Mercedes Schneider here does a close reading of one of Betsy DeVos’ greatest hits, the speech where she says that government sucks and the way to improve education is to let everyone get public money to go to school wherever they want without any oversight. Also, fire more teachers.
Betsy DeVos: “Government Sucks” and “We Don’t Fire Teachers Enough”
That pretty much sums up her deep philosophy.
Spurred by the financial clout and political power of the DeVos family, Michigan has embraced choice. A charter advocate wrote earlier to claim that the state has made unparalleled gains, thanks to choice. I knew this was wrong, but was on a car trip and couldn’t look up the NAEP data. In fact, Michigan’s academic performance relative to other states is in free fall.
On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the only reliable barometer of test performance, Michigan has gone into a decline over the past dozen years.
Michigan, already sliding toward the bottom nationally for fourth-grade reading performance on a rigorous national exam, is projected to fall to 48th place by 2030 if the state does nothing to improve education.
That finding is included in a report out today from Education Trust-Midwest, a nonpartisan education research and policy organization based in Royal Oak. The organization analyzed more than a decade’s worth of results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — or NAEP, a tough exam given to a representative sample of students in each state.
In 2003, Michigan ranked 28th in fourth-grade reading. In 2015, the state was ranked 41st.
“We’re certainly not on track to become a top 10 state any time soon,” said Amber Arellano, executive director of the organization. “It’s totally unacceptable for the economy, for business and especially for kids themselves.”
Among the 2015 NAEP results highlighted in the report:
• Michigan ranked 41st in fourth-grade reading, down from 28th in 2003.
• The state ranked 42nd in fourth-grade math, down from 27 in 2003.
• It ranked 31st in eighth-grade reading, down from 27th in 2003.
• It ranked 38th in eight-grade math, down from 34th.
The report is focused on the fourth-grade reading results because of how crucial it is for students to be able to read well by the end of third grade. But students have also struggled in math.
The achievement problem crosses demographic lines. Consider how various demographic groups in Michigan compared with similar demographic groups nationwide in fourth-grade reading in 2015: White students in Michigan ranked 49th, higher-income students in Michigan ranked 48th, and black students ranked 41st.
The problem? Many other states are outpacing Michigan, which has posted mostly stagnant — and in some cases declining — results on the NAEP.
“When you look at leading states … they’re like on a rocket ship and we’re on a snail,” Arellano said.
State officials are busily mapping plans and goals to become one of the top 10 states in the nation. But they are falling farther and farther down towards the bottom. If they keep up the DeVos formula, they will soon rank among the Southern states, where academic achievement has historically been low because of underfunding and high poverty.
Detroit has most of the charter schools in the state of Michigan. It is the lowest ranking urban district on the National Assessment of Education Progress. Many of the charter schools are far worse academically than the chronically underfunded public schools.
Don’t let anyone tell you that Michigan or Detroit have been improved by choice. The only reliable measure is the NAEP, and both Michigan and the city of Detroit are in terrible shape.
I was taped this morning for NPR’s “The Takeaway.” It comes on at different times on AM and FM.
The show interviewed a charter school advocate from Michigan, then me. The conversation was about Betsy DeVos and her crusade for charters and vouchers.
When I get a link to the show, I will post it.
Today, the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. DeVos and her family have devoted many millions of dollars to destroying public schools and turning the clock back by more than a century. She wants the government to pay tuition at religious schools, voucher schools, for-profit schools, any alternative to public schools is her goal.
American public education is one of the essential institutions of our democratic society. The guarantee to everyone in this country that they could attend a free public school was a hard-fought victory. First, it required persuading the public to tax themselves to pay for schools for the children of the community. Second, it required separating the schools from religious institutions, which had long been the source of education. Third, it meant expanding access to all: to boys and girls, to children of all races and cultures, to children whose first language was not English, and to children with disabilities.
None of of these changes came easily.
And the struggle to provide good schools is ongoing, since so many states base school funding on property taxes, which privileges those who are already advantaged.
DeVos is ignorant of the history of public education in America and the role of public schools in our society. Her hostility to public schools should disqualify her from consideration for this position.
Ken Zeichner, professor of teacher education at the University of Washington, warns that Betsy DeVos is unqualified to serve as Secretary of Education. Her efforts have been devoted to undermining public education and promoting public funding for religious schools. This is dangerous to a democratic society. He urges her defeat by the Senate Committee that will interview her tomorrow or by the Senate as a whole.
One of the main aspects of DeVos’ beliefs about education is to use public-tax money for vouchers that would enable students to attend unregulated private schools, including religious schools.
The research on the effects of voucher programs in Milwaukee and elsewhere clearly shows that these programs do not offer a better alternative to public schools for the families that use them, and they undermine the ability of public-school systems to educate the students who remain.
OK, this is not a foreign affairs blog, it is an education blog. But these days we can’t wall ourselves off from the fact that the incoming president of the United States is ignorant, destructive, and ready to throw away the rest of the world, except for Russia.
Trump stunned European leaders by belittling NATO and the European Union. The breakup of NATO is a long-treasured goal of Vladimir Putin. Europe is our most important trading partner in the world.
We have an incoming president who is indifferent to our allies, and to the agreements that maintained peace on the European continent since 1945.
He is a rogue president. He is ignorant and dangerous.
Is this the “change” that Trump voters wanted? Destabilization of the Transatlantic alliance? The world becomes more frightening by the minute as we approach the inauguration of this wild card, the joker in the deck.
GregPalast.com
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Thanks, Susan Schwartz, for calling my attention to this column by Paul Krugman and a new word for my vocabulary.
He writes about whether civil rights hero John Lewis showed “disrespect” to Trump by saying that his election was not legitimate.
Of course not. Many questions hang over this election:
By any reasonable standard, the 2016 election was deeply tainted. It wasn’t just the effects of Russian intervention on Mr. Trump’s behalf; Hillary Clinton would almost surely have won if the F.B.I. hadn’t conveyed the false impression that it had damaging new information about her, just days before the vote. This was grotesque, delegitimizing malfeasance, especially in contrast with the agency’s refusal to discuss the Russia connection.
Was there even more to it? Did the Trump campaign actively coordinate with a foreign power? Did a cabal within the F.B.I. deliberately slow-walk investigations into that possibility? Are the lurid tales about adventures in Moscow true? We don’t know, although Mr. Trump’s creepy obsequiousness to Vladimir Putin makes it hard to dismiss these allegations. Even given what we do know, however, no previous U.S. president-elect has had less right to the title. So why shouldn’t we question his legitimacy?
And talking frankly about how Mr. Trump gained power isn’t just about truth-telling. It may also help to limit that power.
Will Trump destroy NATO? Will he wreck government healthcare? Will he turn environmental policy over to the fossil fuel industry? Will he ruin public education? This is what is meant by kakistocracy.
Here are the eight richest men in the world.
They have as much money as the bottom half of all those in the world.
Whats wrong with with this picture?
Whats wrong with our our tax structure?
Nina Rees thinks Betsy DeVos is a great choice for US Secretary of Education. She would. She is the president and CEO of the National Alliance for “Public” Charter Schools and like DeVos, is devoted to privatization of community public schools.
I first met Nina when she worked for Vice President Dick Cheney as his education advisor. Before that, she worked for the extremely conservative Heritage Foundation. She subsequently worked for ex-felon Michael Milken, when he was entering the education industry.
What you will learn from her article:
The U.S. Department of Education has spent $3 billion on privately managed charter schools, through the administrations of Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
What you will will NOT learn from this article:
That charter schools and vouchers have NOT improved education.
That education in Michigan has suffered because of DeVos’ zeal for the unregulated free market.
That the destruction of democratic public education is a crime against children, families, and our society.
That NO high-performing nation in the world has turned public funding for schools over to the free market.
Diane Ravitch's blog 