An entrepreneur and Star Tribune board member claimed “average parents” don’t know what’s best for their kids and implied many private religious schools teach “bigotry.”
Scott Burns — CEO and co-founder of Structural and major Democratic donor — was reacting on Twitter to last week’s Supreme Court ruling that the state of Maine could not exclude religious schools from receiving taxpayer-funded tuition assistance.
Replying to a tweet celebrating the ruling for allowing “parents to decide what’s best for their children,” Burns asserted it’s “factually untrue” that “parents are good judges/managers of what kids should do, eat, or learn.”
“Shouldn’t public money go to schools that teach universal facts and truths to try and give kids a fighting chance?” the Star Tribune board member added.
The tweet received a barrage of criticism, with one user asking Burns if he thought religious schools “by definition” provided a “less than quality education” compared to public schools.
“I personally have a problem with any state sponsored bigotry and many churches and religions build bigotry into their doctrine,” he said. “From an educational standpoint, they are worse on average than public schools from what I’ve seen, but I don’t think that is by definition.”
Burns did not elaborate on this second claim, which appears at odds with ample evidence that private school students tend to academically outperform their public school counterparts and receive instruction from more intellectually rigorous curricula.
Burns made his Twitter account private after these tweets, presumably due to the attention and criticism they received, including from Republican gubernatorial candidate Dr. Scott Jensen.
Why is a board member of the Star Tribune calling parents too dumb to make decisions for their kids?! This person is also a BIG donor to Walz.
Am I expected to seek an endorsement from this paper, knowing they advocate for government co-parenting? This is something I oppose! pic.twitter.com/Cw7Db0sbbF
— Scott Jensen (@drscottjensen) June 23, 2022
Alpha News reached out to the Star Tribune for comment but did not receive a response.
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
