Union 101: Making the Most of Membership - NEA Today

Union 101: Making the Most of Membership - NEA Today:

Union 101: Making the Most of Membership

It was early in Joseph Daily’s teaching career when he got married and started having kids. With more expenses, he was looking for ways to economize. He decided to drop his NEA membership to save on union dues, but he soon realized that not belonging came at a higher cost.

Even without dues expenses, money was still tight for the family of five, and when the PE teacher looked around his district in Yuma, Arizona, he realized that he was surrounded by educators just like him — woefully underpaid and stretched in a “million different directions.” Daily rejoined NEA because he knew that without the union nothing was going to change.

“I rejoined the union because I believe that with the power of numbers behind us we could fight for better teacher pay, bring down our class sizes, get special training in various professional development areas, and much more,” Daily says. “I joined because I also cared about my colleagues. I hated seeing first year teachers leaving because they couldn’t make ends meet money-wise or they didn’t feel welcomed or supported. I joined to make a difference for those teachers so they will stay.”

Daily is now a vocal union advocate in his district with the following message – membership has many rewards.

For new educators or seasoned veterans who want to learn more about what you’ll get for your dues investment and how you can reap additional rewards through your involvement, here’s a primer on what National Education Association membership means. (First tip: Your membership means you belong to the local, state, and national Association, just as Joseph Daily is a member of the Yuma Education Association, Arizona Education Association, and NEA.)

Help on the Job
With the passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act, educators now have the opportunity to raise their voices to fight for what their students need. To help explain the opportunities ESSA presents and prepare members for implementation, NEA created a short ESSA explainer video and has posted resources and tools to help you and your colleagues get started. Check out getESSAright.org to make the most of these opportunities, see tips and tools to learn more, and get involved.

NEA hosted a series of webinars that you can see at getessaright.org/webinars.  These videos showcase what your colleagues are doing to make the most of the opportunities and to offer tips and tools on how to get involved at the state and local level.

NEA also funds and organizes a variety of trainings for NEA members to help them in their profession. NEA’s Human and Civil Rights department understands that education advocacy and social justice advocacy go hand in hand. In its work to achieve equal opportunity and social justice for all students and school employees, the staff provides student-centered, research-based, and educator-driven training Union 101: Making the Most of Membership - NEA Today:

A professor's proposed Black History Month course for one student: President Donald Trump - The Hechinger Report

A professor's proposed Black History Month course for one student: President Donald Trump - The Hechinger Report:

A professor’s proposed Black History Month course for one student: President Donald Trump

AFAM 0045 African-American History for Clueless Presidents (and Black Folk who’ve seen LaLa Land)

Spring 2017

Bayard Rustin Education Bldg., Room 1963

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the histories of African-Americans for those who talk favorably about “departed” black heroes like Ben Carson but find it difficult to recognize a black president. This course is for people who praise themselves at prayer breakfasts, habitually put a “the” in front of “blacks” and make history by late-night tweeting at “Saturday Night Live” characters. If you know more about the biographies of Monica, Rachel and Ross from the sitcom “Friends” than of Martin (Luther King, Jr.), Harriet (Tubman) and Rosa (Parks), this course is also for you. After taking this course you will be able to have dinner with the cast of “Hamilton” and drop the words Frederick Douglass into casual conversation as if you know who he is.

Please note: Guns are not permitted in college as campus police are sufficiently equipped to deal with grizzly bears.

Academic Integrity

Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated. Academic dishonesty includes alternative truths, plagiarism, tampering with evidence and hiding tax returns.

Join the conversation later on Andre Perry’s radio show, “Free College,” hosted Tuesdays on WBOK1230 in New Orleans at 3pm Central/4pm Eastern 504.260.9265.

Session 1: Field Trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture with U.S. Representative John Lewis (D-Georgia)  

That “all talk, talk, talk — no action or results” U.S. congressperson, Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), is actually one of the greatest civil rights leaders of our time. Please read the graphic novel trilogy “March” by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell. Lewis will take the class on a tour of the new National Museum of African A professor's proposed Black History Month course for one student: President Donald Trump - The Hechinger Report:

 

Senate to vote today on confirmation of Betsy DeVos - The Washington Post

Senate to vote today on confirmation of Betsy DeVos - The Washington Post:

Senate to vote today on confirmation of Betsy DeVos

The Senate is moving toward a noon vote Tuesday on confirmation of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, with the outcome expected to be the narrowest approval of a Cabinet nominee in the nation’s history.

The entire Democratic caucus of 48 senators is expected to vote against DeVos, as are two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, who have said they do not think that DeVos is qualified for the job. The remaining 50 Republicans are expected to vote for DeVos, setting up a 50-50 tie that could only be broken with a vote from Vice President Pence.

Democrats took to the Senate floor to speak out against DeVos for most of the day Monday and through the night into Tuesday, a 24-hour last-ditch effort to persuade one more Republican to break party ranks and derail the confirmation. But as the hours wore on, it became increasingly clear that their effort would likely fail.

“I hope against hope that another Republican senator will have the courage of the senators from Alaska and Maine and join us,” Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday morning. But if that doesn’t happen, Schumer said, “we Democrats are very proud of what we have done, because the nominee is so unqualified — and now Americans now know that.”

The Democratic speeches were interrupted occasionally by Republicans coming to the nominee’s defense. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) said DeVos — who has no professional experience in public education — would bring “fresh eyes” to the job and push for more opportunities for poor and disadvantaged children. “I think she will help to improve public education,” Scott said.

If Pence is called upon to break a 50-50 deadlock, it would mark the first time that a vice president’s tiebreaking vote would be needed to confirm a Cabinet secretary, according to Daniel Holt, an assistant historian in the Senate Historical Office.

And it would be the first time a vice president cast any tiebreaking vote in the Senate since Richard B. Cheney did so nine years ago.

“We’re very confident that Betsy DeVos is going to be the next secretary of education and it’ll be my high honor to cast the deciding vote on the floor of the Senate next week,” Pence said on Fox News Sunday.

[DeVos and her family are major donors to the senators who will vote on her confirmation]

DeVos has faced an unprecedented wave of popular backlash and partisan opposition: Since the Education Department was established in 1979, nominees to lead it have always been easily confirmed, often on voice votes or with unanimous support. The closest confirmation vote for an education secretary was 49 to 40 in 2016, in favor of John B. King Jr. Jr., who served during the last year of Barack Obama’s presidency.

But DeVos is unlike previous nominees in that she has no personal or professional experience in public education or elected office.

A Michigan billionaire and major Republican donor, she has spent three decades using her wealth and political clout to advocate for alternatives to public schools, particularly taxpayer-funded vouchers to help parents pay tuition for private and religious schools. She also has advocated for a loosely regulated variety of charter schools.

Senate to vote today on confirmation of Betsy DeVos - The Washington Post:

Betsy DeVos and the Dems | The Huffington Post

Betsy DeVos and the Dems | The Huffington Post:

Betsy DeVos and the Dems

Right now it looks like the Democrats in the senate are finally digging in their heels at one of the nominations – the rabid Christian fundamentalist Betsy DeVos who has dedicated her inherited fortune to dismantling public education.

DeVos is about as far out a nominee as you could get. Bring in a climate denier for the Department of Energy, a Wall Street banker to oversee banking regulations, an opponent of net neutrality to head up the Federal Communications Commission. But DeVos may be the nuttiest. Oh my goodness.

The problem with the Democratic opposition, however, is that she is not so far from Arne Duncan and John King, Obama’s secretaries of education. They were committed free-market reformers, championed for-profit charter schools, turned federal funding into competitive grants, sought to tie teacher pay to student scores on standardized tests, and celebrated the breaking of teacher unions and tenure (which is really just due process).

How are they different from DeVos? Well, they did not argue for creationism in place of science in the curriculum. They were not as high on vouchers as DeVos. But they were in the same camp – pushing for education to be privatized, marketized, and reduced to mindless training.

It reminds me of the brilliant strategy of the Democrats in Syria. They sought to arm the resistance against the Assad government. And then the fanatics, from Al Quaeda to ISIL, jumped on the anti-Assad bandwagon. Suddenly the US was in alliance with the crazy fundamentalists. So to stop ISIL, they made a tacit alliance with Iran and agreed to Russian intervention. Suddenly the US was in a ridiculous bind, trying to thread the needle to support the “right rebels” and refusing to accept responsibility for the horrendous humanitarian disaster that resulted.

So it is with education. The Democrats sought to arm the free market charter entrepreneurs, to support the union-busting measures in state after state. When along comes DeVos, who Mitchell Robinson from Michigan State University rightly calls a “religious and school privatization/choice/voucher zealot,” it is only an extension of the course the Dems have already laid out.

Our job, as teachers, union members, community activists, and parents is to take back public schools – from the zealots and also from the three piece suit “experts” who have had public education in the crosshairs for decades. Don’t worry friends. When the smoke clears and the trash is taken out, when there are hearings and tribunals to identify who was complicit with the Trump madness, we will rebuild a better, more powerful, more meaningful education experience for our kids.Betsy DeVos and the Dems | The Huffington Post:

A Virtual Disaster for Rural Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education

A Virtual Disaster for Rural Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education:
A Virtual Disaster for Rural Schools

Hopefully, responsible senators from substantially rural states spent the weekend taking cues from their peers from Maine and Alaska and learning why the potential impact of school privatization on their constituents should cause them to oppose Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. If not, there's still time to catch up before tomorrow's vote.

Besides displaying a troubling ignorance of education policy and practice in her confirmation hearing and in answers to written questions from senators over the last two weeks, DeVos has an especially harmful future in mind for rural districts as part of a broader plan to divert public money to private education enterprises, no matter what the evidence says.

“High quality virtual charter schools provide valuable options to families, particularly those who live in rural areas where brick-and-mortar schools might not have the capacity to provide the range of courses or other educational experiences for students,” she wrote in answer to a question about online schools. As examples she cited seven virtual schools that she said graduate more than 90 percent of their students. But, as the Washington Post reported, a check of public data for each school tells a much different story:

• DeVos claimed the Utah Virtual Academy graduated 96 percent of its students. The state listed a graduation rate of just 42 percent last year for the academy.
• DeVos wrote that the Idaho Virtual Academy had a 90 percent graduation rate. In actuality, it graduated only 33 percent of its students in 2015.
• And DeVos highlighted the Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy High School for its 91 percent graduation rate. In fact, its 40 percent graduation rate in 2015-16 earned it a D from the state.

DeVos also touted virtual programs in Nevada and Ohio, which both had similarly dismal reported rates (67, and 53 percent respectively, with the latest available data).

Yet every one of these states with virtual failure factories has a Republican Senator who has declared support for DeVos.

The schools DeVos referenced also share an affiliation with K-12 Inc. (which published the numbers listed in her responses), a for-profit charter management organization which enrolled more than one-third of online charter students in 2013 and in which DeVos invested for six years. Recently, the company's fortunes have sunk as low as its graduation rates. The attorney general of California investigated the firm for alleged false advertising and unfair business practices. And last July, K-12 agreed to pay $8.5 million in settlement claims and provide $160 million in debt relief to the schools it manages, though it admitted no wrongdoing.

But neither the shady dealings nor the poor school performance come as a surprise to informed education observers. Like several of the answers DeVos flubbed during her hearing, it is common knowledge in school circles that virtual charters have an awful track record. One of the most comprehensive studies to date found virtual charter students lagged far behind their peers in traditional schools long before failing to graduate. Describing the study's math results on a call with reporters, Macke Raymond, director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes at Stanford University said it was "literally as though the student did not go to school for the entire year."

Researchers also found that "As a group, online charters are characterized by high student-to-teacher ratios, low student engagement, and high student mobility." And the latest study is not an outlier. State investigations, reporting and research stretching back more than a decade show academic failure and gross mismanagement of online charters. Compared with public school enrollment, virtual schools have substantially fewer minority students and fewer low-income students. A Virtual Disaster for Rural Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education:

With A Brooklyn Accent: Donald Trump's Rude Awakening

With A Brooklyn Accent: Donald Trump's Rude Awakening:

Donald Trump's Rude Awakening

The last few weeks have been a bit of a comedown for Donald Trump. After an historic campaign where he beat the odds and attracted huge adoring crowds, he now finds himself under siege in the White House, unable to go to any large city in the US without inspiring huge demonstrations, mocked by comedians and journalists in mainstream and social media, and regarded with fear and contempt in many of the nations the US once viewed as allies.
Now you might say that Mr Trump should have expected this rage because it was his own words and actions which provoked this reaction, but it is one thing to expect this level of protest and another to experience it. Never in all his years as a developer, entrepreneur, media personality, and public figure, had Donald Trump had millions of the people in the streets denouncing him. In fact, before he ran for President, it is hard to recall a recall a single incident where as many as a hundred people picketed one of his appearances and even during the Presidential campaign the size of the crowds cheering him far exceeded the size of the crowds attacking him. No more. Donald Trump is now hands down the most unpopular person in the United States and the most unpopular person in the world.

Yes, many of the people who voted for him still support him and even love him. But for the most part, they are not the residents of the nation's With A Brooklyn Accent: Donald Trump's Rude Awakening:

Senate Will Vote at Noon on DeVos Nomination; Protests Continued through Last Night | janresseger

Senate Will Vote at Noon on DeVos Nomination; Protests Continued through Last Night | janresseger:

Senate Will Vote at Noon on DeVos Nomination; Protests Continued through Last Night

Stopped by Senate rules from filibustering to delay the vote on a Cabinet nominee, Senate Democrats tried the closest thing to it yesterday and throughout last night: a 24 hour marathon of speeches against Betsy Devos, right up to the moment her confirmation vote at noon today.

Here is Kimberly Hefling writing yesterday afternoon at POLITICO: “Senate Democrats will take the floor throughout the day and night Monday to voice their opposition to Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary—a Hail Mary effort to convince one more Republican to join them so that they can thwart her confirmation.”

Emma Brown of the Washington Post explains further: “DeVos’s confirmation vote is scheduled for noon Tuesday. All 48 members of the Senate Democratic caucus are expected to oppose her, along with two Republicans, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine. Democrats need just one more Republican to flip to defeat the nomination, and they are hoping their 24 hour speech-a-thon will ratchet up the pressure.”

Brown quotes Senator Patty Murray, the Ranking Democrat on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee: “This nomination is dead even right now—on the razor’s edge… For the vast majority of people across the country, public education isn’t just another issue. It’s different… We believe that a commitment to strong public schools is part of America’s core. The idea that every student, in every community, should have the opportunities that strong public schools offer. This is a notion that is embedded in our values. It’s who we are. It’s in our blood.”

Anti-DeVos rallies took place over the weekend and on Monday. Here in Cleveland, Ohio, late yesterday afternoon an enthusiastic crowd of over 500 people assembled in front of Republican Senator Rob Portman’s office to protest his pledge to support the DeVos Senate Will Vote at Noon on DeVos Nomination; Protests Continued through Last Night | janresseger:

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Death by 1,000 cuts at CPS

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Death by 1,000 cuts at CPS:

Death by 1,000 cuts at CPS

"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them." -- Frederick Douglass

Donald Trump thinks Frederick Douglass is still alive. In one sense (certainly not the one intended) he may be right. Douglass' words, his warning, that if we don't resist oppression, we will get it's full measure, are alive and as relevant today as they were more than a century-and-a-half ago. They were ringing in my head this week as I watched our Trumpian Gov. Rauner veto a bill that would have put $215M back in the schools.

We're now in our third year without a state budget and Rahm Emanuel's schools CEO Forrest Claypool has just announced another $46M in cuts at CPS and I'm asking myself just how much more of this death by 1,000 cuts of public space are we willing or able to endure? 

The cuts have created more chaos throughout the system, forcing principals to re-engineer their budgets in the middle of the school year and give up as much as half of discretionary money for textbooks, field trips, technology and hourly workers who staff recess and after school programs. CPS is also cutting $5 million in teacher professional development funds.

As expected, Claypool put all the blame for the cuts on the more-than-deserving, "Trumpian" Rauner. But Claypool, Rahm and the Democratic Party leadership in Springfield have blood on their hands as well. They've acceded to Republican demands for more and more cuts with little more than a whimper, and Sen. Pres. John Cullerton is currently colluding with Rauner in the Grand Plan to loot the pension fund and weaken the unions.

They are also unwilling to tax the state's wealthiest for badly-needed revenues and instead are considering other ways to save money, including shortening the school year. How ironic, Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Death by 1,000 cuts at CPS:

WATCH LIVE: #Holdthefloor: Senate Democrats’ All-Night Vigil Against DeVos

#Holdthefloor: Senate Democrats’ All-Night Vigil Against DeVos:

#Holdthefloor: Senate Democrats’ All-Night Vigil Against DeVos

This is going down to the wire

Senate Democrats, channeling public opposition to Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education while venting their own outrage over her lack of qualifications for the job, are occupying the Senate floor for 24 hours ahead of the chamber’s vote on her confirmation at noon.

Every Democrat in the Senate plans to vote against Trump’s nominee, joined by two Republicans. Vice President Mike Pence may cast the tie-breaking and deciding vote in a historical first for a cabinet confirmation.

“Democrats — who planned to stay up through the night debating DeVos’ nomination — made it clear that they weren’t ready to give up the fight,” Education Week reports.

Those who oppose DeVos are urging voters to call their senators this morning and tell them to vote no on DeVos; then make sure to contact colleagues, friends, and family to tell them to call too. The National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, is circulating this number to call: 1-855-882-6229.

Check out #holdthefloor on Twitter to get the latest on the Senate Democrats’ vigil.

The unity among the Democratic Party’s senators is no doubt a result of the surge of protests against DeVos that have broken out across the country. A large share of the public perceives DeVos as a threat to a fundamental institution in our country because she and other members of her family have spent hundreds of millions of dollars on lobbying campaigns and politicians’ election campaigns to advance her own ideology while disparaging the public schools the vast majority of Americans attend.

“Teachers unions, civil rights advocates, and a ragtag assemblage of other opponents are bombarding congressional offices with tens of thousands of phone calls and more than 1 million emails,” write Caitlin Emma and Austin Wright at Politico.

A newspaper in Nebraska reports 200 people turned out at an anti-DeVos demonstration the weekend before this vote in Omaha to tell their Senator, Republican Deb Fischer, to vote against DeVos.

Crowds came out in Colorado — an event in Fort Collins expecting 200 swelled to 800, and an event in Denver drew over 100 — to tell Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican, to make the switch from yes to no.

Over 200 showed up at a rally in Charleston, West Virginia, to persuade Senator Shelley Moore #Holdthefloor: Senate Democrats’ All-Night Vigil Against DeVos:

"‘Toxic’ Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters" - Wait What?

"‘Toxic’ Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters" - Wait What?:

“‘Toxic’ Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters”

Oklahoma educator and education advocate Dr. John Thompson is an award-winning historian and inner-city teacher. He is the author of A Teacher’s Tale: Learning, Loving and Listening to Our Kids.  He recently attended a speech given by charter school owner Steve Perry and wrote about his observations for the website, Nondoc.

Thompson wrote;

Although I’d mostly come to hear perspectives from charter supporters in the crowd, I found myself instead listening, horrified, as keynote speaker Steve Perry, a former charter school principal-turned-showman from Connecticut, shouted non-stop insults during his entire keynote address.

Thompson added;

Perry has a reputation for failing to respect the regulatory rules of the road and is remembered for calling unions “roaches” in 2013. Worse, his charter school, Capital Preparatory Magnet School, would sentence “even the youngest students in the building” to sit at what was known as the Table of Shame as a form of punishment. His current gig is running Sean “P-Diddy” Combs’ 160-student charter, a Harlem magnet school that recruits suburban students.

[…]

At Thursday’s summit, Perry told the audience that charter supporters shouldn’t even talk with people who disagree with them. He also claimed opponents of Oklahoma City’s KIPP expansion are racists. In fact, he said people like me — who display pro-Barack Obama bumper stickers but oppose charter and voucher expansions — are as bad as the worst racists in 

"‘Toxic’ Steve Perry should embarrass charter supporters" - Wait What?:

 

Illinois’ Grand Bargain will include a major attack on Special Education. Nobody is reporting this. Take action now. | Fred Klonsky

Illinois’ Grand Bargain will include a major attack on Special Education. Nobody is reporting this. Take action now. | Fred Klonsky:

Illinois’ Grand Bargain will include a major attack on Special Education. Nobody is reporting this. Take action now.

Senate President John Cullerton’s Grand Bargain with the Repubs includes an attack on special ed.

From Bev Johns.

In a speech on Monday, Senate President John Cullerton stated that school funding reform would be part of his Grand Bargain of 13 bills on the State Budget, increasing taxes, etc. that he wanted the State Senate to vote on this week..

“The Senate President also said lawmakers will be briefed on a new school funding formula plan that will be a part of this package.”

Senate Bill 1 is now an empty shell bill that will be amended to include a new school funding formula plan.

What would it do to Special Education in Illinois?

Base special ed funding on a fixed number of general education students (no matter how many students with IEPs are in a school district).

Even worse, this is just funding. It is not based on the number of special ed teachers. A school district could employ any number of special ed teachers and still receive exactly the same amount of money.

Why? On January 17, State Senator Andy Manar stated to the Commission that school districts had “drastic overidentification” of students for special education.

Read it for yourself.   Go to –
https://www.isbe.net/Pages/Illinois

Look at evidence-based funding formula (2/2/17) where you can read the 449 Illinois’ Grand Bargain will include a major attack on Special Education. Nobody is reporting this. Take action now. | Fred Klonsky:

How and Why I Research Exemplars of Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

How and Why I Research Exemplars of Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

How and Why I Research Exemplars of Technology Integration

For over 30 years, I have examined the adoption and use of computers in schools (Teachers and Machines, 1986; Oversold and Underused, 2001, Inside the Black Box, 2013). I looked at the policy hype, over-promising, and predictions accompanying new technologies in each decade. The question I asked was: what happens in schools and classrooms after the school board and superintendent adopt a policy of buying and deploying new technologies to improve schooling. In books, articles, and my blog, I moved back and forth between policy and practice.

In these decades, champions of new technologies in schools believed deeply that the traditional goals of tax-supported public schools (i.e., building citizens, preparing graduates for a labor market, and making whole human beings) could be achieved through new electronic devices. They believed that hardware and software would, if not transform, surely alter classroom teaching, improve students’ academic performance, and prepare graduates for an entirely different workplace than their parents faced.

In research during these decades, I described and analyzed computers in schools and classrooms across the U.S. I tracked how these high-tech advocates and donors were often disappointed in how little school and classroom practice changed in the direction they sought, the anemic results in student achievement, and uncertainties in getting the right jobs after graduation, given the claims accompanying these new technologies.

I also documented occasional instances where individual teachers thoroughly integrated laptops and tablets into their practice and moved from teacher- to student-centered classrooms. And there were scattered cases of schools and districts adopting technologies wholesale and slowly altering cultures and structures to improve how teachers teach and students learn. While isolated and infrequent, nonetheless, I found these occasional exemplars of classroom, school, and district integration as important, if not, puzzling in their isolation from mainstream practices. In doing all of this research I became intimately familiar with nearly all that had been written about computers in schools.

Literature on computers in schools

Researchers, policy advocates, practitioners have created an immense literature How and Why I Research Exemplars of Technology Integration | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Betsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools” | deutsch29

Betsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools” | deutsch29:

Betsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools”

In response to Senator Patty Murray’s question 115 (among 139 written questions asked by Murray of DeVos following DeVos’ January 17, 2017, Senate HELP Committee hearing), DeVos states that school choice programs increase integration:

Murray:

If a school choice plan was presented to the Department for funding, but there was compelling evidence to indicate this plan would increase segregation by race and/or by socioeconomic status, would the Department approve it? How can you justify this decision?

DeVos:

I do not support programs that lead to increased segregation. Empirical evidence finds school choice programs lead to more integrated schools than their public school counterparts.

DeVos names no specific study, and she offers no caution.

She writes definitively that School Choice Leads to More Integrated Schools.

But there are studies that refute her “more integrated” claim.

Here are a few, in brief:

Brookings analyzed nine years of federal data and found no overall relationship between charter school choice and racial segregation. However, the researcher suggested that the design of particular school choice programs vary and therefore could influence school segregation for better or worse.

The National Center for Educational Policy (NEPC) echoes the Brookings observation that school segregation can be shaped– sometimes by school policies and practices:

Even without school choice, America’s schools would be shockingly segregated, in large part because of housing policies and school district boundaries. School choice policies that do not have sufficient protections against unconstrained, segregative choices do exacerbate the problem. In an 

Betsy DeVos: “School Choice Programs Lead to More Integrated Schools” | deutsch29:

CURMUDGUCATION: The DeVos Alarm Clock

CURMUDGUCATION: The DeVos Alarm Clock:

The DeVos Alarm Clock

The Betsy DeVos nomination, in its sturm and drang and distress and noise, is quite different from any nomination we've ever seen. And yet, Betsy DeVos is not that much different from what we've seen before.

As a political operative seeking to remake public education in her own preferred image, DeVos is a bush-league Bill Gates. "I'm rich. I've got a tn of money. Why shouldn't I rewrite the education rules to better suit my own preferences?" Granted, Bill Gates actually did something to earn his money beyond simply being conceived. So that's a difference. And Gates wants to remake education to suit technocrats, while DeVos seems more interested in creating a system that fits her personal version of Jesus. So that's a difference, too.

As an education expert, DeVos is someone who holds tight to her set of beliefs about how education should be run despite pushback from people who actually work in the field and despite the lack of any credible evidence for her preferences, which she actively rejects. In this respect, she is not really very different from Arne Duncan or John King or Rod Paige.

As a policy leader, DeVos values deference to moneyed interests.I think it's a mistake to think that DeVos is motivated by greed; like many of the folks playing this game, she uses money to keep score. It's not that it's important to grasp and grab at money-- it's just that wealth is a sign of God's favor, proof that you are a Better Person who has been justly rewarded for your Betterness. In this respect she is no different from many folks who work in government like, for instance, all the folks who let Bill Gates and Eli Broad and a dozen other well-heeled reformsters have a seat at the policy table because, hey, these guys are rich, so clearly they must be worth listening CURMUDGUCATION: The DeVos Alarm Clock: