Biden and the Media Went to Girard College – All Failed
The media failed to tell the real story or ask important questions when President Biden visited Philadelphia for the 587th time of his Presidency, desperately seeking votes. This time he held a staged rally at Girard College in North Philly, to try yet again to show black voters that “he cares.”
Let’s put aside the fact that most of the media failed to explain that — despite its name — Girard College is a school for children in grades one through twelve.
What they truly missed is that Girard College is the embodiment of school choice. It’s a private school, where every student is there because: (1) the students’ parents or guardians applied and chose to send their child there; (2) the family has limited income; and (3) at least one parent is deceased, incarcerated or not part of the child’s life. No child pays any tuition.
The school is funded through a combination of the Stephen Girard Trust and charitable contributions, and students are educated by the choice of their parents or guardians.
The students are there — at this safe space in North Philly — because the school is a lifeline for those who would otherwise have to go to a school that isn’t safe, is failing academically, or isn’t meeting a child’s academic needs.
Biden and Harris are adamant, fervent opponents of school choice — like PA Lifeline-style scholarships. They came to Girard College in North Philly to tell black voters all that “they’ve done for them” by holding a rally seeking their applause. They did this without appreciating the irony — or hypocrisy — of the school they were standing in.
Biden and Harris support policies that would have fewer Girard Colleges, and more children — especially children of minority backgrounds — forced to attend schools that are unsafe, failing academically or not offering them support.
Yet, they sought appreciation and applause.
And, the legacy media missed that entire part of the story. The facts. The irony. The hypocrisy.
The media was watching the show, and it appears as though no one interviewed the school President, David Hardy. He may be the most most — or at least one of the most — impactful educators in Philadelphia, in Pennsylvania, or even America. So no one asked him about education, about Girard College, or about the kids he’s impacted. That’s malpractice.
Mr. Hardy was recruited to become President, to stabilize, fix and renew this iconic school that needed leadership, vision and credibility, so that young people without hope would have hope. So that it would be a safe haven in North Philly.
But, before he was asked to be President of Girard College, he was known across greater Philadelphia, and the nation, as the founder of Boys Latin Charter School.
Mr. Hardy turned the soft bigotry, indifference, and neglect of young African American boys into a national academic success story. He founded a charter school built of vigorous academics, and a top-flight Latin curriculum, for students that many had forgotten about. Many of those doubters assumed that poor African American and minority students couldn’t study Latin, or that it was silly or misguided to teach Latin to “kids from the hood.”
Ask Dave Hardy why he did what he did. The successes that he had. The lives he changed. The message that he sent—academically, politically, and culturally.
Heck, Hardy had an op-ed about school choice in the Inquirer that same day! Did anyone tell Biden or Harris?
No one asked Dave Hardy about school choice, educational options, teaching poor students, or lifting up the horizons of poor kids.
Tragically, to the media, Hardy was merely the host who happened to be the CEO, or just a prop for the Biden/Harris show.
The media drove to Girard College. Maybe they saw the Philly Zoo. Maybe they saw my alma mater, St. Joe’s Prep. But, if they opened their eyes, they would’ve seen the people who think inflation is real. The parents who hope and pray that their children come home safely after school or a spring time baseball game at the park.
But, no mention of what life is like for too many in North Philly.
They could’ve asked the parents and guardians why they chose Girard College, or which school their child came from. Instead, many were ignored, or they asked them about voting for Biden…or, heaven forbid: Trump.
The traveling medicine show that is the Biden campaign — a Democrat Party President from the neighboring state — had to take to North Philly to tell them that he cares, because the reality of inflation, crime and bad public schools say otherwise.
They had to create a Black Americans for Biden/Harris because one hasn’t sprung up organically. Maybe because polling suggests that over 80 percent of African Americans support school choice and Biden and Harris don’t. They couldn’t even acknowledge it, when standing in a school choice school. Instead, the President sunk down and pulled out his racial division card, suggesting that the other guys don’t care about black voters.
Biden and Harris came to North Philly for a staged, shallow photo-op, and they got it.
That the legacy media went to Girard College, drove through North Philly and stood a few feet away from an education icon and reported on none of those ironies or those realities is journalistic malpractice.
The President and his policies are failing the very people he came to talk at.
The legacy press failed America by missing the story. And they failed the people of North Philly, too.
Guy Ciarrocchi is a Senior Fellow with the Commonwealth Foundation. He writes for Broad + Liberty and RealClear Pennsylvania. Follow Guy at @PaSuburbsGuy
