Betsy DeVos has energized resistance to the privatization movement. She has stripped away the mask of Democratic support for privatization. She supports charters and vouchers. Trump supports charters and vouchers. Charters are the gateway drug to vouchers. Democrats who support charters are supporting DeVos’ agenda.
It is not just teachers who oppose DeVos and her privatization plans. It is parents, grandparents, citizens. Ninety percent of Americans went to public school. The U.S.is the most powerful nation in the world. We should thank our public schools.
If you don’t like DeVos’ plans to eliminate public schools, join the Network for Public Education. Join us in Indianapolis in October.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I don’t know if you-all saw this but the Florida state candidate who just won ran on supporting public schools:
“Margaret believes in the value of public education and opposes the use of our taxpayer dollars to fund for-profit charter schools. Margaret believes that any school that receives state funding must be held to the same standard as public schools.
Margaret knows that Florida’s teachers are one of our greatest resources and will fight to ensure that teachers’ salaries reflect the important work they do.
We cannot continue to divert state money to private schools in the form of vouchers. State voucher spending is projected to hit $1 billion by 2020. These schools are not being held accountable for the education of the students that attend, and are often not providing the quality of education our children deserve. Margaret will stop the excessive flow of money to private schools that aren’t meeting the needs of our students.”
https://margaretgood.com/
DeVos is far Right and anti-public schools. I don’t think most people want to eradicate public schools.
You have to remember she exists within an echo chamber- public school advocates and supporters are never even invited to all these DC ed reform events DeVos attends. She’s surrounded by privatization cheerleaders- no one else is allowed in.
Go look at her promotion of the proposed Trump budget. All she talks about is the billion for charters and vouchers. Public school families don’t even exist in her world. 90% of families aren’t heard from at all in DC.
C,
“Margaret believes in the value of public education”–I was just thinking that in the 1950s, 1960s, this phrase regarding a politician would have sounded inane. Because it was a given that political leaders believed in our public schools. Even in an era with big Catholic school enrollments.
Dr Ravitch, this isn’t just my imagination, is it?
For an example of the historical and empirical misrepresentations of charters and choice, look at the latest narrative here. Notice also the threatening tone of the remarks directed toward critics of charters and choice. The Trump effect is on full display.
https://www.the74million.org/article/manno-return-of-the-jedi-progressive-k-12-reformers-strike-back-in-defense-of-charter-schools/?utm_source=The+74+Million+Newsletter&utm_campaign=603ed325e4-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_13&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_077b986842-603ed325e4-176113397
Bruno Manno is a sweet guy who was long ago my friend. Now he works for the anti-union, Charter-loving Walton Family Foundation and must sing their song. Private choice, good. Public schools, bad. Too bad he lacks any evidence.
I read that Bruno Manno piece and I don’t understand people like him who double down on whatever they are paid to double down on and see no evil at all because their generous salary depends on it. I find Manno to be no different than the people who Trump hires for his staff like Kelly who may not have started out as corrupt but have decided that any lies and any untruths are justified because their career depends on it.
Here is my favorite quote from the embarrassing article he wrote:
“Shavar Jeffries, president of Democrats for Education Reform, criticized the analysis on two fronts. First, he said the methodology “makes apples-to-oranges comparisons that contrast the demographics of individual charter schools to those of entire cities.”
LOL! This tells you how truly despicable charter promoters like Manno and Shaver Jeffries have become. They ALWAYS make “apples-to-oranges” comparison when it comes to comparing test scores. It truly takes chutzpah for them to complain about charter critics doing the same thing that they have specialized in doing for years.
The second quote that demonstrates Manno’s complete abandonment of any interest in truth or the millions of children who are invisible to him because the charter operators that his employer funds have decided are unworthy to be educated: “Jonathan Chait of New York magazine, a longtime center-left follower of charter schools….”
Notice Manno leaves out that Jonathan Chait’s wife is just like Manno and her very generous salary is entirely dependent on the largesse of billionaires who want charter schools and demand fealty and abandonment of people’s concern for ALL children in favor of the ones who charters choose are worthy of teaching. Chait will never criticize anything a charter operator does, period. His wife’s job depends on him pretending to see no evil whatsoever whenever that evil is done by a charter operator who is favored by the same billionaires who subsidies his families lifestyle.
Shavar Jeffries of DFER is a lawyer, whose organization exists to sell charters. He refuses to debate Julian Vasquez Heilig, a scholar. Why should His PR support for charters surprise anyone?
Chait’s wife Teaches in a charter school.
Jonathan Chait’s wife doesn’t teach. She taught for a few years in a charter and is now an administrator for charters, which I suspect is far more lucrative and yet far less taxing of a job.
All those overpaid charter promoters taught a year or two which they feel is all the experience they need to be able to determine which children are worthy of teaching and which have to be put on the got to go lists that Jonathan Chait has defended as just an “anomaly” because the African-American parents whose kids were drummed out are never believed when a white charter operator who is the favorite of the people paying his wife’s salary call them all liars.
Thanks for the clarification. Chait regularly attacks me on Twitter for my criticism of charters.
Chait attacks you on twitter? That is appalling!
I can understand his need to defend every “let’s drum out the unworthy and violent (non-white) kindergarten children” no-excuses charter school that the billionaires who support his wife’s career want to defend, but to directly attack you on twitter makes Chait complicit. It is beyond acceptable and he should know when his attacks have crossed from “I will defend my wife from any criticism to protect her career” to “I will attack good people because the billionaires who support my wife’s career will be happy.” I wonder if he realize how completely racist he seems as he defends the right of white charter CEOs to claim that extraordinarily high numbers of African-American 5 year olds act out violently. It is especially appalling when the children that Chait insists act out violently (because a white charter CEO tells him so) all have caring and devoted parents who specifically sought out the best school for their child and were willing to jump through hoops to enroll them. Nonetheless, says Chait, if a white charter CEO who billionaires adore says it is true, Chait will defend it no matter what.
Trump and DeVos are polarizing figures. The privatization of so many agencies that serve the common good is very unpopular with most Americans. Trump and DeVos have ignited a spark of resistance in many people that have sat on the sidelines. With the future of public education at stake, it is time for Americans that have benefited from quality public schools to take a stand and become actively involved. People need to be one their toes so that the Russians don’t steal the midterms. A Florida district that narrowly went for Trump just flipped a seat in the Florida legislature. The time is now to work to ensure that a blue tide is rising.http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/373735-dems-flip-seat-in-florida-state-special-election
I have been saying this since before she officially took office. DeVos is trying to do Arne Duncan’s work, but while Duncan was a sly, deceptive, fiendishly CLEVER man who was not a MEMBER of DeVos’ crew so much as he was WORKING for them, DeVos’ money has dulled her ability and she is really something of a buffoon.
The fact that she is affiliated with a Republican president does not help – Duncan got away with a lot because he was affiliated with the Democrat, Obama.
Either way, I have been saying for some time that there is no way she will be able to do the amount of damage Duncan did — and I have yet to be proven wrong.
You are correct – her bumbling has galvanized a resistance to her movement. In a way, she was an excellent choice for public schools.
To All: Paradigm Shift in Education? Oh, really? This just in from the conservative National Catholic Register (online magazine): It shows just how uninformed many Catholics are about the argument FOR “choice” and privatization.
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/trump-administration-proposes-paradigm-shift-in-federal-education-policies