How Betsy DeVos is using the pandemic to get what she wants
As American deaths from COVID-19 crested 100,000, the New York Times reported U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos declared her intention to “force” public school districts to spend a large portion of federal funds they’re receiving through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act on private schools.
Going beyond the traditional practice of education secretaries to issue guidance on how states should interpret federal law, she now wants to write the laws herself.
Her actions are akin to the executive orders President Trump routinely issues to bypass Congress in order to implement his extremist agenda.
Trump has been mostly able to get away with this. Can DeVos?
Since her bumbling appearances at congressional committees and in media interviews, DeVos has often been caricatured as “incompetent” and “ignorant,” and she may indeed be all of that and more, but it’s dangerous not to see how her agenda is advancing during the current crisis.
No one knows how public schools will be able to reopen for a new school year, and the economic recession caused by the pandemic will likely crush school budgets, but the Trump-DeVos agenda remains public education’s most existential threat, and Republicans either cheerlead these efforts or shrug them off while Democrats muster a haphazard defense. Some may find it hard to believe what DeVos proposes can be CONTINUE READING: How Betsy DeVos is using the pandemic to get what she wants – Alternet.org
