Betsy DeVos: Working tirelessly to dismantle public education in the United States

Yesterday the Associated Press released information confirming that Betsy DeVos was approved by the Senate committee for the position of Secretary of Education, sending the nomination to the full Senate.

For those of you who don’t know, Betsy DeVos is a privatizing, charter school-pushing billionaire with no education degree and no teaching experience. Not to mention that during her Senate confirmation hearing, she admitted after questioning from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont), that over the years, her family collectively donated $200 million to the Republican Party. DeVos has no experience working in education and despite the fact that she has no personal experience with sending her children to public schools, she seems to have a lot to say about the topic.

One of the greatest issues facing educators today is the public’s criticism of America’s public schools.  The reformation of public schools is not a new topic in the legislative halls. A discourse authored by Amy Anderson, Rick Evans, Rich Kozak, and Blair Peterson of the Graduate Program in Education Leadership at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill noted: “when the space race began in the 1950’s, American’s turned their attention toward global competition and pinned their hopes for dominance on public schools. However, today, people read that the achievement of children in the United States is lower than that of children in other industrialized countries.”

As Secretary of Education, DeVos would be expected to help set standards, guide accountability, and oversee research in a way that benefits children, through outcomes–not one particular interest or industry. More importantly, the U.S. Secretary of Education must understand the value of both high-performing charters and traditional public schools. Stephen Henderson, Editor of the Detroit Free Press commented, “She has no track record of working along those lines, and no experience that suggests she’s even interested in it.”

Should DeVos assume the position of education secretary, her education policies would have a negative influence of the growth of academic achievement for children in the United States.

In her home state of Michigan, her entire contribution to education has been toward privatization. DeVos has put a monetary value on a child’s access to education, effectively “turning their right to an education into a commodity for sale to the highest bidder.” In Detroit, she funded efforts to shut down public schools and funneled the remaining students into for-profit ventures.

According to a New York Times investigation, Michigan now has nearly 220,000 fewer students than it did in 2003 but more than 100 new charter schools. Today, only 10 percent of rising high school seniors in Detroit score as “college ready” on reading tests.

Each August, from 2001 to 2016, Work and Education polls gathers data that samples approximately 1,000 national adults, including 250 parents of children in kindergarten through grade 12, 3,594 public school parents, and 608 private school parents. The results of this analysis indicate that while three in four parents (75 percent) are broadly satisfied with the education their oldest child receives, only 36 percent of parents are completely satisfied.

The results also indicate that private school parents are far more satisfied than public school parents — this is largely to be expected and has negative implications. Private school parents have made a deliberate decision about what school their child attends and are free to change schools if they are not satisfied. DeVos’ education experience is primarily as a political donor, where she steered money toward “school choice” reforms in order to bolster charter and private schools –where she chose to send her children.

Privatized education requires a certain amount of privilege. Families that cannot afford to send their children to private or charter schools are left sending their kids to a school where they are more likely to receive a substandard education, and one that they cannot escape. We know from her service in Michigan that Betsy DeVos would not work to provide better education for children who cannot afford to attend a charter school.

DeVos’ education experience is primarily as a political donor, steering money toward “school choice” reforms to bolster such charter and private schools – schools to which she chose to send her children.

According to a study conducted by Berliner & Bindle, almost 60% of Americans said that if they could afford it, they would send their children to private schools.

In 2014, approximately 20 percent of school-age children were in families living in poverty. The percentage of school-age children living in poverty ranged across the United States from 12 percent in Maryland to 29 percent in Mississippi. DeVos’ vision for our education system would make education unattainable for students in these families.

Societal issues such as narcotics, poverty, income, urbanization, and economic standing plague public schools. As a result, the schools reflect the turmoil in society, but none of these issues impinging upon education can be cured by raising standards, increasing professionalism, or requiring exit exams, as DeVos has suggested.

Photo Credit: CNN

Public education establishes a trust between the government and the people that seeks to provide opportunity for those who would not otherwise have it. As Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos would use her wealth to establish a seat at the head of the policy-making table. It is as if she believes that money can buy anything, including a child’s education.

Photo Credit: Detroit Free Press