Steve Nelson was head of school at the Calhoun School. He is now in retirement. He writes frequently about the need for child-centered education.
“RESIST!” Bernie Sanders? AOC? Malcom X? Saul Alinsky?
No, this was Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s plea to Education Department staffers as she ends her term in office. As reported in The Hill, she specifically implored them to “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students.” DeVos evoking the language of progressive activism is rich – almost as rich as DeVos herself.
She has gotten scant attention in the chaos of these last days. It seems unjust to allow her to go so quietly from the party. It is only in the shadow of Bill Barr, Scott Pruitt, Michael Flynn, Wilbur Ross, Steve Bannon, Paul Manafort, Mike Pompeo, Ben Carson, Stephen Miller and many others that DeVos’s breathtaking awfulness would go uncelebrated.
I am here to right that wrong.
As with other Trump appointees, her most luminous qualification for the position was absolute disdain for the mission she was tapped to lead. She had demonstrated decades of hostility toward public education and her antipathy has continued unabated on the job.
Her educational “philosophy” is built on several premises that have informed her life’s work.
Her education activism and support of reform are, in her words, “a means to advance God’s Kingdom.” She has proclaimed that “the system of education in the country . . . really may have greater Kingdom gain in the long run.” To this end she has been a tireless advocate for voucher programs which allow parents to use tax dollars for their children’s enrollment in religious schools. In Florida, for example, 80% of vouchers, to the tune of $1 billion, go to religious schools, where evolution is just theory, gay students are unwelcome and every course is offered through a Christian lens.
Her advocacy for charter schools is built on the second premise: Profit is a divine right and any budding entrepreneur who can walk and chew gum is qualified to give education a shot. In her home state of Michigan this has resulted in a checkerboard of charter schools that fail as often as Trump casinos and where the odds of getting a good education are like playing the roulette wheel. The shifting of public money to charters has hollowed out the public system in Detroit, for example, where kids of color are often shuffled to and from a half dozen startups and shutdowns in just one school year. To extend the simile, it’s a bad deal for children.
This manifestation of her “activism” seems very much like the source of her immense wealth: Amway. The very American Amway system also allows any budding entrepreneur who can walk and chew gum to give Amway a whirl. The odds of success are similar to the odds of success for charter startups – meaning very low indeed. Unless, of course, you are at the top of the pyramid. Every sucker who loses is a gain for the house.
Amway aside, her business acumen is a bit suspect. She was a major investor in Theranos, a remarkable scam whose founder is facing felony counts of fraud. She and her husband are also up to their corrupt ears in another corporate scam, Neurocore, which has been charged for using unapproved (FDA) devices and deceptive (FTC) marketing. As a kicker, they invested in a Broadway show that closed after three weeks. Like her patron saint Trump, it’s just so much winning.
I would be remiss if not pointing out that she is, in these respects, an iconic representative of the contemporary Grand Old Party which is committed to the same principles: that we are a Christian nation and that everything done for private profit is de facto better and more efficient than anything done for public good.
A few other highlights:
She supports using federal funds to arm teachers.
She dramatically altered Title IX to give more rights to boys and men accused of sexual misconduct and to significantly limit the authority of educational institutions to support women or use their own discretion.
In her confirmation hearing, she knew nothing about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), saying states should do whatever they want.
She called historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) “pioneers of school choice,” seeming to miss that they were the result of segregation and that they were founded because black students had no choices. It’s like admiring a particularly fine porcelain drinking fountain in Jim-Crow-era Alabama and praising it as a pioneer in hydration choice.
President-elect Biden has selected Dr. Miguel Cardona to replace DeVos. He is a vast improvement. For those who continue to work in the Department of Education, we must say, “Resist!”
DeVos’ appointment was an act of patronage for her large contributions to Trump’s 2016 campaign. Her appointment helped solidify the union of the right wing evangelicals with Trump’s evil empire. Trump and DeVos both live by the motto “to the victor belong the spoils.” They share a willingness to feather their own nests while they ignore the problems of others. Both of them have a talent for ignoring conflicts of interests. It is not surprising that among the recent Trump pardons were the Blackwater murderers that were employed by DeVos’s brother Erik Prince. It is all part of the corrupt alliance between Trump and DeVos.
I thought we couldn’t get a Sect’y of Education worse than Arne Duncan … boy, was I wrong!
Maybe we should do away with that office and department. The possibility for harm seems far greater than any possible good that such a department could do.
Can anyone name DOE initiatives that were (a) new and (b) worth doing? I can’t. Like playing with fire, momentary pleasures never amount to anything close to balancing out the potential and real damage done.
I agree with you. There are some departments within that still need Fed oversight, but these can be placed within other larger Offices. I don’t think that Jimmy Carter set up the department for it to be run this way. It has grown into a huge black hole of money laundering for the ed-tech business sector and for private testing industries. If only 10-12% of education funding comes from the Fed Govt (mostly for Title I funding), this is not worth the tax dollars it’s taking to run the department. Its demise could certainly end the testing regime and a lot of the other schemes that turn public tax dollars into private coffers. ESSA would have to be rewritten.
DeVos didn’t come close to the damage that Blahrney Duncan did. . . but then again she only had four years while he had seven and a half. Even on a damage per year basis, the harms to the teaching and learning process and to the students overseen by Duncan far outweigh DeVos.
Agreed! Everyone knew DeVos had a plan and they were wise to her ways. Arne was a good ol’ boy, basketball playing pal of Obama and Rahm. Making states compete for their rightful tax dollars is extortion….he should be in prison.
These people who say that DeVos was the worst were not even aware of the things that Duncan did.
In fact, I seriously foubt they even know who Duncan is.
So now we here in Michigan will have to be on the “look-out” once again as Betsy DeVos returns to Michigan full-time. We must again say NO to school vouchers (citizens of Michigan have done that twice already), must INSIST on the separation of church and state (and yes all schools face the challenges of unfunded mandates – so I don’t know why private/parochial schools believe they should receive special consideration), NO public funds to private schools – PERIOD!
Farewell implies good wishes. I’m in more of a “don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out” frame of mind.
Well, that is true!
I agree.
More like “Out, out, damn spot!”
As I look at the rear of a parade-passing hoss, I’ll always be reminded of Betsy Devos.
SDP-inspired! Nicely done, Darrell.
Now Betsy will be better able to take care of her neglected armada of yachts and buff up her treasure trove of gold ingots.
I pity poor Gov. Whitmer.