Rapper Jay-Z is being dragged online after it was reported his Roc Nation media business will toss its weight behind a conservative effort to promote participation at Philadelphia personal schools rather than public ones.
Late last week, the magnate (aka Shawn Carter) got a lot of beneficial press that depicted Roc Nation’s assistance as a benefit for impoverished kids.
As NBC News 10 in Philly reported:
On Friday, the company revealed prepares for an academic project for Philadelphia that will safe about $300 million in scholarships for kids in grades K-12 from low-income homes so they can goto one of the city’s selection of personal schools. The company will host a series of occasions throughout the area from June 10 through June 21 intending to inform the public and share details about the Pennsylvania Award for Student Success (PASS) — likewise understood as Senate Bill757 The legislation intends to boost education chances for impoverished youth goingto the state’s lowest-performing public schools.
A representative from Roc Nation stated in a news release that its objective is “to empower the youth and households with the understanding to pursue their scholastic dreams, make their voices heard and endedupbeing the leaders of tomorrow.”
But a closer appearance at the information paints a more complex — and questionable — photo. As some on social media have keptinmind, the program supported by Roc Nation is not so much “securing scholarships” as funneling public funds to Pennsylvania’s personal and charter schools.
This effort is being led by conservative legislators and activists in the state, consistingof billionaire businessperson and Trump-backer Jeff Yass. Yass, who’s from Pennsylvania, hasactually made the anti–public school program (sometimes referred to as “school option”) his No. 1 concern, according to CNBC. The billionaire TikTok financier is a significant funder of groups like the conservative Commonwealth Foundation, that haveactually promoted for the PASS program, which would fund coupons to enable trainees from impoverished neighborhoods to participatein charter and personal schools.
Similar coupon strategies, like Arizona’s coupon program, haveactually dealtwith reaction for stoppingworking in their assures to cut expenses and to advantage impoverished trainees.
Longtime education pressreporter Nikole Hannah-Jones assisted to discuss on X why beneficial reports about Jay-Z’s participation were misdirected. “It is a lie that these programs do not take from public-school financing. Fewer kids in the class suggests less dollars to the school,” she published. “This is a windfall to the city’s personal schools at the cost of the public ones that most kids participatein.”
“This ain’t it,” stated the a