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Source: 30dB.com – %23DCPublicSchools
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos might have public schools in her crosshairs, given her staunch support of private and charter systems, but two comedians stepped forward on Sunday night at the Emmy Awards in Los Angeles to defend them, or at least the ones in Washington, D.C. Dave Chappelle, who attended D.C. public schools, and John Oliver both used their time on stage to give the education system in the nation’s capital a shout-out, prompting a hashtag on Twitter that has gone viral. “If you are tweeting about the Emmys, please use the hashtag #DCPublicSchools,” Oliver said while accepting the award for Best Writing for a Variety Series. The hashtag immediately shot to second place on Twitter’s trending list, and it’s riding high at 85 percent positive sentiments. But not everyone is pleased about the publicity. The Washington Post’s Petula Dvorak said that trending on Twitter is no big deal at all. In fact, the shout-outs did more harm than good, she wrote, by hiding the serious failings in the system. “And once the #DCPublicSchools hashtag is bumped off the trending list,” opined Dvorak. “We’re still left with a system with huge flaws and huge disparities.” –Hugo Guzman
Republished from 30dB