Sister Betsy Will Be Puppet of Walton Clan
The value of pieces like the one below is the evidence it provides for assessing the educational worth of ideological agendas. Personalities are much less important than the policies. Personalities come and go (from Rod Paige through John King), but educational policy in DC has not changed since 2001, except to become more openly corrupt and ideologically driven. Actions that would have resulted in shame and/or indictments fifteen years ago are now promoted as standard operating procedure.
Editorial excerpts below are from Free-Press opinion piece by Stephen Henderson.
In Detroit, parents of school-age children have plenty of choices, thanks to the nation's largest urban network of charter schools. What remains in short supply is quality. In Brightmoor, the only high school left is Detroit Community Schools, a charter boasting more than a decade of abysmal test scores and, until recently, a superintendent who earned $130,000 a year despite a dearth of educational experience or credentials. On the west side, another charter school, Hope Academy, has been serving the community around Grand River and Livernois for 20 years. Its test scores have been among the lowest in the state throughout those two decades; in 2013 the school ranked in the first percentile, the absolute bottom for academic performance. Two years later, its charter was renewed. The DeVoses have helped private interests commandeer public money that was intended to fulfill the state's mandate to provide compulsory education. The family started the Great Lakes Education Project, whose political action committee does the most prolific and aggressive lobbying for charter schools. Betsy DeVos and other family members have given more than $2 million to the PAC since 2001. GLEP has spent that money essentially buying policy Schools Matter: Sister Betsy Will Be Puppet of Walton Clan:
