Betsy DeVos and Randi Weingarten visited the public schools of rural Van Wert, Ohio. Randi wanted Betsy to see how important federal dollars are to a good public school. Betsy went along and got a promise from Randi to tour a school of choice with her.
Education Week says the “rifts” between them remain. Yeah, a rift the size of the Grand Canyon is not likely to close no matter how many schools they visit together or how often they meet.
Betsy’s spokesperson says she is not anti-public school. She just pours millions into campaigns of state and local candidates who support charters and vouchers, not public schools.
This effort to find common ground between polar opposites strikes me as pointless. It would be like bringing a devout Orthodox Jew to a Roman Catholic Church in hopes of changing his mind, or bringing a devout Roman Catholic to a synagogue and expecting to find common ground. Or hoping that a Bosox fan would be converted by a visit to the Yankees’ dugout. C’mon!
The New York Times’ account has this perceptive comment:
“Van Wert educators said they believed their biggest threat was school choice. An expanded voucher program would be “potentially catastrophic” for the district’s finances, said Mike Ruen, the district’s treasurer.
About 400 students now take advantage of a state open-enrollment policy, which Ms. DeVos endorsed during her visit. It allows students to attend an out-of-district school and take $6,000 in state per-pupil funding with them.
Most of them attend schools in a neighboring suburb. About 20 students are enrolled in an online charter school that has a 39 percent graduation rate. And a local vocational school takes 80 percent of the funding for each student who transfers there.
“Only one private school competes directly with Van Wert public schools: a small Catholic elementary school in town that the public school system provides special education services to, mostly at no charge. A Catholic high school 15 miles away is less of a draw, but could become one if parents receive vouchers. “I don’t think people are against choice,” Mr. Amstutz said. “But when you talk about expansion, taking money away from public schools, it gives people heartburn.”
Betsy DeVos will not change her mind about the importance of giving taxpayer dollars to every family to choose a charter school, a religious school, home schooling, a cyber charter, or whatever other option they want. They can even choose a public school. To the extent she is able, she will divert federal funds away from public schools to the other choices. She won’t resist Trump’s deep budget cuts. This visit will not transform her. It will not make her more attentive to the needs of the children in public schools. No doubt, she feels sorry for them because they are in public schools.
Randi will not stop being a union leader because of visiting a non-union charter or voucher school. She won’t stop believing in the importance or value of public schools. She won’t become a supporter of DeVos’s privatization agenda or Trump’s budget cuts.
Sorry, friends, but I don’t see the point of seeking “common ground.” There is none.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I agree. There are some differences that cannot be reconciled.
The news today is that security for DeVos has risen to $7.8 million, largely because one protester blocked her entrance to a public school. Projected costs for her security are $1 million a month or $7.78 million for services from February through September. Those costs will come from our taxes that arrive at USDE. Recall that the Trump budget calls for a USDE budget cut of $9 billion, or 13.5 percent.
I wonder what the costs were for Arne Duncan’s security. He certainly managed to insult a lot of people too. And I suppose we might ask if Randi has a security detail, given the hostilities to all things union by many who think that collective bargaining is for people who are free-riders, whiners, or snow flakes.
Randi probably needs security from her own union members as much as anything.
Laura,
You said it. AGREE.
She ought to pay for her own detail, if she feels that threatened. She can certainly afford it.
Christine,
Her brother Erik Prince has a private militia. They should protect her.
Bingo!
I’m not sure we want to release a private militia on protestors shouting slogans and waving signs. After all, they aren’t known for their restraint.
Your loyalty to Randi kind of surprises me, Diane. I was there in 2015 when she lied to your face at the NPE conference. She promised not to take any more Gates money, even as she was already doing so and planning to do more. That didn’t offend you? Personally, I find a (supposed) friend’s betrayal a lot more offensive than whatever garbage a known jerk like Trump can spew.
Anyway, the distance between Randi and Betsy isn’t really all that great. As I said yesterday, Randi supports unions so long as they support her. And she prefers charters to vouchers. But otherwise she has supported most of the same destructive policies that Betsy advocates. Both should be embarrassed to set foot in a public school (not that either has enough shame to be embarrassed).
Dienne,
This post is not about loyalty. It says that it’s useless to seek common ground when your adversary opposed everything you support.
Why twist words?
Because Randi advocates for “reform”…..same as DeVos… and throws teachers under the bus while collecting her paycheck from their union dues. I’m not a teacher and I can see it.
The loyalty enters in when you refuse to acknowledge how much common ground Randi and Betsy already share. And it’s not ground that you or I stand on. When Randi talks about finding “common ground” with Betsy, she means it the same way the Democrats do when they talk about finding “common ground” with Republicans. Translated: “what more/who else can we sell out to the highest bidder?”
The next litmus test for Randi and NEA managers, which drills down on which side they are on, is their willingness to speak out against Gates’ Frontier Set, a plan for higher ed. that doesn’t bother with veneer. The goal is “to implement business models for collaborative course development and delivery”. The Center for American Progress’ has an accompanying plan to replace faculty in the accreditation process. Rubio’s legislation introduced in March echoes the CAP plan. If NEA and AFT fail to publicly oppose the plans, not only are they sabotaging their members, they are undermining democracy.
I don’t fully agree with the Jew/Catholic analogy. I don’t think the goal has to be to turn the other side around 180 degrees, but rather just develop a mutual respect for each other’s point of view, which does occur between Catholics & Jews. I don’t know if that’s feasible either with public schools vs. vouchers, but it seems more possible than a complete turnaround by either side, which isn’t necessary in order for some progress to be made.
There can be no mutual respect between charters and public schools so long as they are both funded from the same pot of money. They are a mutual threat to each other’s existence, especially charters threatening public schools. If there is ever to be mutual respect, charters are going to have to be the ones to advocate that their funding should be separate from public schools’ funding.
What progress can be made when charters exist to cannibalize public funding?
I see your point, & I agree that charters shouldn’t feed of public schools. I’m just desperately trying to see hope wherever I can. 😦
Lenny,
From time to time, I hear from a charter leader who says, “We are not all bad.” And it is true. But these charters are outliers in what has become a predatory industry. They replace community public schools with corporate chain schools in which parents don’t even know whom to call when their child is suspended again and again. Don’t look to the charter industry for hope. Loook to the grassroots groups in your town or state and join them.
My wife is a retired NYC Schools social worker & keeps very informed about the field, often giving free expert advice to help parents with navigating the system to get their kids services. A few months before the local diploma rules change, we sent to all the Regents, including Dr. Rosa, a package she’d compiled of articles & research on special needs students & standardized testing, including examples from our daughter’s Regents exams, pointing out ways they were unfair. We don’t know if it had an effect on the decision that followed, we just wanted to be sure we’d given it our best shot. Even though we’ve had success from our years of effort on our daughter’s behalf, the issue is still important to us. Thanks for the suggestion — I’ll look for local groups also.
Like for your comment @ 12:05 pm!
No one doubts that the SecEd and the union president, hold polar opposite points of view (on most subjects). Nevertheless, I believe that there are some areas where agreement can be made, and common ground can be found. Regardless of the issues between them, there can be room for dialogue.
I guess that makes me a no one, because I very much doubt that.
Randi and DeVos DO NOT hold polar opposite points of view. Charters/ Choice?….what’s the difference? There is no difference. Randi is certainly NOT an advocate for public school teachers and children.
Soon after the nomination of Ms. DeVos was announced, I saw an interview with R. Weingarten on CSPAN. She was apoplectic, you would have thought that Pres Trump had nominated the anti-Christ to be SecEd. It should be obvious, that Ms. DeVos, and Ms. Weingarten hold dissimilar positions (on most topics). Especially on school choice/vouchers.
Am I missing something?
She’s apopleptic because DeVos is a Republican. It’s all an act. Weingartner believes firmly in school choice, she just prefers charters to vouchers. She’s been fully on board the Gates express to destroy public education and turn it into a de-professionalized standardized testing/CBE factory. Despite representing them, Weingartner holds no respect for teachers and she certainly doesn’t want to hear from them in her union (and yes, it is her union).
Yes, you are missing something. Randi throws teachers under the bus every chance she gets. Randi loves reform, CBL, charters (which is a CHOICE), money from Bill Gates etc….same as DeVos. They are NO different. What you saw on CSPAN was a dog and pony show. What happened yesterday was another dog and pony show with photo ops. Randi needs to go.
Lisa, it sounds like know what you are talking about. I feel like Will Rogers, “All I know is what I read in the papers”. I saw that interview with R.W. and I drew the conclusion, that she was opposed to the nomination of Ms. DeVos. I assumed that her opposition was due to the past work and positions taken by DeVos on various topics.
I had no idea, that R.W. and Betsy DeVos had any areas of agreement and commonality.
Live and learn.
Rhetorically, does Charles also think the Center for American Progress is working for democracy, instead of the tech tyrants and Wall Street?
I never heard of the Center for American Progress. I looked it up on the ‘net, and it appears to be a “think tank”. I have no opinion of this organization at all.
It’s a holding pen designed for staff of Hillary Clinton in anticipation of her election to the presidency – which didn’t happen.
I have found out here (and elsewhere) that there is a great deal of unhappiness with R. Weingarten. If the rank-and-file membership of the AFT is so disappointed, then they should by all means, institute a recall.
Randi always first in line to sell out her members. Vote her out and get a union leader not a enabler of the destruction of the public schools. Enough of her.
YES. “Betsy and Randi…” —- scariest words yet.
“Zero Sum Game”
Betsy got a win
And Randi got a loss
Betsy gets to spin
That Randi met DeVos
Short, concise and spot on!
“Most of them attend schools in a neighboring suburb. ”
Van Wert doesn’t have “suburbs”.
They may attend a neighboring school district but the nearest city is Toledo which is about 100 miles away. Toledo has suburbs, though 🙂
I feel like this shows one of the problems with ed reform coverage. Public schools are not limited to “suburban schools” and “urban schools”.
Rural schools THEMSELVES are very different- some have a lot of low income kids and some have very few. Some are well-funded and others are not.
This was exactly the point that people there were trying to get across to DeVos- that she can’t plunk the ed reform “choice” agenda down everywhere.
They failed, I think. It’s like a brick wall. She just recited the same slogans she repeats at every school.
I was blown away that she’s still pushing online classes in Ohio, though. Ohio’s giant experiment with “online learning” has been an unmitigated (and hugely expensive) disaster. Does she not know this?
She doesn’t hear what anyone says. Her script is deeply embedded in her head.
Excellent commentary on most not knowing a thing about rural schools. (just like I have very little direct knowledge of urban schools)
Can either Dick or Betsy understand KnowYourCharter.com’s clear-cut info? Wouldn’t Dick have to be convinced first, before Betsy’s mind could be pried open? Politico’s overview indicated biases are a DeVos family thing.
I credit Weingarten with choosing Van Wert. I wouldn’t have predicted that. There are two public districts in that general area who have wholly adopted the ed reform “data driven” approach and live and die by test scores. One of them got an award by the Obama Administration for bringing up test scores and according to parents they obsess on rankings.
I was honestly impressed that she looked at the whole picture and came up with an example that doesn’t really fit the ed reform template of “success”.
I love DeVos’ confident assertions that nothing will change for public schools with the huge ed reform push for vouchers.
The fact is she has no earthly idea how her experiment will play out for those schools and those kids. She doesn’t know the first thing about their finances, their tax base, what they offer, how fragile the funding is- nothing. Nada. Yet she makes promises.
I’d stop doing that if I were an ed reformer. Admit you don’t know, because you don’t.
I live in NW Ohio and if they make assurances to those people and then the experiment has unintended consequences FOR KIDS IN EXISTING PUBLIC SCHOOLS they will lose whatever small amount of credibility they have.
There’s already a sense they don’t value public schools. If public schools get hurt as a result of this ideological agenda people there will remember Mrs. DeVos and her broken promises.
DeVos was pushing online classes in Van Wert, like she does everywhere.
I hope public schools aren’t accepting this as some kind of “consolation prize” to make up for DC not supporting public schools.
Don’t accept this from lawmakers. It’s a cheap, low quality replacement for adequate support.
If DeVos can’t come up with anything else that she offers to kids in public schools she needs to go back to DC and work on finding something that adds value. Replacing teachers with screens and the K12 garbage she promotes is not good enough.
Insist they do better.
One of DeVos’ slogans is “I support schools that put students first”
I’m just wondering how she determines this.
How does she know Van Wert “puts students first”? How does she know the online Ohio charters she pushes “put students first”? Does the Catholic school in Van Wert put students first? It must since DeVos is lobbying for vouchers. But how does she know that?
Maybe she could show us a specific example of a public or charter or private school that puts students 2nd or 3rd so we could figure out what in the hell she’s talking about.
This stuff is political babble. It’s utterly meaningless. It may as well be a random sequence of consonants. She told those people NOTHING they need to know and they run a school! It’s full of kids! Right now! They need information on her plans.
Like!
“I support schools that put students first.” & what schools, exactly, does she “know,” since she has never taught in one or spent any lengthy amount of time in one? She likes virtual schools, and are those schools “that put students first?” I wouldn’t be surprised if she’d been a member of she-who-should-not-be-named’s organization, Students First.
And, BTW, whatever happened to THAT? (Bet s.w.s.n.b.n. is just swimming in all the $$$$$$$ they collected!)
As for Randi–good comments from dienne77 (as usual) & Lisa M (a new voice–welcome!)–not pleased w/her Chicago NPE conversation, either, & definitely not w/the UFT’s dismissal of the CTU at their national convention (I believe it was in L.A., & it was after the successful CTU strike–at that convention, CTU delegates had found their seating arrangements changed.
AND–don’t get me started on the early endorsement of HRC, which helped to get us the administration we currently have, thus DeVos.
For those who don’t realize what rbmtk’s “s.w.s.n.b.n” means:
“She who should not be named”, i.e., M. Rhee.
apologies to rbmtk for naming her-ha ha!
As I’ve noted on this blog time and time again, when it comes to protecting and defending public education, Randi Weingarten is – and has been – part of the problem.
A slight correction if I may democracy: “Randi Weingarten is – and has been – A MAJOR part of the problem.