As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme
"With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession, and structural racism, she's spied an opening to exploit this crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda."
With the Trump administration planning to demand that Congress devote a large chunk of the state and local education funding in the next Covid-19 relief package to a new grant program for private and religious schools, the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers on Thursday accused Education Secretary Betsy DeVos of attempting to exploit the pandemic to advance her privatization agenda.
"It is telling that, after spending more than three years doing nothing to help the public schools that 90 percent of children attend, Betsy DeVos races to divert resources into private hands 48 hours after the Supreme Court's decision in Espinoza," Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said in a statement, referring to the high court's ruling Tuesday that religious schools cannot be excluded from taxpayer aid programs.
"Secretary DeVos and President Trump are using this pandemic as an excuse to push an ideological privatization agenda that would divert much-needed funds away from our public schools."
—Sen. Patty Murray
—Sen. Patty Murray
"With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession, and structural racism, she's spied an opening to exploit this crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda," said Weingarten. "And it's especially sickening that, in the middle of a national reckoning over race, when poor schools are in desperate need of funds to reopen safely, DeVos hijacks the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act to shift support away from where it's needed most."
"DeVos' craven attempts to divide and privatize would be laughable if the stakes weren't so high," Weingarten added.
McClatchy reported Thursday that the Trump administration intends to ask Congress "for a 'one-time, emergency appropriation' for a new grant proposal" that would "be provided to states to distribute to nonprofit institutions that disburse scholarships to qualified students who want to attend non-public schools."
"The White House is seeking to have 10% of the amount that Congress approves for state and local educational agencies set aside for the grants," according to McClatchy. "Trump will also seek approval of $5 billion in federal tax credits for businesses and CONTINUE READING: As Covid-19 Takes Toll, DeVos Denounced for New 'Craven' Public School Privatization Scheme | Common Dreams News
