What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part I
The other day I had the opportunity to talk with a U.S. senator’s staffer who told me that opposition to the appointment of Betsy DeVos early in 2017 was unprecedented as measured by the number of calls—tens of thousands against DeVos’s confirmation and only three or four thousand in favor. Those of us who made those calls and marched in the streets and made formal visits to the offices of our U.S. senators were terrified about what it would mean if one of the biggest opponents of our society’s system of public schools were confirmed to be the U.S. Secretary of Education.
Of course, DeVos was confirmed, but only after the Vice President, for the first time in history, was called in to break a tie on the Senate’s confirmation of a President’s appointee.
Now two years have passed. So… how’s it going?
On Tuesday, DeVos went before the House Appropriations Committee to defend her department’s request in the President’s recently proposed fiscal year 2020 federal budget. This is Trump’s third annual budget proposal, and it declares DeVos’s values and priorities for the third consecutive year.
This week DeVos defended an education budget proposal that is $8.5 billion lower than last year’s allocation. She made no attempt to justify freezes to Title I and IDEA funding, and the elimination of several programs including the popular the 21st Century Learning Centers after-school program, along with Title II and Title IV grants to support professional development for teachers, smaller class sizes, and curricular enrichment—and even her department’s contribution to the Special Olympics.
DeVos’s comments at the recent hearing betray her lack of concern for the kind of improved classroom conditions striking teachers have been demanding all year and her failure to care deeply about long running programs that help schools serve the needs of poor children and students with special needs. The Detroit Free Press‘s Todd Spangler quotes DeVos’s reasoning: “We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to CONTINUE READING: What Has Betsy DeVos Accomplished? Part I | janresseger
