Lindsey Graham just threw schoolchildren under the bus in appalling defense of Trump’s wall

The appalling way that the right-wing will put their agenda of racism and xenophobia above the well-being of their children was put on full display on Sunday when Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) declared that it was more important for kids in Kentucky to have a wall at the southern border — which is at least over a thousand miles away — than it was for them to have a new school.

When asked about the possibility of border wall funds taking resources away from projects like new schools, Graham didn’t hesitate for a second before choosing racism over education.

“It’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border. We’ll get them the school they need, but right now we’ve got a national emergency,” blubbered Graham in a truly appalling display of boot-licking in defense of the president’s selfish efforts to build himself a monument to xenophobia in the middle of the desert.

He could not be more wrong. Like many states, Kentucky is in desperate need of new schools and more funding for the ones they already have. Kentucky’s schools are struggling to pay for basic necessities like transportation while almost half of all young Kentuckians start kindergarten behind their peers in other states; maybe it’s because Kentucky is 41st in the nation in pre-school participation.

Resources are distributed unequally, with rural kids getting the short end of the stick while politicians in Louisville plot to funnel money to charter schools. But Kentucky could have the best schools in the nation and it still would be a heinous thing to say.

It’s deeply disturbing that we’ve reached the point where a sitting United States Senator is willing to say that he thinks it’s more important to continue feeding the President’s fearmongering about the imaginary crisis at the southern border than it is to provide schooling for kids in need.

Original reporting by Owen Daugherty at the Hill.

 

Natalie Dickinson

Natalie is a staff writer for the Washington Press. She graduated from Oberlin College in 2010 and has been freelance blogging and writing for progressive outlets ever since.