John Flanagan, majority leader of the Republican-controlled state senate in New York, endorsed Betsy DeVos, shocking parent leaders and educators. Flanagan showed himself to be an enemy of public schools.

State Sen. Flanagan Draws Heat for Supporting Trump’s Education Secretary Pick

Michael Hynes, superintendent of Patchogue-Medford Schools, said Flanagan’s support of DeVos is “reprehensible.”

“It shows his true colors, and clearly he does not care about public education,” said Hynes, who has been a leading critic of the reliance on standardized state test scores to measure student performance.

Jeanette Deutermann, a Common Core critic, leader of the Opt-Out movement on Long Island and member of the steering committee for the New York State Allies for Public Education, denounced Flanagan’s endorsement of DeVos.

“Anyone who watched those confirmation hearings or dipped even an inch into her background yet still supports her nomination is doing so under a delusional ego-driven political pretense and cares nothing for his young constituents in our Long Island public schools or their parents,” Deutermann told the Press.

“Marla Kilfoyle, social studies teacher at Oceanside High School and manager of teacher advocacy group Badass Teachers Association, said that Flanagan’s support for DeVos proved his lack of concern not only for the students of New York, but for the entire nation.

“John Flanagan has shown time and time again that he will put his own needs and wants before the families and children of New York State,” Kilfoyle told the Press. “To endorse a dangerously unqualified candidate like Betsy DeVos, who had no clue that [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] was a federal law that states had to follow, who had no clue what the difference was between proficiency and growth, and who said that guns were okay in schools so we could shoot grizzly bears, only proves she is absolutely unqualified.”

DeVos had pushed for passage of Michigan’s first charter-school bill in 1993, which allowed public money to be used for semi-independent schools that operated outside of the regulations that govern more traditional public schools. Public and private funds poured into the charter initiatives, but there was virtually no transparency on how that money was spent. A Detroit Free Press investigation reported that students’ standardized-test scores at charter schools were no better than traditional public school scores.

“The report also found that lower-income students were “effectively segregated into poorer-performing schools, while the parents of more privileged students were better equipped to navigate the system.”