UnBEARable: Reflections on the DeVos Hearing
Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director The Badass Teachers Association (BATs)
I would like to begin this piece with the following:
Shame on you Sen. Alexander for attempting to protect Betsy DeVos, a grossly unqualified candidate, for Secretary of Education.
Shame on you Sen. Alexander for putting politics over the children of this nation.
Now many would argue that Arne Duncan and John King were no better in this office. I wholeheartedly agree but…..
Duncan and King did not “buy” their way into this office and BOTH knew that IDEA was a federal law that all states have to follow. Neither of them, to my knowledge, supported having guns in schools as Betsy Devos did last night, just in case you need to shoot a grizzly bear! Perhaps the most disgusting thing to come out of this hearing, other than the testimony of Betsy DeVos, was the fact that a national grassroots group of parents called The Journey for Justice Alliance bussed over 100 parents from Detroit to attend this hearing. The parents bussed to DC were, and still are, victims of the DeVos agenda for school privatization. The Network for Public Education reports, “Detroit parents are (were) rightfully outraged that they traveled from Michigan by bus, leaving at midnight to arrive the morning of the hearing, only to be unable to gain entrance to the hearing room. Who did make it into the hearing room? School choice advocates in yellow scarves who replaced line waiters from what appeared to be a paid service to stand in line since 7 am. The folks in the yellow scarves then arrived at 3:30 to take their place in the front of the line.” They were front and center on camera behind DeVos!' National Director of The Journey for Justice Alliance Jitu Brown, voiced his opinion clearly and was told he would be arrested in Badass Teachers Association:
