Betsy DeVos traveled to Kentucky to sell her used goods (schmattes is the Yiddish term): charter schools and vouchers.
For DeVos, a pandemic is the perfect time to push school privatization. Day in, day out, for 30 years or so, DeVos has been promoting charters and vouchers.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – School choice supporters should “insist” that state and federal policymakers back measures like public charter schools and scholarship tax credits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday…
“I know in all of the years that I have advocated for state-level policy empower parents, never before have we had an environment like we have today, and so I believe that now is the time to raise voices more loudly than ever before and to insist on policy changes that need to take place….”
David Patterson, communications director for the Kentucky Education Association, said DeVos should focus on helping public school districts weather the COVID-19 pandemic, which has “spiked to its highest peak ever” in the state.
“Instead, she drops in for a day to push a political agenda that has been proven disastrous in states and school systems all across the country,” Patterson said in a statement. “Betsy DeVos has a habit of visiting Kentucky and discussing education without ever actually meeting with the public educators who teach 88 percent of all K-12 students across the commonwealth.”
Never before has the United States had a Secretary of Education who despises public schools.
When Kentucky had a Republican Governor, Matt Bevin, DeVos showed up to sell privatization. Bevin got a charter law passed, but he couldn’t get funding. Vouchers went nowhere.
Now Kentucky has a Democratic Governor, Andy Beshear, who was elected by teachers and public school parents.
Sorry, Betsy, time is running out. Your merchandise is old. It’s not innovative. Its time stamp is dated and past due. Go back to Michigan.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
And wait, there is the most important fact; THEY DON’T WORK
That is so unfair, drext! 100% of the students who (haven’t been forced out) graduate go on to 4-year colleges! 100%!
So a small percentage are successful. Most studies you read will say about 10-15% are doing better than their neighborhood schools. 30-40% are doing about the same as their neighborhood schools. and a bout 30-50% are doing worse than their neighborhood schools. So I’m not be unfair, just following the data.
I think Algebra II Teacher agrees with you, at least about the 100% who weren’t forced out. 🙂
Algebra teacher agrees
Agrees 100%
That charters are like fleas
That aren’t Heaven sent
Now is the time for all good charters
Never let pandemic
Go to shameful waste!
Jump out of your hammock
And capitalize, with haste!
School choice supporters should “insist” that state and federal policymakers back measures like public charter schools and scholarship tax credits amid the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Monday.
“I think the urgency around change has become ever more clear in the last few months than ever before previously,” DeVos, a longtime school choice advocate, said during a roundtable event hosted by the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition.
This is actually the lock step opinion of the whole ed reform echo chamber. DeVos is squarely in the mainstream among ed reformers.
They haven’t lifted a finger for any public school or public school student in this pandemic. Instead they started a political campaign to promote charters and vouchers immediately after the schools closed.
Go read any of the echo chamber ed reform sites or pundits. They’re all pushing this identical idea. You will not find a single practical idea or support for existing public schools in the pandemic all across the ed reform echo chamber. Public schools are mentioned only to lob criticism and to compare them unfavorably to charters and private schools.
Get rid of DeVos with an election and you’re left with an entire “movement” who promote the same ideas as DeVos. DeVos was one of the first ed reformers. They all followed her lockstep- she didn’t follow them.
If Joe Biden hires out of the ed reform echo chamber, as Bush and Obama and Trump did, public school students will continue to be the last policy priority, as they have been for the last 20 years these folks have been in power. Forget what Biden says. You’ll know all you need to know by who he hires. If they’re from the echo chamber, you’re getting DeVos.
that HUGE “if”
Can anyone name a single positive or productive act anyone in the US Department of Education or the rest of the ed reform echo chamber has accomplished to assist public school students in this pandemic?
The Professional Public School Critics Association members of ed reform haven’t delivered for public school students, although they have churned out plenty of commentary on how all our schools and students are failing.
No earthly idea why we’re paying 10,000 federal employees to criticize our schools, especially because the private sector side of ed reform already has that job covered.
Agree. It’s ridiculous and SICK.
I have a crazy idea. What if you hired people in government who came to work to contribute some practical value to the public schools 90% of US students attend?
You can do that or you can continue to hire and pay ed reformers who will work exclusively on achieving their ideological dreams of a privatized system. Your choice. You’re already paying them.
“Parent empowerment” equals a separate subpar education for your child. These so-called scholarships not only harm public schools, they also erode the tax base. When the wealthy fund a tax deductible “scholarship,” it means they contribute less for state services like repairing bridges, highways and public education. The non-wealthy people in the state pay more taxes as a result, or services they use will be cut. These “scholarships” are a Trojan Horse of degradation in the common good.
Exactly right, retired teacher.
And ON PURPOSE, too. SICK.
The problem is that most people aren’t educated enough to understand how the system works (designed to be this way) and those that do, are only concerned with how it affects their own financial situation. Regular/working class people are too preoccupied with putting food on the table and shoes on feet to concern themselves with politics….they just see that they are getting taxed to death with no return. Regular/working class people look at the salaries and benefits of the politicians (tax payer money) and become enraged that they are only in session for a short amount of the time and seem to do very little to help those paying the most in taxes. Most people have no concept of how Fed Tax $$ are spent/allocated but it is much easier to see how State tax $$ are appropriated since these are things that affect us directly. When Fed and State tax issues combine, it’s just overwhelming to try and understand.
Lisa,
Yet the same people who feel overtaxed with few benefits re-elect people like Mitch McConnell again and again. He gets rich. They stay poor.
and let me just add….Democracy is about “We”, Free Market (competition) is about “ME”. Keep people in a state of confusion and distress and “The Market” will win and Democracy will die.
Keep people stupid, uneducated and preoccupied and they will shoot themselves in the foot every single time. Doesn’t Moscow Mitch bring Billions of extra tax dollars into KY just by being Senate Majority Leader?…that’s what he says and people seem to believe him. Maybe he does…but where does that money go…to the wealthy.
Toying with public budgets causes a domino effect of loss that many people do not understand. Lots of people still believe charters and vouchers are “free money.” If the ACA goes down, there will be domino effect on Medicare that will force seniors to pay more. Eliminating the payroll tax, Trump’s second term goal, would defund Social Security. The reckless Republicans care little about the working class and poor.
America has had DOLTS as Secretary of Education.
I’ve been proud of our local public schools.They reopened with little or no assistance from state government and no assistance from the federal government. They’ve come up with practices to handle covid infections and remain open and they’ve done it without any assistance or support from their government, who clearly don’t care what happens to public school students and prefer to spend their workdays promoting private school vouchers.
They simply never showed up. We did it without them. Now I think it’s time to ask what practical purpose they serve and why we’re paying them.
Teachers all over this country are going above and beyond to make schools work in a pandemic, sometimes with little assistance from the state or school district.
The only thing DeVos should privatize is her personal, several million dollars a year security force by paying for it herself.
“‘I think the urgency around change has become ever more clear in the last few months than ever before previously,’ DeVos, a longtime school choice advocate, said during a roundtable event hosted by the Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition.”
DeVos with KPAC, huh. Well, that figures…
LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – Takeover talk turned to teacher contracts at Tuesday’s Jefferson County Public Schools Board meeting.
The Kentucky Pastors in Action Coalition (KPAC) spoke during public comment and personally attacked the head of the teachers union, JCTA, and blamed the current teacher contract for failing schools.
KPAC Operating Officer Pastor Jerry Stephenson spoke on behalf of the group.
“It is that document that we believe is the greatest hindrance to our children of color,” Stephenson said of the collective bargaining agreement between JCPS and the teacher’s union.
Stephenson said the contract hurts black students by tying the hands of administrators who want to move the most experienced teachers into low performing schools.
He called JCTA a “racist institution” and referred to union president Brent McKim as “one of the biggest impediments to the academic achievement of African-American students.”
https://www.wave3.com/story/38145193/kentucky-pastor-group-calls-jcta-a-racist-institution/
Our friends, the Pastors for Kentucky Children, will block and tackle the Kentucky Pastors for DeVos.
Chris McDaniel, an incumbent Kentucky legislator, is running for state senate. His broadcast ads tout that he has and will work for Catholic schools.
We’re told by the GOP and, religious tribalists, that Democrats are ill-advised to employ any reference to Catholic. The admonition is on full display by presidential historian, Jon Meacham, who is making the media rounds. He describes in general terms the influence of evangelicals and he mentions Amy Barrett. He leaves the impression that there is no prominent Catholic influence in D.C. despite the fact that the 6 conservative judges of SCOTUS are Catholic or were raised Catholic.
I don’t think Michigan wants Betsy the Brainless Beast DeVos (BBBD) back.