The Patriot Post® · Kamala Harris Misses the Bus

When Joe Biden selected Kamala Harris as his running mate, many of us saw it for what it was: bald-faced identity politics. More recently, though, we’ve come to see the brilliance of Biden’s choice: Kamala Harris was never intended to be a capable second-in-command. Instead, she was meant to be impeachment or 25th Amendment insurance. Go ahead, Joe Biden must be saying. Make my day.

Thus, Harris’s utter inability to live up to the responsibility and respectability of her elected position is second only to the president she serves. This sad fact was on full display earlier this week during an appearance in Seattle, where Harris had been dispatched to tout the administration’s investment in electric school buses.

First, a little background about the message before we get to the messenger: The so-called Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last year provided $5 billion in funding to public school districts to purchase electric school buses. The first $1 billion, which Harris bragged about in Seattle, will purchase 2,463 electric school buses at a cost of about $370,000 each, twice the cost of typical diesel school buses. The Philadelphia school district calculates that the cost savings for going green will be about $5,000 per year. Other districts are unlikely to fare any better.

The electric school bus project is part of the administration’s larger plan for building “better” school infrastructure, which includes making schools more energy friendly, improving indoor air quality, and school safety.

Harris was full of … well, interesting things to say in her remarks, which were a mishmash of how clean energy will help improve education, make school more fun for children, and save our planet with yellow school buses that everyone loves.

“So here’s the thing,” she said, “Who doesn’t love a yellow school bus, right? Can you raise your hand if you love a yellow school bus, right?” The White House transcript says “Applause” at this moment, but we think we heard literally one clap. She continued, “Just — there’s something about the — and — and most of us, many of us went to school on the yellow school bus, right?”

Her performance has been the source of much mirth on social media, and rightly so.

While Harris is always good for a chuckle or two, her message and the administration’s handling of public education is not. It’s quite sad, really, and utterly lacking in priorities. Indeed, Biden and Harris crisscross the country to tell us how they’re making schools greener, all while the quality of a public school education has reached abysmal levels. We noted earlier this week the staggering decline in our youths’ educational aptitude even as education spending continues to climb.

A yellow school bus with an electric motor instead of a diesel engine isn’t going to fix that.

Still, the deranged ecofascists of Team Biden hope that by switching the narrative to clean energy they can hide their epic educational failure. Waves of concerned parents across the country who have been showing up at school board meetings — you know, the “domestic terrorists” — have made clear that they won’t be fooled. Just how bad has it gotten for the Democrats and their undemocratic support of our failing public schools? RealClear Opinion Research found 74% of registered voters now support school choice.

Parents simply want a decent education for their children. That’s Job One. The green yellow school buses that Kamala Harris keeps giggling about can wait. And wait.