Jennifer Berkshire and Jack Schneider have written a valuable new book called A Wolf at the Schoolhouse Door: The Dismantling of Public Education and the Future of School. They recently published an opinion article in The New York Times in which they demonstrate the role of Betsy DeVos in the “school reform” movement. They point out that Congress rejected her primary policy goal–sending public funding to private voucher schools–and that the new Biden administration is certain to reverse her assault on civil rights enforcement in education.
Her major accomplishment, they argue, was not one that she aimed for. She managed to disrupt the bipartisan consensus on national education policy, embraced by both the Bush and Obama administrations. That consensus consisted of high-stakes testing and charter schools. Because DeVos advocated for charters and vouchers, many Democrats now view them warily and recognize that school choice was always a conservative policy. DeVos was never a huge supporter of high-stakes standardized testing except to the extent that test scores could be used to harm public schools. Her primary interest was defunding public schools and helping religious schools. Thanks to DeVos, the Democratic party may have fallen out of love with school choice.
They write:
More than three decades ago, conventional Republicans and centrist Democrats signed on to an unwritten treaty. Conservatives agreed to mute their push for private school vouchers, their preference for religious schools and their desire to slash spending on public school systems. In return, Democrats effectively gave up the push for school integration and embraced policies that reined in teachers unions.
Together, led by federal policy elites, Republicans and Democrats espoused the logic of markets in the public sphere, expanding school choice through publicly funded charter schools. Competition, both sides agreed, would strengthen schools. And the introduction of charters, this contingent believed, would empower parents as consumers by even further untethering school enrollment from family residence...
Through her attention-attracting assault on the public education system, Betsy DeVos has actually given the next secretary of education an opportunity — to recommit to public education as a public good, and a cornerstone of our democracy.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The Overton Window has shifted
Better than Betsy
Better than Trump
Better is best, see
Best of the dump
Donald and Betsy were playing Moneyball in the street, the ball got away and they broke the privatization Overton Window. Any more of their nonsense and we’re calling their parents, end of story.
I am eagerly waiting to see who Biden appoints to lead the DOE. I hope Biden’s pick shows that he understands that “school choice was always a conservative idea.” Biden is already talking about compromising his bold plans. He knows that unless democrats control the Senate he will have to curtail many of his proposals. In most wars it is the children that suffer most. Public schools have been under siege for many years, and I hope their needs do not get lost in the name of compromise.
compromising his stated plans: who could have seen that coming…
When one compromises with oneself, one is bound to lose
Even if Biden follows through with his public education campaign promises, if McConnes and TRump’s GOP hold on to the majority in the Senate, all Biden will have is executive orders to achieve any of his stated goals.
And the Trumpish-McConnel alliance to sell America to the highest bidder (is that Putin or the Alt-Right lunatics known as the MAGA people that refuse to wear masks during a pandemic?) will go to court to challenge Biden every time.
Biden has the ability to appoint acting directors, whether the Senate approves it or not.
People are aware that he has options, so simply blaming it on a GOP-controlled Senate is less likely to fly for “Obama’s Third Term.”
We’ll see now if Biden has the spine to stand for what’s right.
If GOP controls the Senate, Biden can appoint acting directors but he can’t pass a budget
Diane Mitch McConnell won’t pass anything as long as it hints that the Democrats might get some kind of credit for it. With the Senate split as it is, this means that he cannot pass anything. <–pun intended. CBK
Diane, here are 277 things that Biden can do on Day 1 of his presidency, without Congress.
https://prospect.org/day-one-agenda/277-policies-biden-need-not-ask-permission/
I agree that Biden can accomplish much with executive orders. But he can’t pass taxes or increase funding without Senate approval.
There are things he could do without Republican or even Democratic approval.
For example he could start by forgiving student debt.
“Thanks to DeVos, the Democratic party may have fallen out of love with school choice.”
. . . signaling the difference between blowback, which usually takes some time to emerge, and backfire, which is relatively quick. This, it seems, is a good example of backfire.
It also seems that the pandemic has exposed the one big “problem” with public education: CLASS SIZE, which is less about public education than about FUNDING of it.
But true to form, instead of recognizing that better funding will support smaller classes and smaller teacher-student ratios, privatizers still pursue the big lie: touting that private schools have smaller classes and so can control the virus better than public schools, as if it were something to do with “privatizing” rather than with PUBLIC FUNDING.
I’m with Sher . . . the beat really does go on. CBK
Betsy certainly showed that the so-called reform so-called movement was really just the greedy wreck-lessness of billionaires with gluttonous appetites. I hope Democrats are ready to stop eating our public school kids’ lunch and not just take smaller bites.
Obama and Duncan ate their breakfast and lunch (gotta have energy to play Whitehouse B-ball, you know) , made them take a test on an empty stomach and then sent them to bed without any dinner.