Seattle Schools Community Forum: Betsy DeVos is a Menace

Seattle Schools Community Forum: Betsy DeVos is a Menace:

Betsy DeVos is a Menace

First up to be aware of is this:

If you go to the website of the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington that believes in privatizing the public education system, you will learn about a three-part documentarycalled “School Inc.,” which is narrated by the late director of the organization’s Center for Educational Freedom. The documentary has been called the magnum opus of Andrew Coulson, who was a researcher and author who promoted the idea that free markets and the profit motive would improve education in the United States. 

It is no surprise, then, that School Inc. — whose primary funders have the same educational beliefs as Coulson — would extol the virtues of privatized education and attack public education. What is surprising to some public education activists, however, is that the documentary is being shown on publicly funded PBS stations.

Uninformed viewers who see this very slickly produced program will learn about the glories of unregulated schooling, for-profit schools, teachers selling their lessons to students on the Internet.

What they will not see or hear is the other side of the story.

Don't know if KCTS is showing this - I don't see it on their schedule - but I sure hope not.

Probably the biggest news lately is DeVos' appearance before and what she said...and didn't say.

Last week, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos faced questions from the Senate Appropriations subcommittee regarding the Trump administration's education budget. It was not an easy day for her, as senators from both parties took issue with some of the suggested cuts. Republican Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Miss., bluntly called it "a difficult budget request to defend."

Perhaps the most controversial proposal in the budget was the $250 million increase in Department of Education funding to support private school choice.

But, with no specifics about how the department would run the program, lawmakers focused on whether the secretary would require participating private schools to prevent discrimination Seattle Schools Community Forum: Betsy DeVos is a Menace: