Public school advocate and actor Matt Damon has taken heat for sending his own kids to private school, and now he’s eating his words for comments he made about the Bush family on CNN Friday.
Damon was asked about criticism from none other than former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who sent this tweet in August, when Damon joined his Boston public school teacher mother at a Save Our Schools March in Washington, D.C.:
“I know actors can be, you know, used to criticism when it comes to your talents or cast in a movie, but when it comes to activism and ideas, it might be different,” CNN host Jake Tapper said. “People said, ‘Well, you send your kids to private school. Why are you even involved in this?’”
Damon stumbled over his answer.
“Well, because I, you know, because I want the public schools to, if they were, if they went back to, if I could find my, the private school that I send my kids to is the thing closest to the public school that I went to that I could find,” Damon stuttered. “And that’s why I send my kids to private school. I wish I didn’t have to, it’s expensive, and I also want my kids to be part of a, you know, their local community, you know, and not have to commute to somewhere else to go to school.”
Tapper almost apologized for asking, but Damon continued.
“No, no, no, no, because that was a criticism, I think it was Jeb Bush who tweeted that, and then retracted it pretty quickly,” Damon said. “Although I’d eat my shoe if he could name a Bush that ever even walked into a public school, but that’s another story.”
Eat his shoe? Newsbusters responsee to Damon’s claim:
The Miami Herald reported in 2002 that Jeb Bush initially attended the public Grady Elementary School in Houston before mother Barbara enrolled him in the private Kincaid School closer to where they lived.
Brother George W. attended public schools in Midland, Texas – Sam Houston Elementary and San Jacinto Junior High – before being enrolled at Kincaid when the family moved to Houston.
Tweep @bzaz points out that George W’s kids Jenna and Barbara both attended public schools – Preston Hollow Elementary in Dallas and Austin High School in Austin – and Jenna a few years after graduating college worked as a teacher’s aide at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School in Washington D.C.
“Would you like some salt for that shoe, Mr. Damon?” NewsBusters’ Joel Sheppard asked.
Watch Damon’s interview here:
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