State of Education

On Tuesday Betsy DeVos passed the the Senate HELP committee by a narrow margin of 12-11 along party lines. On Friday a vote is planned on her nomination before the entire senate. With Republicans holding a 52-48 seat lead in the Senate it would be almost unheard of for the nomination to fail. So far 2 Republicans have stated they will not support Ms. DeVos which, if all Democrats vote against, leaves at 50-50 tie to be broken by Vice President Pence. We must secure a 51 vote majority before Friday to keep DeVos from becoming our next Secretary of Education. Our education system is already in poor condition and we need to do everything in our power to secure the future of America's children.

A little background:

Betsy Devos graduated from a Christian high school and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Calvin College, a Christian institution. She has worked for PACs, chaired the Michigan Republican party multiple times, and chairs a privately held investment and management group. She has also been active in a list of community organizations including those for the arts and, yes, education. On her website the 2 main education organizations she lists are the American Federation for Children and the Foundation for Excellence in Education.

The American Federation for Children was founded in 2010 and is concerned with parental choice in education options. Their means for accomplishing this are through school vouchers, scholarship tax credit programs, Education Savings Accounts, public charter schools, virtual charter schools, and public school choice.

The mission statement for the Foundation for Excellence in Education (per their facebook page) is: To build an American education system that equips every child to achieve his or her God-given potential. This organization was founded in 2008 by then Governor Jeb Bush. The organization has been criticized by some for its close ties between corporations and government policymakers. The foundation has largely focused on forwarding the "Florida formula", the education plan enacted by Jeb Bush during his time as Governor of Florida. Some aspects of this philosophy include: issuing A-to-F report cards for schools, using taxpayer vouchers for tuition at private schools, expanding charter schools, requiring third-graders to pass a reading test, and encouraging online learning and virtual charter schools. The foundation is also a supporter of Common Core. At the time of this post the Foundation for Excellence in Education website is not working and so I have had to rely on external sources for all information regarding this foundation.

Why is she unqualified?

To start Ms. DeVos has never attended a public school, nor have any of her children. She has never taught or worked as a school teacher or administrator. As both a student and a parent in a private religious school setting it is probably fair to assume that she has never had to grapple with severe budget crisis that affect the availability of resources and programs. Her extreme wealth has most likely insulated her from many of the problems faced by low income families in the realm of education. She doesn't even have experience with student loans which is essential for most college students in this day and age and which, as the head of the Department of Education, she would be responsible for managing. She also has no apparent training in modern pedagogical theory or practice.

To all appearances Betsy DeVos cares about only one thing in education and that is the right for a parent to enroll their child in the school (public, private, charter, religious) of their choice and for that to be facilitated through grants, vouchers, or scholarships. On the surface this seems like a great idea, free choice is always seen as a plus, but there are lots of factors that have not been accounted for in this that make school choice a more complicated issue. I will not go into the pros and cons of voucher programs here as that issue alone deserves it's own post, but a Secretary of Education who's history suggests that this is her only major concern or experience in education is itself concerning.

A related concern to the above issue is DeVos' apparent lack of concern over standards. This is shown in her history of supporting particular charter schools even when the school in question is consistently and significantly under performing when compared to its public school counterparts. True, many of those schools have higher than average graduation rates but they do not have test scores reflecting any advantage over their public school counterparts showing that quality is not necessarily improved through charter endeavors. Every school supported by public funding should be required to maintain the highest of standards and those which fail to do so should be tended to immediately and not allowed to continue failing their students. DeVos has repeatedly supported charter schools as an alternative to public schools but with no accountability for charters to follow accepted educational standards.

DeVos' senate confirmation hearing was nothing short of a debacle and her ill conceived comment on people carrying guns at schools to protect against grizzlies is only a small piece of it. Though questioning was shorter than Democrats desired there was enough to show her lack of knowledge in the general field of education. Her confusion over proficiency vs. growth should be alarming. If she does not understand the difference how can she support these areas to the benefit of all American children? Children with disabilities are some of the most vulnerable in our society and it is important for our Secretary of Education to understand the policies that protect these children in our schools which Betsy DeVos clearly does not.

Let us stand together and speak up before it is too late to tell Congress NO on Betsy DeVos.

Sources:
http://www.betsydevos.com/#business

http://www.federationforchildren.org/about-us/

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ExcelinEd/about/?ref=page_internal

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/jeb-bush-education-foundation-played-leading-role-in-mixing-politics-policy/2015/01/06/db1db176-903b-11e4-a900-9960214d4cd7_story.html?utm_term=.a79251bbd3c2

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/?utm_term=.42e48b663cc5

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/18/us/politics/betsy-devos-education-secretary-confirmation-donald-trump.html?_r=0