Jan Resseger is the kind of activist that every community needs. She is devoted to the Common Good and she takes action. Read here about her efforts to alert and mobilize her local community to stand up against privatization.
She begins:
“On Tuesday, January 3, as everybody crawled out from under holiday cooking, gifting and celebrating, leaders of our local Heights Coalition for Public Education met to consider mounting some kind of local response to the existential threat of a Betsy DeVos-led U.S. Department of Education. President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy Devos alarms us because her only connection with public schools has been a lifelong commitment to using her billionaire philanthropy to privatize education. We’ve all personally sent letters or signed petitions to protest Trump’s nomination of Devos to be our next education secretary, and we looked for a way to expand our advocacy to include our broader community.
“We crafted a sign-on letter for organizations and assigned different people to reach out to leaders they knew to see of their organizations would consider signing on. On Wednesday, we learned there was some time pressure: DeVos’s hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (Senate HELP) Committee had now been scheduled for January 11.
“Everything sped up. When some organizations lacked a way to meet formally to consider our letter, they polled their members. People responded by telling leaders of their organizations their own stories and their concerns about the danger of losing democratically controlled public schools whose mission it is to serve all children. One person complained: “Betsy DeVos has refused to pay a $5.3 million fine for campaign violations by her PAC in Ohio. She’s not only an anti-public education ideologue but also a scofflaw and a deadbeat to boot.” Another sent his dismay as a former longtime resident of Michigan: “Thanks for this letter. We spent most of our lives in Michigan and are very well acquainted with the anti-government, anti-public education beliefs and advocacy of Betsy DeVos. Trump could not have picked a worse person to head public education in his administration.” As they rejected the idea of expanding a school choice marketplace, many declared their commitment to improving access and opportunity in our public schools.
“We discovered this week that a mass of people from across our community, across Greater Cleveland, in surrounding counties, and across Ohio were delighted their organization had been given an opportunity to weigh in on this important matter that will affect our public schools, our communities, our state, and our society.
“On Monday, with members of the organizations that signed on, we will deliver our letter personally to the Cleveland offices of our U.S. Senators, Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman. While neither of our senators serves on the Senate HELP Committee, we are putting them on notice that we expect both of them to pay attention to next week’s Senate HELP Committee hearing on the DeVos nomination. We are asking them both to oppose the DeVos nomination when it comes before the full Senate.”
Open the post to read their letter.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I’m curious why ed reformers in government don’t think they have a duty to serve existing public schools. Whether DeVos opposes public schools or not, and as ludicrous as it is to appoint a an opponent of public schools to a public position, doesn’t she have a clear duty to serve 90% of students?
I guess I wasn’t aware this was optional in DC. People can take a job and then choose which groups to serve? Since when? I’m now supposed to pay a huge group of federal employees to work against my son’s public school? I don’t accept that. It’s unacceptable.
I don’t really care about Betsy DeVos’ uninformed loathing of US public schools. If she takes the job she should do the work and 90% of students ARE the work.
I hope one of the 100 Senators bothers to mention US public schools at that confirmation hearing. I know “traditional public schools” bore the Best and Brightest and they all imagine they’re the CEO of Google or something and have given up on public schools but they’re actually supposed to do the job that is in front of them.
I’m so sick of not having advocates in the federal government. It’s a damn outrage that they feel they can ignore the unfashionable public sector schools while on their mission to impose their ideological Dream System of privatized schools.
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I’d be willing to make a deal with DeVos. She won’t have to serve public schools as long as she stays away from them. She can spend her days opening charters and handing out vouchers as long as she doesn’t peddle ed reform fads and gimmicks in our schools.
She can be the US Director of Charter and Private Schools and stay in DC for 4 years.
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Thank you for pointing your followers to Jan Resseger’s article. Jan is doing outstanding work on exposing the attacks on and attackers of public education. She looks at a variety of issues in depth each day. Jan’s reporting covers more than just her home state of Ohio. She is an activist who should be followed by supporters of public education across the country.
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Jan Resseger is a wonder.
Jan, If you read this, please send your posts down to:
Cincinnati Educational Justice Coalition care of
Dillingham.michelle dillingham.michelle@gmail.com
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The absolute, unmistakable reality of pushing for “free-market” school competitions: “Marketplace competition, by definition, creates winners and losers. Turning over education to a privatized education marketplace would abandon our commitment to all children.” ENOUGH SAID.
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Jan’s list of supporters is impressive. Traditional church congregations e.g. Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, would be wise to sign the letter. Based on the experience in Ohio, when evangelical mega churches move in, to an area, they take parishioners from other churches, jeopardizing the survival of those churches. If DeVos gives evangelical churches, vouchers, or evangelical churches become charter school operators, it will seal the fate of the communities’ remaining churches.
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