NYC Educator: Betsy and Me

NYC Educator: Betsy and Me

Betsy and Me

by special guest Mindy Rosier

A few weeks ago, a little birdy informed me that Ms. Betsy DeVos herself would be traveling to NYC. After looking into this tip, it turned out that she would be receiving an award from the dreadful Manhattan Institute on May 1st, May Day, at Cipriani’s on 42nd Street.

As a lifelong New Yorker & a veteran special education teacher, I felt that it was very important to give Ms. DeVos a big Bronx cheer!! It had been awhile since I was part of a good protest and I was totally up for it.

Two years ago during Teacher Appreciation week, then Speaker Paul Ryan visited NYC. He was here, not to visit any public schools, but rather to visit my other favorite education villain, Eva Moskowitz. Of all the co-located buildings with Success Academy to visit, he choose mine. My school building is where Success Academy began and that in itself is another story.

I contacted every one of my connections from Grassroot Orgs to Elected Officials to my union, The United Federation of Teachers. I was on the news, in the papers, and online. I was everywhere. I mean, how dare you visit a public school building, during Teacher Appreciation Week, and NOT visit the public school located in THAT building? How dare you miss all the hard work we do?

If that weren’t enough, my school is D75, which means all of my students have special needs and many, if not most of our families receive Social Security benefit assistance. At that time, Ryan had his own view of Social Security benefits. What he proposed would have affected my students and their families for sure. I wanted nothing more that day than for him to look at the faces of our students who would be affected by those cuts. Those were my messages of the day. Apparently, I did such a good job with my messaging, that hundreds upon hundreds of people shut down that 118th street corner in Harlem.

Not only that, (and this is is my favorite part,) two of Ryan’s secret servicemen spoke to my at the time principal, CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Betsy and Me