Education

Matt Damon loves public schools for your kids, but not his

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Matt Damon fervently supports American public schools and increased funding for American public schools. Strangely, however, he has chosen not to send any of his four children to the schools he loves so much.

The mega-wealthy, left-wing actor divulged his decision in a weekend interview with a British newspaper, reports the Daily Mail. He was promoting a new science-fiction movie, “Elysium.”

Perhaps the most delicious part of the story is Damon’s wacky rationale: he says public schools just aren’t sufficiently “progressive” to suit his politics.

Damon, 42, is moving to Los Angeles from New York. Just like millions of Americans, except in the completely opposite way, he claimed he doesn’t “have a choice” when it comes to private schooling.

He did call public schools “unfair,” though, and not what they were back when he was a kid.

“I mean, I pay for a private education and I’m trying to get the one that most matches the public education that I had, but that kind of progressive education no longer exists in the public system. It’s unfair,” Damon said, according to the Mail.

He also said he will endeavor to “agitate” to create better public schools.

“Sending our kids in my family to private school was a big, big, big deal. And it was a giant family discussion,” Damon also swore.

In 2011, Damon made waves when he gave a rah-rah speech at a Save Our Schools march in Washington, D.C. The thrust was that teachers are wonderful and standardized tests are really bad.

At the event, the actor, who is estimated to be worth at least $100 million, also yelled at a cameraman from Reason (the libertarian publication) for having the temerity to suggest that perhaps all teachers aren’t wonderful.

Damon and his wife, Luciana, have four daughters (one of whom is Damon’s stepdaughter).

Damon was a sheltered student during his academic life. He attended two public schools: Cambridge Alternative School and then the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, which has recently become famous as the alma mater of both Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He also attended Harvard University but failed to graduate.

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