Lily Eskelsen Garcia forced herself to sit down and listen to Betsy DeVos’ speech at Harvard, where she thought she would be in a choice-friendly environment, surrounded by allies at the Program on Educational Policy and Governance, led by choice advocate Paul Peterson. As we now know, students in the audience rejected her message and unfurled banners expressing their opposition to her policies.
Lily has refused to meet with DeVos because of her well-known contempt for public schools and the teaching profession.
This is her reaction to DeVos’ remarks.
“At times, I felt like I was getting a root canal without novocaine from the dentist in “The Little Shop of Horrors.” When the pain subsided, I was more convinced than ever that DeVos knows little about public schools and even less about their mission.
“Here’s a summary:
“1. DeVos talked about her Rethink School tour, applauding the schools she visited for openly stating: “’We’re not for everybody and we don’t expect everybody to want to come here.’ I think all schools should have that attitude.”
“She doesn’t understand the concept of “public” schools—schools that are open to all students, no matter what language is spoken at home, what the family income is, what their religion or race is, what abilities or disabilities they have, whether they are gay, straight, or transgender. The mission of public schools is to provide opportunities for each and every student who walks through the door, not to roll up the welcome mat, bar the door, and declare: “Sorry, but we’re not for everybody.”
“I think we already went through that time in history. There was even a name for it: Segregation.
“2. When she mentioned the places she visited during her tour, there was one noticeable omission: Michigan, her home state. Who can blame her? She funded efforts in Michigan to siphon funds from students in public schools, allowing for-profit companies to operate schools with taxpayer money and no accountability. The result? Schools with shoddy academic records continued operating for years; no state standards focus on who operates or oversees charters; and schools routinely close without giving families or educators adequate notice.
“This, apparently, is her goal from coast to coast.”
Read on to understand Lily’s reaction.
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Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
The office that DeVos holds entitles her to travel around and spread her bias against a public institution that has served our nation well. She understands nothing about public education, and she has no intention of learning. She is her own echo chamber with her own closed circuit agenda. So she will travel the country indulging in false analogies about the free market. The more she spews her lies and shows her ignorance the more the public has her number, and resistance will continue to grow.
The six words which seem to describe school reformer after school reformer: “…she has no intention of learning.”
And she doesn’t work much, too. Good that she doesn’t work. Keeps her hands out of the cookie jar.
We have yahoos in charge. Is this a relfection of how stupid this country has become.
Please stop saying she doesn’t understand.
She does not understand what she is trying to destroy. She has zero personal experience with public education. Her motives are based on her bias. She fully knows and understands that she wants to destroy the common good of public education because her ultimate goal is backpack vouchers, a very inefficient plan and so far proven to be ineffective. At least that is the way I see DeVos.
She doesn’t know in the same way that I don’t know about the mating habits of cockroaches – it’s just not something that’s ever interested me, just like public education is not a topic that interests DeVos.
She doesn’t pretend to. In fact, she wants a completely different system of publicly-FUNDED schools.
She’s utterly rejected public schools as viable or worthwhile, which is crazy because that’s where 90% of kids go, but such is the wacky world of ed reform.
They don’t see themselves as working for existing public schools. They see themselves as working for the alternate, privatized system they desire.
Which may be a bit of a problem since the public who they supposedly work for attend the schools they oppose, but that somehow doesn’t get in the way of The Movement.
Chiara you are wrong because Devos said she supports all types of schools not just charters and she really loves public schools but wants to remain in Donalds good side
Yes, she really loves public schools. She loves black people and Hispanic people and Jewish people and gay people, especially transgender people. Did I forget anyone else she loves?
A long list of anxieties — around school budget cuts, bullying, coarse political discourse and the shaky status of immigrant students — is taking a toll on teachers, a new survey shows, with more educators now saying their mental health is suffering than just two years earlier.
More at https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/30/survey-teachers-mental-health-declining-amid-job-stress/811577001/
I find it interesting that just about all member of the Trump executive board have been replaced but Devos still remains. The interesting fact is that Devos was the least executive member to get approved as she was exposed as a person who knows very little about education. However she was approved by Pence and forced into the position. Now, she remains in position still and I believe only because Trump does not give one rats ass about education because if he did Devos would have been gone also.
Pence and DeVos drink from the same evangelical, fundie xtian calvinist chalice.
Randi took DeVos to an excellent public school beloved by its community in Iowa, where she saw children involved in projects and excited about learning. The school is in Trump country. Was DeVos impressed? No, she went on to bash public schools as soul-killing places where children sit in fixed desks and watch the teacher lecture in a bored voice. The woman is not capable of listening or learning. Her ideas are fixed in concrete.
DeVos on public schools: [start] “1. DeVos talked about her Rethink School tour, applauding the schools she visited for openly stating: “’We’re not for everybody and we don’t expect everybody to want to come here.’ I think all schools should have that attitude.” [end].
Over the years this blog has been hectored by the charter choice crowd on what constitutes the surefire path to quality education.
The posting correctly notes that there is a name for this expression of their innermost thoughts and desires, a solution that has a checkered and sordid history: segregation.
Perhaps the “Undo Public Schools Tour” would be a more fitting label.
☹️
Just sayin’…
😎
P.S. So are they abandoning all pretense of observing the spirit of their own description of themselves—“the new civil rights movements of our time”—or are they just being honest about protecting the rights of such persecuted and downtrodden folks as billionaires and hedge fund managers and those defending the heritage embodied in statues of Confederate military leaders and those “many fine people” that can be found among white supremacists and neo-nazis?
The silence is deafening…
“RETHINK” is another BUZZ word being used today and people BITE. Same with the word, “REFORM.”
We need know the real meaning used by the deformers.
REFORM = DEFORM
RETHINK = MARKET DEFORM
BEST EDUCATION for NON-ELITE = ENSLAVE
She understands that public schools get billions of dollars and that some of that money can be diverted to vouchers and charters.
What more is there to understand?
“Trolls Understand”
Trolls are understanding
Standing under crossing
And tolls they are demanding
A practice called “DeVossing”
DeVossing from one’s money
The taxes paid for schools
In Land of Milken honey
The winners make the rules
Milken honey. Now that’s talent.
“Lily has refused to meet with DeVos because of her well-known contempt for public schools and the teaching profession.”
And I totally disagree with that stance.
She should be meeting with her, hounding her with letters as follow up to those meetings in order to more publicly counteract DeVos’s lack of public education knowledge. Her non-engagement with DeVos reeks of absurdity and weakness. “Hrrrummphhh, I don’t like you, I’m taking my ball and going home!” If Lily doesn’t know how to handle herself in direct contact with DeVos so as to not be used by DeVos then the NEA needs a new “leader” who does.
@Duane: Thumbs up! I am totally baffled at the attitude of Ms. Eskelsen. To refuse to even deal with the SecEd is ludicrous.
Q If ignorant both of your enemy and yourself, you are certain to be in peril.ENDQ Sun Tzu
Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/s/suntzu384543.html
“Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer” _ Michael Corleone
I applaud Lily for refusing to legitimize the enemy of public schools.
You can’t be serious. The head of the teacher’s union, and the SecEd, should have dialog. Just conversing, does not in itself imply legitimacy nor approval. The USA and the Soviet Union, kept a dialog open during the cold war.
And it is not up to any labor union president, to confer legitimacy. The President appointed Ms. DeVos, and the Senate confirmed her. She is the SecEd, like it or not.
Lily decides to whom she speaks. Why waste time on a woman whose goal is to destroy the public schools and the teaching profession?
The fact that the head of the teacher’s union and the Secretary of Education should dialog, is self-explanatory.
Regardless of the positions stated by the SecEd, on the topics of school choice,etc. the membership of the union, should insist that the head of their union, be in communications with the SecEd.
“Why waste time on a woman whose goal is to destroy the public schools and the teaching profession?”
Because that is part of her job-to confront those who seek to destroy her members’ working conditions while at the same time espousing malpractices that harm children.
Yes, it is Garcia Eskalon’s job to confront DeVos. And no she would not be legitimizing DeVos in doing so. DeVos is already illegitimate as Sec of Ed.
@Duane: Thumbs up! The head of the teachers’ union, should have a dialog with the SecEd. This dialog, does not confer legitimacy. Part of the union president’s job, is to confront and challenge the policies, which impact education in this country. A boycott serves no one’s interest. The maxim in law is “Silence is consent”. Refusing to even converse, constitutes consent.
Charles,
I expect that dialogue will be as successful as dialog with you.
You never listen. You never change your mind.
Political decisions are often based on compromise. There are many areas, where the president of the teacher’s union and the SecEd, can work together, and achieve results for the common good.
I listen, believe me. I change my mind, and compromise, often.
I support quality public schools, I always have.
Please name a compromise that DeVos has made.
Ms. DeVos has definitely compromised on attempting to get the federal government to provide seed money to the several states, to initiate school choice programs. Getting a program like that through the congress (anytime soon) is impossible.
She has compromised, by changing tactics, and carrying the fight directly to the states.
“The general who advances without coveting fame and retreats without fearing disgrace, whose only thought is to protect his country and do good service for his sovereign, is the jewel of the kingdom.” Sun-Tzu. Betsy DeVos is the jewel in the crown of our President.
Charles, you mentioned her defeat in shoving choice onto every state but you have not mentioned a single compromise. not one.
I have not yet seen Ms. DeVos make any compromises on her agenda. Nevertheless, she has compromised on her tactics, and shifted her emphasis away from pressing for direct federal funding in school choice issues.
I would not rule out, her making compromises in the future, on agenda.
“Politics is the art of the possible” -Author unknown
No, Charles, wrong again. DeVos did not change tactics “by shifting her emphasis away from pressing for direct federal funding in school choice issues.” She had no choice. Congress rejected her budget proposals. They did, however, give her $253 million for expanding charter schools. Which is direct funding of school choice. But it ain’t the $20 Billion she asked for.
“The Huff and puff Game”
Doncha know
It’s all for show?
Dog and pony
Stale baloney
Both Lily and Randi are complicit. They are happy to sit down with Gates, the Zuck etc and sell out the teachers that pay their salaries. You’re right when you say that Lily is playing like a 5 yr old not getting her way. The problem is that if she starts opening her mouth too much, people will figure out what she and Randi have been up to for a few years.
Agree, I asked years ago where are the Unions??? They are part of the problem because they have not done enough to educate the American Public about the Reform Take Over of Public Schools.
I am not sure what we want from the labor leadership. When Randi and/or lily have engaged with the “opposition” they have been called sellouts. I remember numerous snide remarks about “a seat at the table.” So now Lily gets vilified for not engaging with DeVos. Huh? Which is it. They are damned if they do and damned if they don’t. I don’t know what to think other than the reformers only need to sit back while we destroy our own unions. I can’t tell you what I would do differently, but I am beginning to think that we are our own worst enemy.
@Speduktr….It’s the fact that they actually ENGAGE with the opposition. They don’t say NO! They say thank you very much for the big donation and we will be happy to have all of our teachers kiss your beloved A$$ and to hell with those stupid little snot nosed brats that feel entitled to a decent public education. Sorry, but Randi and Lily don’t have the guts to demand a seat at the grown up table….they have been told to sit in the kindergarten seats.
They allowed the past administration to use the bully pulpit to federalize education using common core standards and standardized testing. Arne played right into Gates Dream of the Data Quality Campaign Longitudinal database where they wanted to compare schools and states across the country. FERPA was allowed to be weaken for these databases to be created. In addition Duncan supported the expansion of charter schools. The call for his resignation came too late from the Unions after push back and outcries over his policies and federal reach came loud and clear from an informed public with opt outs and news reports. Absolutely more could have been done. TV adds, national letter campaigns for starters.
I think that SecEd DeVos is fully aware of the state of public education in this nation. Do not make the mistake of underestimating this woman.
How can she be aware of the state of education when she has contempt for the public schools that educated most Americans?
It takes awareness to develop contempt. Too many people are underestimating Ms. DeVos.
You are right, Charles. Don’t underestimate DeVos desire to destroy public education and undermine civil rights.
No, Charles, it takes awareness to develop understanding. DeVos’s contempt is a result of her aloofness – her ASSumption that she and her ilk are superior to everyone else.
“The mission of public schools is to provide opportunities for each and every student who walks through the door. . . ”
Sure wish those public schools would provide those opportunities without the discrimination via mental capabilities that they thrust on the students in the standards and testing malpractices, harming so many students in the process.
Indeed. There is a big difference between what the “mission” is/has been, and what we actually do.
The way unions and professional organizations have been most complicit in the education war has been their acquiescence to the test and punish crowd and to the boys who cry accountability. Wait until there really is a crisis and teachers are really not teaching. Who will believe them. The wolf will appear and devour the education system because there will really be no accountability.
Our NEA should have long ago rejected the idea of the test instead of using it when it seemed to support NEA policy and rejecting it when it did not.
I believe there is already a crisis. Teachers are NOT teaching, they are teaching to the test and that’s not education. In my district, every teacher is teaching the same thing on the same day (approx), the curriculum is pulled off the main computer, the tests in every school are exactly the same and given at approx the same day. We are Common Core heavy and AP for all.
Extremely sad such malpractices that you describe.
Lisa. This is frightening. Sterile curriculum from afar. O brave new world. To quote Caliban : you taught me language, and my profit on’t is, I know how to curse.