Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos has spent the last few decades funding and urging the school privatization movement, but what does that actually entail? Privatization, or the transfer of a public organization or institution to private ownership or control, in the sense of education, would mean that public schools would be taken out of a community and put into the hands of a private, for-profit corporation. Privatization is not only a threat to our public schools and public education itself but also a threat to the whole idea of democracy. With DeVos’s support of having public funds be used to pay for kids to attend private schools and her lack of experience in working in public education, it is shocking that President Trump would nominate her for Secretary of Education. However, when you think about Trump’s enthusiasm towards spending federal money private or charter schools, you’d realize that the nomination isn’t all that shocking at all. Although, the above is not the only controversy that will come up if Betsy DeVos is elected as Secretary of Education.
- DeVos’ troubling record with LGBTQ rights.
DeVos and her family have spent millions of dollars to support anti-LGBTQ organizations. In fact, stated in a letter found last week, DeVos has given $6.1 million to Focus on the Family. Focus on the Family opposes anti-bullying policies and workplace protection the LGBTQ community, along with conversion therapy for students.
- She has trouble answering basic questions about education.
She doesn’t know the difference between proficiency and growth, a crucial debate in our education system. When questioned by Senator Al Franken she couldn’t answer his simple question about whether or not students should be judged based off of how much they learned and grew throughout the course of a year, or their test scores.
When questioned by Senator Bernie Sanders about tuition-free colleges and universities, she gave a cliché answer. Basically, she said that nothing in life is ever free and that somebody will have to pay for it. Whether her opinion is right or wrong, she gave no information or data supporting her stance.
- She has very little knowledge about important aspects of the American education system.
This is where her popular response “best left to the states” comes into play. For starters, and probably her most “unique” response was to whether or not guns should be allowed in schools. She again gives a vague answer stating that it is “best left to the states.” But at least this time she used a real-life occurrence to back up her opinion. Her answer as to why she is in favor of guns in schools is to protect from bears.
In addition, she doesn’t even know what the Individuals with Disabilities Act is. To save herself from embarrassment, she claims she “may have confused it,” with what? We may never know. Her lack of answer caused her to be interrogated for an actual answer. She responded by saying again, that it is “best left to the states” to decide how they spend their federal funding. This caused Tim Kain to ask her “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities and other states might not be so good and, what then, people can just move around the country if they don’t like how kids are being treated?” Once again, DeVos gives no concrete answer and repeats that it is up to the states.
- Did I mention she has zero experience?
Secretary of Education obviously has some important duties, and DeVos has no experience with any of them. She has no idea how to run a program like the one she will be in charge of, in fact, she has no experience even participating in one. Senator Elizabeth Warren noted that DeVos has no experience managing student loan programs, has never taken a student loan out herself, and never had a child who did.
All of these ideologies come straight from DeVos herself, and to be quite honest, if she is appointed as Secretary of Education, I see no chance for public education—even though 85 percent of our nation’s students attend public school. Her lack of experience and misunderstanding of important aspects of the American education system proves that she cannot handle the job as Secretary of Education. But, how can you prevent her from being appointed? Contact your local senator, call, write a letter, contact them in any way and clearly tell them to vote “NO” for Betsy DeVos.