‘Can She Be President Instead?’ Condoleezza Rice Goes Viral For Barn Burner Speech on School Choice

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went viral this week after the Reagan Presidential Library shared a short clip of her defending the need for school choice in the U.S. Rice’s viral moment led to many on the right to not only praise Rice, but lament that she was not running for president in 2024 .

“So are you for school choice or not? We already have a choice system in education. If you are of means, you will move to a district where the schools are good and the houses are expensive, like Palo Alto, California. If you go across the street from Stanford, Palo Alto High has a performance arts center that looks like a smaller version of Stanford’s,” Rice said in the speech from earlier in the month, adding:

If you’re really wealthy, you will send your kids to private schools. So who’s stuck in failing neighborhood schools? Poor kids? A lot of them are minority kids. So how can you say you’re for civil rights? How can you say you’re for the poor when you’re condemning those children to not being able to read?

By the time they’re in third grade, they’re never going to read. So if you want to say that school choice and vouchers and, charter schools are destroying the public schools, fine. You write that editorial in the Washington Post, but then don’t send your kids to Sidwell Friends.

Sidwell Friends is an elite private school outside of Washington, DC where tuition runs well above $50,000 a year.

Rice’s hot take quickly gained traction online with everyone from congressmen and senators commenting on it to media figures like Sage Steele, who said , “Love this clip – especially the end. Man…what I would give to have Condi Rice run for president!!! Can’t blame her for staying away though…”

Below are some more reactions to Rice:

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