Politicians and other public figures are criticizing spending priorities in the U.S. after a viral video circulated of teachers on their hands and knees grabbing for money to benefit their classrooms.
The video showed local teachers in South Dakota wearing helmets scrambling in a hockey rink to grab $5,000 in $1 bills to use in their classrooms as part of a “Dash for Cash” event.
Some national political figures like Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) and Warren Gunnels, who is the staff director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), tweeted their responses, which criticized the country’s military spending.
“Here’s why I voted no on the NDAA,” McGovern tweeted, referencing the National Defense Authorization Act. “We spend billions on weapons systems our military doesn’t want, but teachers are forced to fight over $1 bills on the ground because our schools are so underfunded. As a congressman & the brother of two public school teachers, this is shameful.”
In response to the video, Gunnels added that “we ended the longest war in U.S history Congress still found a way to provide $778 billion in 1 year to the Pentagon when we already spend more on the military than the next 13 nations combined. What stage of capitalism is this?”
Meanwhile, Bernice King, the daughter of renowned civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., tweeted, “This just should not be.”
King also included a quote from her late father saying, “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.”
Yet a spokesperson from CU Mortgage Direct, the group that donated the money for the event, seemed to have the teachers’ interest in mind.
“With everything that has gone on for the last couple of years with teachers and everything, we thought it was an awesome group thing to do for the teachers,” Ryan Knudson, who is the director of business development and marketing for CU Mortgage Direct, said to the Argus Leader.
“The teachers in this area, and any teacher, they deserve whatever the heck they get,” he added.
State Sen. Reynold Nesiba (D), who represents part of Sioux Falls where the event took place, said it painted “a terrible image,” though he acknowledged the event’s likely good intentions, The Washington Post reported.
“Teachers should never have to go through something like this to be able to get the resources they need to meet the basic educational needs of our students — whether it’s here in Sioux Falls or anywhere in the United States,” he told the Post.