Betsy DeVos is Now “The Problem We All Live With”

“The Idaho government didn’t hear us when we called them”. There’s nothing wrong with vocational training, just with numerous for-profit “schools”, like, say, Trump University, that defraud students who often are poor and find themselves robbed of their life savings, or run up credit card balances thinking they’re investing in their futures.

Through all the opposition Devos faced leading up to her confirmation, she still squeezed her way into office, though I wouldn’t count on the opposition to dissipate. To the surprise of no one with honest respect of the plight of Black people in America, McCoy was instantly criticized for this analogous portrait.

The rally was the latest organizing effort by a pair of Boise high school students, Colette Raptosh, 16, and Nora Harren, 17, who got active after Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. At that time, when thinking about a Trump presidency was not in anyone’s imagination, she said that her dream was that “all parents, regardless of their zip code, have the opportunity to choose the best educational setting for their children”.

It is incumbent upon all of us to maintain this focus on education.

Betsy DeVos was confirmed by the senate and Vice President Mike Pence on February 7th, but her confirmation was different than any other in the history of the United States of America. But given the fact that she once worked for an organization that advocated for child labor, we can probably guess. However, he continued, “Basically, there is money that used to be in the hands of the public school system that now goes to charter schools”. Damned if we know.

There is a reason why more than a million children are on waiting lists to enter charter schools nationwide and why studies show that parental choice produces positive results. She couldn’t distinguish between proficiency and growth when questioned by Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) if she thought she would have been nominated for education secretary had she not donated hundreds of millions of dollars to the Republican Party. Good public schools provide a common experience and send a message that lets every child know that she has been born into a society that cares about what happens to her.

DeVos has expressed her support for charter and private schools and school vouchers. “I voted against the nomination of Betsy DeVos, a billionaire Republican donor, because she is the most incompetent cabinet-level nominee I have ever seen”.

Other public school teachers, like music teacher Pam Pierson of the Ottawa school district, echoed these sentiments. And she highlighted the role early-college high school programs are playing in helping more students earn their degrees faster by allowing them to take college courses in high school. Thirty-three states have on the books this law, which prohibits using state funds for religious schools. Asked what she could do about that, the Education Secretary said, “Whatever can be done will be done and it will be done swiftly and surely”. If this is the case, her shaping of science education would systematically deprive children of a proper understanding of the basis of science, technology, and even the basis of modern biology-like evolution.

DeVos, like many libertarians, believes that “competition” between schools will force poorly performing schools to either improve their curriculum or risk losing students and the funding tied to those students.