Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, on Tuesday sent a blistering critique of Hollywood actor Matt Damon’s decision to school his three children at a private facility, not public: You’re such a hypocrite.
Mr. Damon did, after all, campaign very publicly about the importance of public education, Mr. Bush pointed out, Newsmax reported.
On Monday, Mr. Bush tweeted: “Matt Damon refuses to enroll kids in Los Angeles public schools. Choice ok for Damon, why not everyone else?”
The Twitter query came just a few days after the Hollywood actor, during an interview with a reporter from The Guardian, said his three children would be heading off to a private school in the L.A. area — not public.
“Sending our kids in my family to private school was a big, big, big deal,” he said, Newsmax reported. “And it was a giant family discussion. But it was a circular conversation, really, because ultimately we don’t have a choice. I mean, I pay for a private education, and I’m trying to get the one that most matches the public education that I had, but that kind of progressive education no longer exists in the public system. It’s unfair.”
That’s quite a morphing from 2011 when Mr. Damon — the son of a teacher — spoke at a Save Our Schools rally.
YouTube recorded him saying then: “From the time I was in kindergarten … all the way through my high school graduation, I attended public schools. And I would not trade that education, that experience, for anything. I had incredible teachers.”
Mr. Damon was just in the news for comments he made during this same interview with the British newspaper in which he suggested that President Obama was being bullied by political opponents into making policy decisions he doesn’t really want — and that he should be granted some leeway on the public relations front.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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