Think of Betsy DeVos as the Darth Vader of public schools. Has she ever visited a public school? Why does she think they are all failing?
Mercedes Schneider noticed how many fliers she was receiving in the mail, urging her to take advantage of Louisiana’s voucher program. The fliers came from the Alliance for School Choice. Who do you think leads that anti-public school group? Betsy DeVos.
Schneider noticed that most of the vouchers were targeted for students in New Orleans, where reformers have almost extinguished public schools. They are trying to poach students from charter schools to apply for vouchers!
Of the hundreds of thousands of students eligible for vouchers in Louisiana, only 1% have applied. Not exactly a stampede.
Parents in Louisiana are choosing public schools.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“They are trying to poach students from charter schools to apply for vouchers!”
Is this surprising. No. Participants in the charter industry will poach when and where they see profits.
May those who have learned how to play the public-money profiteering game undermine one another to the point of bringing their whole house of cards all the way down.
DeVos thinks public schools are failing because they are — failing to proselytize for her church. She wants other people’s children to bring her their backpacks full of cash and religious diversity. Get in line and salute her deity. What she thinks is failing is the 1st Amendment. Twisted.
LA has to kick White out. He is an insidious aberration.
I read a comment in the editorial section of the NYT today that encouraged us to pressure our senators to put a hold on Betsy DeVos’ nomination. Apparently it requires 60 votes to override such a hold. Can someone confirm this? If it’s true, we need to be applying this pressure now!!
I will call my senator, Michael Bennet, about this, but I doubt he will follow through, although he opposes her nomination. Anyone a constituent of Al Franken, Tim Kaine, or Elizabeth Warren? Let’s actually stop Betsy DeVos, not just oppose her!
Sereia, all Dems will vote against DeVos: https://dianeravitch.net/2017/01/27/franken-no-democrat-will-vote-for-devos/
Please use your energy to make life difficult for Cory Gardner. He will surely vote for DeVos, but you and your neighbors should band together to make him realize that he may pay a political price.
Gail Collins has a column in today’s NYT on DeVos and Donald’s anti-education agenda.
This is the new Dept of Ed hire, right?
“Jason Botel @JasonBotel 9 Jun 2015
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Have NOLA students progressed to the point that every city should emulate NOLA’s approach to ed? If not, they r close”
‘Every city’? Is that the plan? Ed reformers should probably notify the public the goal is to replace every public school.
Just last year these same people insisted they were opposed to vouchers. Now they’re all promoting vouchers. We’ve gone from “some” charters to all charters to vouchers. The next step is all vouchers. At what point do they admit this was the goal all along and just present this to the public the same way they present it to fellow “movement” members?
Do Americans want to privatize public schools? I don’t know but I do know they can’t consent if they’re not informed of the goals of the ed reform movement.
https://twitter.com/JasonBotel
Chiara,
Maybe the goal is home schooling. Think of the $$ saved!
It will be great when all those kids are running around without supervision. This is not the 1950’s with a surplus of stay at home mothers.
If ed reformers actually wanted to collaborate with public schools they wouldn’t have nominated DeVos.
They insist they’re not anti-public schools, and then they nominate a person who says all public schools are “dead ends” and spends all her time promoting vouchers and charters.
Turn this around and imagine if DeVos had spent 30 years opposing charter schools.
The entire ed reform “movement” would be howling in outrage if she were nominated.
Why should public school supporters accept an anti-public school Secretary when charter supporters would NEVER accept an anti-charter Secretary?
Why are we ordered to accept this when they never would?
It is shocking that someone with such a fringe world view could be put forth for such a significant cabinet position. It makes no sense, but this seems to be the new normal under Trump.
This topic is about children not the salvation of government schools. We live in a competitive world and if schools are failing, which many are, they need competition that will strike fear in them, that if they want to continue to exist they must compete. So the real question is; why are you afraid of school choice? I have to wonder what you have to gain by disavowing school choice and coldly leaving the child behind. Also, why shouldn’t we give parents the autonomy of their own home?
Mr. Forbes,
I have never heard of a school that got better because of fear. Is that how you treat your children?
Choice was invented by segregationists.
If it works so well, why is Betsy DeVos’ Home state of Michigan—overrun with Choice—experiencing dramatic academic decline?