Heck, I'm a single Gay male, with no kids.  Does that mean my opinion on public schools, ciriculae, teacher salary, textbooks, etc, etc, etc isn't worth airing?  I don't think so, since I have to live in the society where the majority of our kids go through the grind of public education.

He thought public school is (at the moment) "bad". So he put his kids in what he thought is (at the moment) "good". Where's the hypocrisy? What did i miss?

After I had written my comment below, I went back through the article and followed a link to another article, "Why are the rich so interested in public school reform".   Buried within the article is a paragraph that will show you just how good our public schools are --- as long as you choose one that is not in an area of high poverty.  As I said before --- Matt, if you want great schools in L.A., I can find them for you.

"Striking a serious blow to the contention that it’s bad teaching — not bad luck in life — that makes some American students perform much worse than others (and all of them much worse than students in other countries), Ravitch noted that on a recent international test, the Program for International Student Assessment, “American schools in which fewer than 10% of the students were poor outperformed the schools of Finland, Japan and Korea. Even when as many as 25% of the students were poor, American schools performed as well as the top-scoring nations. As the proportion of poor students rises, the scores of U.S. schools drop.”"

We've had children in both private and public schools.  I've pulled them out of both, too.  I guess my opinion is different than most.

My Opinion --- I find that MANY public schools are far better than most private schools!!! I can go into almost ANY city and find great public schools for you.  From Stuyvesant in NYC to Lowell in San Francisco, the most brilliant students, as a group, are found in these top schools.  Want the coveted IB program; a  hundred public schools have it.  Want Physic AP BC; a hundred public schools have it, along with the credentialed, specially-trained Physics teachers to lead it. Unless you're looking at the rarified heights of an Exeter Academy, your typical private school is far behind top publics in STEM major preparedness. 

My Opinion --- The average teacher in the public system is better than the average teacher in the private system.  Far more teachers in the public system have full credentials, masters degrees, and national board certification.  It's all there to be verified in public school accountability reports.  As for privates, you'll have to pry.  Better teachers in the private school system jump to the public schools in droves.  Why?  Simple.  The pay, pensions, and working conditions in the private school sector are not as good as in the public school sector.  It's very common to see a beginning teacher in the public school system come from 3-5 years of experience in a private school.

My Opinion --- Private schools have the advantages of small class size and the freedom to remove certain students.  Sometimes, they have better extra-curriculars.  Public schools have the advantages of varied choice (traditional, immersion, magnet) varied school years, better teachers, greater number of course offerings, vocational schools and much lower cost to society.  Do public schools have problems? Of course they do.  But even with the problems, I prefer them to privates.

By 'not progressive enough', he means there is not enough federal control over every aspect of the local schools for his kids. Probably an inside joke alluding not just the political beliefs he supports but the perks he gains for his children from them. At his national security clearance level he can enroll his kids in deep government schools where they learn to spy, lie, and influence people. His children will surely be groomed to play an important role in the overall 'progressive' plan.

He's a good father for spending his money on his kids.    Until public schools finally ACTUALLY MAKE needed changes to improve their mess,  I'd keep my kids out too.    

I'll bet they find a school especially that has nothing to do with the "no child left behind" farce.

Good for Damon for speaking out about our public education system.   Just b/c he gives HIS children a great education, and demands others require for their families too , doesn't mean he's a "hypocrite".

Grow up.

I do not believe that a person is a hypocrite when he engages as an individual in something he has identified to be socially harmful if undertaken by many people where he will have no (substantive) impact on the system by refraining. Unless your child's enrollment in a public school, with the potential negative effect on her educational opportunity, is going to make a substantial impact on the established system (perhaps because of your position as a statesman and a proposed set of reforms), then making that decision is less than pointless.The contention of those objecting to private education is obviously not that it is bad for the individual; the argument is that it is so much better  that it leads to injustice and inequality of opportunity. If you are an advocate of public schooling you need to examine your reasons why. If it is because you value equality, then the aim is to raise the game through high quality universal education. That doesn't exist because of a national distaste for the poor and a suspicion of the state stemming from long before everybody lapped up McCarthyism. Sucks. What is more, a strong private sector Will undermine the public provision of education because it undermines arguments for bolstering public schools. Without any reason for buy-in to the public school system the rational affluent, in a culture that emphasizes individualism while ignoring the social forces that create identity, are deaf to evidence of the broader public benefit of educational equality unless they have been pushed strongly towards egalitarian ideals or are well read. It isn't more progressive to praise islands of Mandarin schools and activist schools using 'getting kids through college' as a benchmark for success when there is a pressing need for: better funding, a national education overhaul and a change in attitudes to educators. One distinct difference between the US and countries with high educational achievement across the board (Finland, South Korea) is that teachers are respected and the public haven't been misled by private media interests keen to demonize unions wherever they find them. You might not, for instance, read the previous comment saying "[Damon's public school teacher] mother is/was part of the problem" in a country that properly respected a profession dedicated to improving the futures of the nation's citizens.

Also, a few people are saying something in the comments that always comes up: "why should we have to pay for your kids education. If you can't afford kids, don't have them." This misses the point that a child is a distinct, autonomous individual, which is quite ironic given the professed ideals of the type of people who come out with that line. A child is not the property of its parents and she cannot meaningfully be said to be an extension of them either. When a child is born she has the right not to be disadvantaged by the life of her parents in an avoidable way. That is not to subscribe to an unachievable ideal of parity of living standards for all children,but it is to say that social injustice is not something that should be institutionalized through opening a market in what could easily be a public good. A buyers' market, where the buyers are not the consumers.

A movie star being disengenous and a hypocrite ???!!! Perish the thought.  And poor Matt's mom is/was a public school teacher.  I don't blame him.  IF I had the money I would send my children to private schools.  His mother is/was part of the problem.  Most, if not all, private schools do not have teacher's union.  It will be much easier for Matt to try and get a teacher dismissed.

i'll bet his kids will get to learn real science.  also, he can't risk having his kids kidnapped or being treated differently than their peers.

It can be scary being a celebrity. Unlike the structured protections diplomats and prominent politicans' children have, Hollywood's kids and families are pretty much on their own, when it comes to safety and security. 

So, you have a highly visible person, that mentally unstable people attach their fixations to or criminals potentially target as easy prey for theft and kidnapping, while our stalking laws are outdated and never seem to explain how to protect entertainment stars from the unusual life situation they find themselves in. Private schools tend to be cloistered in "off the beaten path" places and there are plenty of other kids attending them, with parents who could be potential targets for a variety of reasons -- often because they are visibly prominent or are the figureheads of corporate organizations. The truth, I think, is that -- to some degree -- he's a little afraid for his kids and knows in Public school, they could be sitting ducks for disturbed people or could become targets for those looking to get gossip information or whatever storyline The Public wants to project onto them. 

I think I can explain both the view point and fallacy that leads some in the progressive crowd to give full throated support to the current government education monopoly. They have a natural fear of private solutions and believe private individuals are greedy and immoral. At the same time they have a great deal of faith in government solutions and feel government is benevolent and good. As a result they think that if we leave this to individuals some kids will get no education at all.

Where they are confused is that they don't realize this is exactly what is happening today under the government monopoly.

Take this Michigan school district with a 10% literacy rate where 100% of the students failed to meet minimal proficiency on science and social studies.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/07/13/aclu-sues-michigan-schools-district-horrific-10-percent-literacy-rate

A 100% failure rate is in fact no education at all. You could simply close the school and if even one out of 100 of those kids found their way to a decent alternative the educational outcomes would be better. Many children today get no functional education from our current system. Most of the rest get an inferior and overpriced education. If any company was charging their customers for a product that they failed to deliver 100% of the time the progressives would be calling for prison sentences for the greedy CEO's. When its government they call for more funding. 

This all stems from their weird belief that government is good and benevolent and all private things are evil. Until they get past this they will continue to stand in the way of quality education. 

Huh. I have been a fan of Damon's activist stance and this is a disappointing reveal. And it IS typical among many proclaimed progressives, at least those I know, and that's a large part of what holds back widespread school improvement. I'm not a big fan of charters or even magnets as they currently exist, though I see their value and accept they are unlikely to disappear. I do think they could be more equitably administered, and I'd support them much more if they were. I chose to send my daughter to a declining-on-paper neighborhood public school and don't regret it a bit; about to "graduate" to junior high, she's thriving socially and academically in the high poverty school, where the majority of kids don't share her skin color. Whatever. I've always openly reserved my right to send my daughter wherever I felt she needed to be, but I strongly believe in transforming "failing" neighborhood schools into a positive choice among the many in the landscape. The only way for that to happen, to beat back the leeches and scammers, is for the community to participate - if you want to build local control, especially where schools are concerned, the only way is to take on the challenge it presents, directly - that is, in my view, without corporatist intervention/profiteers. I ran our PTO for years and recently ran a fellow parent's successful school board campaign. There are victories and failures, it's a slow process and frustrating to endure the common naysayers' perception of traditional publics while engaging in the fight to improve them. Sure, "choice" is good, but I know few who wouldn't want to be able to use the local school and eliminate the chaotic, desperate consumerism of public education we're all saddled with now; to avoid the tests, segregation and insane application processes that have become its hallmarks. Seeing that my kid AND my community's children (because that affects my family too) are properly educated is too important to me. It's not a consumer experience for me, it's a civic duty that would be irresponsible to shirk. It's been the most genuinely progressive experience of my life, and the process is certainly passing those values on to my child in a way a theoretical progressive could never, in my opinion. Too bad Mr. Damon missed such a simple truth - actions speak louder than words. Tsk.

Andrew Rotherham does not like being proved wrong AND a hypocrite.

I posted the following twice to his site, and he has deleted it:

HORSECRAP, Andy.

Why aren't you arguing for every class to be capped at 20 with a teacher and aide, like your children get at Barcroft Elementary School. A school were the 30% above the poverty line shop at Harris Teeter to fund raise for the school, where the PTA (led by your wife) run school supply drives for the 70%.

Dr Deasy won't provide that for LAUSD kids, but Matt Damon, like Leonie Haisman, want that for ALL children. 

You are the hypocrite, Andy, like Chris Christie yelling at teachers for not teaching and getting paid for 2 months while his children go to a private school with three months off.

Or just like Derrell Bradford whining about public schools wasting money on "bell and whistles"  while he went to a expensive private school with lacrosse, squash courts, and a big auditorium. 

or:

<blockquote>Built in 2000, the 4,700 square foot Middleton Athletic Center has locker rooms for all Middle and Upper school students, a 2,500 square foot state-of-the-art weight room, an athletic trainer's room, a video room, three basketball courts, and a wrestling room with two full-sized wrestling mats.

The synthetic grass at Tullai Field is the same playing surface used by NFL teams. All of our football, soccer, and lacrosse teams play on the stadium field, where we have hosted MIAA playoff games, NCAA lacrosse teams, as well as various lacrosse tournaments and clinics. 

Blenckstone Field, our baseball diamond, is an immaculate all-natural field that is second to none in the area. All of our Middle and Upper School baseball teams play and practice on this field. 

Thompson field is named in memory of David Thompson '97. The field hosts soccer, football, and lacrosse games in the fall and spring. 

A new multi-purpose field has been constructed at the south end of campus. The area will contain two soccer fields in the fall and serve as a practice baseball facility in the spring. 

Tennis Facility 

St. Paul's has 10 har-tru courts and four hard courts for tennis. The har-tru courts are consider some of the best in the Baltimore area. Homeland Racquet Club operates a club program out of the facility, which has a beautiful clubhouse overlooking the courts. 

Kinsolving Gym 

Kinsolving Gym has great history as the School's original indoor athletic facility. The gym is used by all the basketball teams for practice and for sub-varsity level games in the winter. 

Kelly Gymnasium (Squash Courts) 

The Squash team practices and plays matches in the squash courts in Kelly Gymnasium attached to the Middle School. 

Other Practice Facilities

St. Paul's ice hockey team travels to Mimi DiPietro Ice Rink in Baltimore for practice and games.

</blockquote>

(http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/08/derrell-bradfords-fraudulent-voucher.html)

But, as I have typed here before, this is to be expected from a guy who condones the lies that teachers and their unions protect sex abusers of students and prevent the police from arresting them.

So, 

Screw you Andy.

Matt proves you don't need much of a brain to be a talented actor.

"Damon’s choice also raised the question of whether it is hypocritical for education reform opponents to make choices they would deny to others through public policy."  This little piece of grammatical legerdemain explains everything one needs to know about the "conversation" in America today.  It is axiomatic that Damon's choice is hypocritical.  To effectively retreat to a theoretical square one where the question is "being raised" is intellectual quicksand. 

Why the f*** did you listen to an actor in the first place? They are only slightly more honest than the average politician. 

BTW, for downpour.  A hypocrit is a hypocrit.  The GOP equal to this is "family values" dudes who get caught cheating - or the anti-gay marriage dude that ends up being gay himself.

Funny how many rich liberals hate guns and anything to do with school reform yet they employ armed bodyguards and have kids in private school.  The good thing is (as opposed to people who put their money where their mouth is) you can feel free to ignore this clown from now to eternity.

I experienced this type of liberal attitude personally with the wife of one of my husband's friends. She's very liberal, subscribes to every liberal cause and is so strident that even a whisper of opposition is met with icy stares and rude actions. She was insistent, when they first married, that they needed to live in a diverse "vibrant" neighborhood. Their diverse neighborhood resulted in several break ins and an armed robbery, not to mention actually stealing a boat on a trailed from the backyard in broad daylight. But things were hunky dory until her children reached school age. Suddenly the idea that her kids would be the minority in the local public school was anxiety inducing to her. She insisted they move to the suburbs. I don't begrudge her wanting the best schools for her kids, but years of her looking down her nose at us because we chose to avoid the inner city Dallas crime rates left me less than sympathetic to her cause. By the way, every one of her kids ended up messed up and on drugs due to her personal liberal policy of "don't judge."

Matt has a gift for lying.

It is not hypocritical of Matt., People/ the real reason he wants his kids in a private school has to do with safety, and having a clean place to go to the bathroom.  And to be able to walk the school grounds with other people of wealth. Not with the gang banging thugs and want be thugs. He does not want his kids exposed to racism, and every other kind of Bs that goes on in large city public schools. and he can afford to send them to schools in neighborhoods that have no crime or very little crime. It is his kids he also has a wife who gets to choose where her children go to school too, not just matt. Get real people if you had his money where would you send your kids. also matt has friends whos kids go to the same school, that may have something to do with it too. It does not mean he does not care about education for poor kids , but his own come first that is natural.

It is no more hypocritical for Damon to send his kids to private school than it is for Al Gore and Leonardo Di'Caprio to fly Gulfstream jets to "global warming" conferences.  These lefty celebrity pukes are just natural born hypocrites.  

Damon knows full well public schools are garbage and so does every liberal in Washington including Obama. They will never admit it because they depend on teacher union money and votes. They claim to be all about teachers and kids but they all send their kids to non-union private schools.

Its called LYING, Left Wing, Hypocrisy, and is prevalent as water.  Mr Damon knows like all of us that the corrupt alliance between democrat and teacher's unions is bankrupting our cities and states, and destroying our education system.  As the Teacher's unions has grown more powerful and its member paid more the education our children get as gotten worse and worse.  Damon of course has a special interest that drives his hypocrisy.  His mother was a teacher.  So even has he supports taxing hard working average Americans until their eyes bleed to pay ever higher salaries and benefits to techers and a system that is failing our entire nation, and especially our children he isn't going to subject his children to the nightmare he wants to force on the non-rich.  Nope.....he knows the system he supports and the teachers unions have created a pit of failure, and he isn't having that for his children.  With his millions he can do that, and I actually support his decision not to leave his children to the tender mercies of the corrupt alliance of democrats and teacher's unions, and give them the best private education he can.  However, like the rest of the rich democrats that do the same thing it shows he is a LYING, Left Wing Hypocrite.