A few days ago, I said that I support Michigan billionaire and hard-right voucher advocate Betsy DeVos, because she would show the world that “reformers” are out to destroy our public schools. No ambiguity there. She would demonstrate the close link between “reform” and the rightwing.
But I hereby formally withdraw my support for DeVos’s candidacy. To be sure, it was meant in jest, but many readers failed to see the humor in supporting someone who would totally privatize education.
Why am I withdrawing my support? Well, I just learned that DeVos has more flaws than I thought. Not only does she want all children to have vouchers (charters apparently are a fall-back form of privatization for her), she opposes any regulation or oversight for the private schools she supports. When the Michigan legislature made an attempt to create some oversight for charter schools, DeVos spent over $1 million to block the effort, and she won. In Michigan, 80% of the charters operate for-profit, without regulation or oversight, and DeVos is happy with that. The scandals and waste of taxpayers’ dollars don’t concern her. I also object to her because she supports the Common Core. My reasons for opposing the Common Core are different from that of people on the Trump team. I oppose them because they were imposed without a field trial, without any evidence that they were good standards. I oppose them because I oppose standardization in education. I oppose developmentally inappropriate demands on young children. If any teacher loves them, use them, but they are not and never will be national standards, nor will they reduce achievement gaps. If anything, they increase the gaps and reduce achievement.
So, sorry, Betsy, you are not my choice.
Who is my choice? Glad you asked that question. I support Williamson (Bill) Evers, whom I have known for nearly 20 years. He is not mean, unlike some of the other candidates. He is at heart a libertarian and won’t shove federal policies down everyone’s throats. He is the only choice Trump might make that would do the least harm.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I hope your support does not kill his chances…not entirely facetious. I looked at his credentials. He is certainly more qualified than DeVos.
Betsy DeVos would be the absolute worst for Ed Sec. For details on her and the rest of the DeVos clan’s virulent hatred of public education, see Russ Bellant’s 170 page book, The Religious Right in Michigan Politics (Americans for Religious Liberty, 1998, available from Amazon). (Disclosure: I wrote the book’s preface.) –Edd Doerr
Betsy DiVos just announced as secretary of education.
Diane, I drew on much of your work when writing my scholarly paper (an alternative to the thesis at the University of Maryland Baltimore County). I am a fifteen year educator and incensed by the creeping privatization of education. I was particularly alarmed to learn that Donald Trump met with Michelle Rhee. Is the only option writing my senator to express my concern and opposition to Rhee? Please tell me that there is some other recourse.
Angie,
Join the Network for Public Education and help us fight for public schools.
“Betsy DeVos, a prominent charter school advocate, will be Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, the president-elect’s transition team announced Wednesday.
“Betsy DeVos is a brilliant and passionate education advocate,” Mr. Trump said in a statement Thursday. “Under her leadership we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families.”
DeVos called it an “honor” to accept the president-elect’s nomination…”
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-taps-betsy-devos-for-education-secretary/
Okay, Diane, we’ve got to blame someone. Can’t blame THE Trumpster as he’s too ignorant. And the Taper of Mouths rheejected the opportunity. Sooo……
We blame you Diane!! A day late and a dollar short on your choice change.
By all means, let’s open up choice. Let’s give children the opportunity to attend any school anywhere — and require schools to provide transportation for every enrolled student. Who could possibly be opposed to that??
Betsy DeVos loves PARCC, she is best friends with Laura Slover their CEO.
Our work has just begun in earnest. Not by our choice but. . . .
I don’t think you see the forest for the trees in regard to common core.
Sorry you put that statement out. I just learned of it from your post here, but What Were You Thinking?
Just kidding doesn’t hack it.
It’s a sad day. This appointment of DeVos about seals it.
Hoping that the vote will be audited and election overturned in favor of Hillary Clinton.
Hoping that signs the Electors are eyeing the mud that Trump is standing in materializes into solid change in their votes.
Unusual occurrences but not as unusual as the situation thrust upon us.
I thought you were a raging liberal until I read this post. Nice to see we can all agree education is not about politics – it’s about the right person, with the right passion, for the right job. I am an independent that leans pretty far right.
The one thing we can all agree on is that education matters – it is what we have to focus on to “make America great again”. Public Schools are critical to this goal. A school is about its local community and teachers – empower them. Breaking the poverty cycle will take 1 to 2 generations – give America’s children an education to set them on this path. Stop with the hyperfocus on standards and tests.
Let teachers cultivate a child’s strengths and interests and help them learn how they can channel those to make a living and be satisfied. Make universities stop giving 2 rats about SATs and an AP contest or dictate “mandatory” courses = let kids love to learn what they love to learn, what they want to be experts in. Only then can we turn the tide on the drop out rates.
Betsy DeVos is the wrong person to lead the federal department of education. She hates public schools, where most students are enrolled.
My “endorsement” was meant as a satire. I don’t agree with any of her views on education or other issues.
Teachers who love teaching children will have to learn new stealth teaching practices. We are all UAKs – undercover agents for kids.