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A few hundred vocal protesters met House Speaker Paul Ryan when he arrived at Success Academy charter school in Harlem on Tuesday afternoon.
Ryan, who met with Success founder and CEO Eva Moskowitz and toured the school, is not the first Republican leader to visit New York's expansive and controversial charter network — Ivanka Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy have both visited the schools.
“I was pleased to welcome Speaker Ryan to our flagship school in Harlem today," Moskowitz said in a statement. "The education crisis in our city and country is profoundly damaging to millions of children, and parent choice has proven to be an effective lever in education reform."
Moskowitz was under consideration to become President Donald Trump's education secretary before Trump chose Betsy DeVos, a wealthy and controversial proponent of school choice programs. DeVos praised Moskowitz's commitment to creating alternatives to public education after meeting with her in April.
Protesters, who gathered outside the school for several hours, voiced concerns about a range of Ryan's policies, prominent among them the Republican healthcare bill, which is currently being debated in the Senate. They argued that Ryan is attempting to privatize public services, including education, healthcare, and social security, which would disproportionately affect low-income people and people of color.