Betsy DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not | America 2020 | US News

Betsy DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not | America 2020 | US News

DeVos Says School Choice Is Coming, Like It Or Not

The education secretary echoed President Trump’s campaign speeches in warning against socialism and government involvement in education.

WITH PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence heightening their calls for school choice on the campaign trail, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the fullest picture of what that might entail and predicted more choice is inevitable whether or not Trump wins his reelection bid.

WITH PRESIDENT Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence heightening their calls for school choice on the campaign trail, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos delivered the fullest picture of what that might entail and predicted more choice is inevitable whether or not Trump wins his reelection bid.

"Let me suggest we could fix education for so many children in America if we 'go Dutch,'" DeVos said. "School choice is not a matter of if, it's a matter of when."

School choice is an ambiguous, one-size-fits-all term used to characterize everything from charter schools to programs like tax credit scholarships and education savings accounts that help families afford private school tuition. The Associated Press recommends journalists not use the term because of how nondescript it is, which is one of the reasons why using it might be working to the Trump administration's advantage.

The idea of school choice has long been heralded by Republicans as a way to give children trapped in failing school systems different education opportunities and criticized in equal CONTINUE READING: 

CURMUDGUCATION: Pence, DeVos, And More Private School Choice Baloney

CURMUDGUCATION: Pence, DeVos, And More Private School Choice Baloney

Pence, DeVos, And More Private School Choice Baloney

My thanks to Bill Ferriter, who raised some of this on Twitter, thereby allowing me to boost my blood pressure before I even got all the way home from vacation.

Mike Pence, Betsy DeVos and a few other notables took a trip yesterday to North Carolina, to plug an assortment of their favorites issues while visiting a private school that, unsurprisingly, underlined everything wrong with their favorite issues.

The school was Thales Academy; Pence visited with faculty and with a Fourth Grade class (where he and the teacher wore masks, DeVos did not, and Pence took his off to do his talky talky). He tweeted that "To Open Up America Again is to open up schools again."

Thales of Miletus. Nobody asked him if he wanted
a school chain named after him.

Thales is one of many schools founded by Robert L. Luddy, who made his bundle turning a sheet metal shop into a manufacturer of kitchen ventilation systems. He launched his first charter school in 1998, followed by a private Catholic Prep school, and the Thales chain. You may remember one of his schools being in the news for its policy forbidding the mention of anything related to LGBTQ--well, anything. His libertarian-ish bona fides are many, and he was not initially in the Trump camp in 2016, bnt he's since joined the team. And when it comes to pandemic response, Luddy is right there in Trumplandia; take this March 2020 piece he write entitled "Back To Work: America Has No Choice If It Is To Avoid Total Disaster."

That's a big part of what brought Pence and DeVos to Thales. As Pence noted in his remarks:

We were — we had a great discussion, and I could sense the spirit in the room — the enthusiasm the children feel for being back in school, which is where we want all of America’s children to be. We CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Pence, DeVos, And More Private School Choice Baloney

Mitchell Robinson: Mike Pence Visits a Libertarian's Private School | Eclectablog

Mike Pence Visits a Libertarian's Private School | Eclectablog

Mike Pence Visits a Libertarian’s Private School

Vice President Mike Pence visited a school in North Carolina today, ostensibly to show how the power of 

In an email sent Monday, school officials said Pence will visit Thales Academy K-5 to see how school choice works and to advocate for its further implementation.

Pence also tweeted about how the school, Thales Academy in Apex, NC, was demonstrating how schools could reopen safely.

So what’s the secret at Thales Academy? How can other schools learn from what they are doing at Thales to guarantee a safe reopening? And what kind of school is Thales Academy anyway?

Thales Academy: A Libertarian’s Fever Dream Come True

Thales Academy was the brainchild of Raleigh, NC Libertarian businessman, Bob Luddy. Luddy made his fortune by building kitchen ventilation systems, making him ideally-suited to create a new school from scratch. Frustrated with the regulations that “bureaucrats” in North Carolina required for public schools, Luddy’s first step was to open his own charter school, Franklin Academy.

Franklin Academy, which is still in operation, has had its share of problems over the years–most recently making news for prohibiting their students “from discussing or promoting being homosexual, bisexual or transgender” in the school’s handbook. Facing extreme pressure from the CONTINUE READING: Mike Pence Visits a Libertarian's Private School | Eclectablog