The View co-hosts Alyssa Farah Griffin and Sunny Hostin have been increasingly sparring with more intensity since the 2024 election, but tensions boiled over on Wednesday about President-elect Donald Trump’s decision to nominate Linda McMahon to lead the Department of Education and his plans to close the department.
“I don’t think Donald Trump is going to abolish the Department of Education,” Farah Griffin, a former Trump White House staffer, said on Wednesday. “I think he’s going to invest more in voucher systems and education savings plans. Personally, one thing I agree on, I think school choice is important and the money should follow the student.”
Hostin then shared a 2020 study in which she attempted to disparage school choice and the school “voucher system” as she went into a lengthy monologue about vouchers helping wealthy families at private schools.
“When you hear about school choice, it’s really connected to the voucher system, and I encourage everybody to read up on it,” Hostin said. “The Department of Education is responsible for $18.4 billion that fund high poverty in K-12 schools.”
She continued, “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 the money from the poor schools.”
The conservative View host chimed in to disagree with Hostin’s claims about school vouchers.
“I don’t see it—,” Farah Griffin said as she tried to make her point.
“Let me finish,” Hostin abruptly replied, adding, “Wealthy families are overwhelmingly the recipients. This has been studied. 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.”
Farah Griffin tried again to weigh in on Hostin’s statements.
“That’s just not my experience,” she interjected. “I may get in, just to make it a conversation.”
Hostin interrupted her childless co-host, “Because I have children and because I looked at private schools.”
“I went to public school, and I believe you went to private school,” Farah Griffin shot back.
Hostin continued to attempt to filibuster as she read from the paper in front of her.
“You got to go to private school,” Farah Griffin clapped back.
Co-host Whoopi Goldberg interrupted both the hosts by saying that no one could understand them because they were talking over one another.
“I haven’t gotten a word in, she’s been talking for three minutes,” Farah Griffin laughed as she noted that Hostin would not allow anyone on the show to talk.
The sparring between the hosts continued after the commercial break.
Farah Grffin laid out the argument that she had seen how school vouchers have helped poor students. She shared her own work in Congress on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides scholarships to low-income children in Washington, D.C., for tuition and other fees at participating private schools.
“According to the Morning Consult, the majority of Americans support health savings account vouchers and the taxpayer money following the students. 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 falling behind and your parent wants to give you the opportunity to get a leg up, your tax dollars should follow you,” she said.
“A parent should make the best choice. Schools are falling behind. It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve education, but they shouldn’t be victims of falling behind at school. Their life is at stake,” Farah Griffin argued.
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Hostin argued back that her co-host “happened to go to a good school” which she then called “the inequity.”
Farah Griffin then took aim again at Hostin about having gone to a private school, but Goldberg interrupted the confrontation.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
