The Harvard Program on Education Policy and Governance did everything possible to make Betsy DeVos feel comfortable, surrounding her with allies in the fight for school choice, but it wasn’t enough.
Protestors outside complained, and students in the audience asked unsympathetic questions about her enthusiasm for school choice, her admiration for for-profit charters, and her determination to roll back the Obama era regulations protecting civil rights. Not even her fellow panelists could save her.
When she was asked why she opposed accountability for charters in Michigan, she answered with a non sequitur. She said that the families with means had already abandoned Detroit, and the charters were a haven for those who remained behind. She forgot about the kids still enrolled in public schools, who are apparently non-persons. And her explanation made no sense.
As she left the stage, some students in the room called out, “What does white supremacy look like? That’s what white supremacy looks like.”
Meanwhile, the Department of Education awarded more than $250 million to states and charter chains to open new charters and expand existing ones.
In her statement accompanying the grants, DeVos said:
“These grants will help supplement state-based efforts to give students access to more options for their education, What started as a handful of schools in Minnesota has blossomed into nearly 7,000 charter schools across the country.”
“Charter schools are now part of the fabric of American education, and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to work with states to help ensure more students can learn in an environment that works for them.”
Shame on any Democrat who supports the DeVos agenda of charter schools and school choice. This is a flimsy, hard-hearted response to income inequality, poverty, and underfunding of schools that enroll students with high needs.
She is a one-woman wrecking crew, intent on destroying the legacy of Horace Mann and other genuine pioneers and reformers in the struggle for public education. Her legacy will be one of wreckage and destruction, untempered by any compassion for those in need. She should ask herself why she generates such antipathy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Why am I not surprised that Devos evoked Waiting for Superman for proof that public schools are failing.
Here’s a video with highlights of Devos’ speech at Harvard:
The Q & A pretty much ended when one a Harvard grad student asked Devos one doozy of a question. This prompted the moderator to tell Devos to refuse the answer the question, then quickly lead her off-stage to chants of …
“WHAT does white supremacy look like?” THAT’S what white supremacy looks like.
Here’s that question:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
(1:55 – )
(1:55 – )
JEFF VERSAY (sp?) :
“Hi, my name is Jeff Versay. I’m a Master in public administration student here at the Kennedy School.
“So, You’re a billionaire with lots and lots of investments, and the so-called *’school choice’ movement is a way to open the floodgates for corporate interests to make money off the backs of students.*
“How much do *you expect your net worth to increase as a result of your policy choices and what are your friends on Wall Street and in the business world—like the Koch brothers—saying about the potential to get rich off the backs of students?”*
MODERATOR:
“You can choose not to answer that, Secretary.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Here’s an account of the protests at the DAILY KOS:
https://m.dailykos.com/stories/2017/9/29/1702700/-Betsy-DeVos-faces-absolutely-stunning-silent-protest-at-Harvard?detail=facebook
DAILY KOS:
While Trump’s swamp-addled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos tried to speak at Harvard University to sell her special privatization of public school branding “school choice,” she found herself the subject of an incredibly powerful and well-orchestrated “silent” protest.
Silently standing up as the DeVos speech got under way was one young woman, holding up a sheet with “White Supremacist” emblazoned in red on it.
Then another young man stood up silently with a sign reading “Our Students Are Not 4 Sale!” As security tried move protestors along by speaking to them, more and more students unfurled signs saying “Protect Survivors’ Rights,” “Our Harvard Can Do Better,” “Reclaiming My Democracy,” and “Dark Money,” amongst others.
During her stupid speech promoting charter schools, she tried the rhetorical oratory trick of asking a rhetorical question.
DEVOS: “So what do we do? Increase funding? Does that solve the problem?”
To which a student responded, “Yes.”
In the silence of the room, the answer is clear and perfect. Students responded with snapping instead of clapping during the protest—keeping the volume of the event very low.
DeVos is still selling soap. This time, the soap is toxic.
“Her legacy will be one of wreckage and destruction, untempered by any compassion for those in need.”
YEP!
And she’s just falling in step with all the US Dept of Ed’s prior secretaries starting with Paige extending through Spellings, Duncan and King. Edudeformer and privateer supporters all of them. And now this gal with her choice mantra “Ooommm, choice, oooommm, choice, Oooommm more choice.” (hopefully for her the xtian fundie type choice.)
Another Dumb-ass Devos Analogy (from Devos’ Harvard speech)
I just watched a short video of the Harvard event posted on the WASHINGTON POST’s site:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/politics/students-silently-protest-devos-at-harvard/2017/09/28/d1368248-a49f-11e7-b573-8ec86cdfe1ed_video.html?utm_term=.84476553f077
And here Devos is offering the latest of her inane analogies in support of school choice — analogies that support her pushing charter schools to replace public schools.
First, let’s recap her past analogies.
Last spring, she tried comparing charter schools to Uber and Air-bnb:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/03/devos-mom-with-axe.html
.. then later to the pioneers who settled the American west:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/09/betsy-devos-is-rethinking.html
… then to cell phone companies:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/05/devos-boldly-trampling-public-education.html
.. then to Netflix wiping out Blockbuster:
http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/05/devos-boldly-trampling-public-education.html
Now, in the above link (the first one in this post), she’s now blathering away at Harvard, comparing charter schools to … wait for it … food trucks selling portable fast food (we used to call them “roach coaches” when I used to do construction jobs during the summers of my college years … you know, cockroaches are mixed in the food being sold … and all that).
It’s such an utterly idiotic and totally false analogy that I don’t even know where to begin. (Who writes this garbage for her?)
John Oliver said it best in when he countered a similar analogy from Ohio Governor John Kasich, who said that pizza gets better, with the more pizza places that get opened.
OLIVER: “(As with schools) … the idea that the quality of pizza improves with the more pizza places that get opened has been definitively refuted by the two words: “PAPA JOHN’S’ .”
Oh, I almost forgot what was perhaps the worst such comparison from Devos — claiming that Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s) were early examples of “school choice.”
At this point, all hell broke loose, with the ensuing national outrage forcing her to walk back that statement:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/02/28/devos-called-hbcus-pioneers-of-school-choice-it-didnt-go-over-well/?utm_term=.d4a1a82ea1a0
On the bright side, that inane comparison of hers immediately led to a nationally-covered protest when Devos was (incredibly) invited to give a commencement speech at one of those HBCU’s:
This fiasco reached the height of absurdity when the university president, attempting to lend support to Devos, tries an ad lib to quell the protest. He comes to the mic, pushes Devos aside, then threatens to withhold the students’ diplomas (???!!!) if they don’t behave.
Basically, he was treating these adult college graduates — on the day of one of the most important milestones of their lives — as if they were all kindergartners, and he was their teacher… sort of …
“If you kids don’t behave, I’m cancelling tomorrow’s ice cream party! And I mean it!!!
This is just one example of the insanity that Devos has unleashed on our educational system.
Here’s my favorite tweet in response to the Devos’ HBCU controversy:
Another similar tweet compared Devos HBCU comment to someone saying that the Montgomery bus boycott — where, for over a year, African-Americans boycotted the “back-of-the-bus” rules by walking instead of riding the city’s buses — as “pioneering scenic walking paths” for African-Americans.
The abject stupidity of DeVos on every educational issue has forced me to dust off the idea of not merely being unqualified, but of being totally anti-qualified for the job you’ve been given. Let’s not forget that she is the first nominee in history who needed the tie breaking vote of the Vice President in order to be confirmed. She is the sludge on the bottom of the bucket of the Trump cabinet of deplorables, and I praise them all with faint damnation by being kind enough to call them only that.
And then there’s this —
http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2017/09/28/john-engler-appointed-national-assessment-board-chair/106083554/
One person who has studied and written a book about Devos’ and right-wing Christian attempts to infiltrate and take over public schools said the following:
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
KATHERINE STEWART:
“Betsy DeVos has historically funded two things with equal generosity: the religious right on the one hand, and the privatization efforts of public education on the other. The reason for that is straightforward: she, like many members of the extreme end of the conservative movement, believes in both economic libertarianism and religious fundamentalism, and she sees them as being grounded in each other and mutually reinforcing.
“The idea is that if you turn schools over to to the genuinely ‘free market,’ they will inculcate the ‘correct’ religious values in students. And there won’t be a need to worry about the separation of church and state, because they will be the same thing.
“The astonishing thing about DeVos is just how much contempt she exudes for the public schools that she is charged with overseeing. When Trump insulted ‘our failing government schools,’ you can be sure that the sentiment chimed with her own beliefs. She rarely loses an opportunity to say that the system isn’t working, that the schools are failing, that they are losing ground, and so on. She seems to make a point of minimizing contact with the people most closely connected with traditional public schools.
“On a recent visit to Florida, she was criticized for visiting a private school, a charter school, and a voucher school, but no traditional public schools. This attitude is a clear prelude to destructive policy moves.
” … ”
“When Christian Nationalists (such as Devos & others) say they wish to ‘take our country back,’ they are not being hyperbolic; they are being honest. They have told us that they abhor our public schools, and that they pray for the day such schools cease to exist. Leaders of Christian Nationalists’ judicial strategy have told us that they want to eradicate the ‘so-called’ wall of separation between church and state, and that the time has come to return our schools to the Lord.
“They are telling us what they really think, and we should listen to them now, before it is too late.”
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
All of the above quotes are from here:
http://www.alternet.org/christian-right-partner-public-school
Thanks, Jack, good stuff!
Hahahahaha! Great news! I can now go into the weekend in good spirits.
She’s selling a fairy tale, though. Everyone can’t have all the “choices” of school because there’s a finite amount of funding and students – what she’s describing is chaos where one wouldn’t know if their school would be open year to year and it would be impossible to plan.
I don’t know why she keeps turning to higher ed as a comparison- the higher ed system is 1. inequitable, 2. expensive, 3. hugely inefficient.
Chiara, I agree with your comment about univs. But you have to love the students there! 🙂 They know what to do: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCdr_QFZrsA
I don’t know why she defends Michigan as a model for ed reform. Michigan has dropped in education rankings every year ed reformers have been in charge.
Ed reform has been a disaster there.
Also, the only people who say “the heartland” are pandering politicians- I have never in my life heard a regular person refer to the midwest as “the heartland”.
I know. In Michigan, during the last 20 years, Devos used her money — and the political clout that came with it — to get EVERYTHING she wanted in that state’s educational system.
During that same 20 years, Michigan’s schools went from one of the top ten states in the nation to one of the bottom ten, in terms of educational outcomes. Michigan’s school system is Betsy’s sort of laboratory experiment, and her experiment totally failed, yet she wants to spread this to the rest of the country.
When confronted with this, she, along with her allies, basically dodges the question.
The US Department of Education continues their singular focus on charter and private schools:
“The Education Department has awarded more than $250 million in charter grants to states, charter management organizations, and agencies that help finance the costs of building new schools.
“These grants will help supplement state-based efforts to give students access to more options for their education,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a release. “Charter schools are now part of the fabric of American education, and I look forward to seeing how we can continue to work with states to help ensure more students can learn in an environment that works for them.”
It’s just not true to say they’re “agnostic”- there wasn’t a single public school advocate invited to that Harvard conference.
I don’t mind that they all promote charters and vouchers over public schools- it’s an opinion- but why not just come out and admit it rather than put on this ridiculous show where public schools get an obligatory sentence tacked on at the end of whole days promoting their preferred schools? It’s not fair to the public to mislead like this.
If your position is privatization why not admit it? We’re paying thousands of public employees who don’t believe public schools should exist and don’t lift a finger for them. That’s not a good return for the public since 90% of kids are in public schools.
DeVos listed several things she hopes to do for charter schools and private schools- can she list anything specific she plans to do for public schools?
I’m wondering why 90% of schools are excluded from consideration at the federal level- how can that be possible unless it’s ideological?
In what way is she at all relevant to public school families? What value does she add?
http://iop.harvard.edu/forum/conversation-empowering-parents-secretary-betsy-devos
Program introduction, at 0:33:00
DeVos speaks, at 0:41:40
Petterson and DeVos conversation, at 1:03:15
Q&A, at 1:16:50.
Some things DeVos said that reveal she embodies a real ideological danger to country floating on undercurrents of selfishness, IMHO:
(51:13) “No one thinks choice in higher education is wrong. So why is it wrong in elementary, middle, or high school? Instead of dividing the public when it comes to public education, the focus should be the end, not on the means. We should be for students, all students. And that is why I’m for parents having access to the learning environment that’s right fit for their child. I believe in students, and I trust parents. So with that understanding of choice, what does the future look like?
I’m not a creature of Washington, so I am not afraid to say this: We do not know what the future of school choice looks like. And that is something of which I am not only okay, it’s something I celebrate and embrace. The future of choice should be whatever parents want for their children. The future of choice relies upon parents being empowered to make choices for their children.”
(52:45) “That’s why I wholeheartedly believe the future of choice does not begin with a new federal mandate from Washington. That might sound counter intuitive to some, coming from U. S. Secretary of Education. But after eight months in Washington, and three decades working in states, I know if Washington tries to mandate choice, all we’ll end up with is a mountain of mediocrity, a surge of spending, and a bloat of bureaucracy to go along with it. But Washington does have a supporting role to play in the future of choice. We can amplify the voices of those who only want better for their kids. We can assist states who are working to further empower parents and urge those who haven’t. We don’t need a new federal program to administer. Washington and, in particular, the U. S. Department of Education, just need to get out of the way. That’s because the real future of choice is in states. It’s their futures to shape and it’s already underway today.”
She has spent three decades and millions of dollars undermining public education and our civic obligation to assure good public schools for each and every child.