “Club for Growth [Action] Launches Anti-Newsom Schools Ad

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Club for Growth Action will run a new ad in California on school closures. The 60 second ad highlights the bad judgement and hypocrisy of Governor Newsom and education bureaucrats, and will run Sunday, March 7th in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego. Politico’s Mackenzie Mays published an exclusive report on the announcement.

Click here to watch the ad.

Click here to read the report in Politico.

“Too many of public schools in California and across America are failing students, and the ongoing unnecessary school closures are making this painfully obvious to parents that they should determine how their education tax dollars are spent instead of self-interested bureaucrats. Club for Growth and its affiliates are looking for opportunities to highlight particularly egregious policies and comments by education bureaucrats and even pass bold parental school choice legislation. It’s long past time for students in California and elsewhere to be back in the classroom, and parents are rightly demanding accountability. Our proposal is straightforward: Send the money through the parents – so when schools are closed or failing their children, they can choose to do what is best for their children. They can choose to send the money to the public schools, private schools, homeschool, or pay for tutors or technology for their children. ” – David McIntosh, President, Club for Growth Action

Please contact Club for Growth Vice President of Communications Joe Kildea at [email protected] for additional details.

EXCERPTS

Club For Growth [Action] launches anti-Newsom schools ad in possible recall preview
Politico, Mackenzie Mays, 3/5/21

A conservative super PAC plans to run TV ads this weekend that slam Gov. Gavin Newsom for sending his own children to in-person private school while most California public schools remain closed for now.

“Across the country, schools are reopening safely but in California, the people in charge are hypocrites and failing our kids, mocking parents, sending their own kids to school. Even calling reopening racist,” the Club for Growth Action ad states.

The $34,243 ad, set to air Sunday in Sacramento, Los Angeles and San Diego, also takes on a Berkeley teachers union leader who was criticized last week for enrolling his child in a private preschool as public schools remain closed.
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The Democratic governor since late December has pushed to reopen public schools in California and challenged teachers unions on vaccine demands — but he has stopped short of overriding collective bargaining to force employees back.

Many districts are planning to return within weeks, largely because teachers have been getting vaccinated in larger numbers, infection rates have declined and the new law will pay for additional protections. But historically strong unions in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Oakland and Sacramento have yet to reach deals with their districts.
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Newsom has repeatedly voiced concerns about equity and the achievement gap suffered by disadvantaged students amid prolonged school closures. He has raised flags about private schools reopening at faster rates than public schools. But his own children returned to a Sacramento-area private school for at least some in-person instruction, he said in late October.
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The ad also features Oakley Union Elementary school trustees caught on a hot mic ridiculing parents, including Board President Lisa Brizendine saying that “they want their babysitters back.” The entire board later resigned.

Meanwhile, as teachers unions fight to keep schools closed until all school staff are inoculated and case rates decline, a video captured by a group called “Guerilla Momz” shows Berkeley Federation of Teachers President Matt Meyer dropping off his 2-year-old daughter at an in-person private preschool.
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The TV ad also criticizes comments made by the United Teachers of Los Angeles earlier this week. The union, which represents California’s largest school district, called the state’s new school reopening plan “a recipe for propagating structural racism” ahead of Newsom’s signature on the bill Friday.
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Like California Republicans, David McIntosh, president of the Club for Growth Action, is using the school reopening debate as a push for voucher programs and other approaches that fund education outside the traditional school system.

“Our proposal is straightforward: send the money through the parents so when schools are closed or failing their children, they can choose to do what is best for their children,” McIntosh said in a statement Friday.

“They can choose to send the money to the public schools, private schools, home school or pay for tutors or technology for their children.”