What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day
Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos received an unprecedented amount of public resistance to her confirmation as US secretary of education.
Her take on public resistance to her utter disregard, painfully obvious ignorance, and established disdain for American public education changes with each situation– which she has already demonstrated in three US Department of Education press releases within a single week.
Consider an excerpt from her press release regarding the protesters who attempted to block her entrance into Jefferson Middle School in DC on February 10, 2017:
I respect peaceful protest, and I will not be deterred in executing the vital mission of the Department of Education. No school door in America will be blocked from those seeking to help our nation’s school children.
Sounds good. It is, after all, politically correct to “respect peaceful protest.” However, DeVos’ neutral tone changed on February 15, 2017, in a speech to the Magnet Schools of America:
Last Friday, a handful of protestors tried to block my entrance into Jefferson Middle School Academy here in D.C. While I eventually made it in, and had very constructive conversations with Chancellor Wilson, many DC administrative leaders, some terrific teachers and Principal Dohmann, the protestors’ behavior is a reflection of the way some seek to treat our education system – by keeping kids in and new thinking out.Friday’s incident demonstrates just how hostile some people are to change and to new ideas. Without realizing it, we, too, can fall victim to this trap of seeing our work in education as an “us vs. them” approach.
Thus, five days later, DeVos’ “respect” for protest morphed into the judgment that such individuals are “hostile to change and to new ideas.” DeVos champions public money for private schools in the form of school vouchers. This is not new. However, the overriding “new” is for a a Congressional majority to put a billionaire whose What Betsy DeVos Says of Detractors Depends on the Day | deutsch29:
