Sexual assault survivors to Betsy DeVos: ‘Exactly who are you here to serve?’
In the Trump administration, you can learn a lot from a list of invited guests.
On Feb. 14, President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos held a meeting at the White House with 10 representatives from the world of education. The list of invitees starkly signaled what the Trump-DeVos education agenda was going to be.
Among the 10, two were from traditional public schools, and one was from a public school that specializes in special education. Three of the 10 were from private schools, two were home-schoolers, one was from a charter school and another was from a dropout prevention program.
Now consider this:
*Traditional public schools educate more than 80 percent of America’s schoolchildren.
*About 10 percent of schoolchildren in the United States go to private schools, according to 2013-2014 data, the latest available, with 38 percent of these enrolled in Catholic schools.
* About 5 percent attend charter schools, according to 2013-14 data, the latest available, though charter advocates say it is now 6 percent. Charter schools are publicly funded but operate outside traditional public districts, and many are run by for-profit companies.
* About 3 percent are home-schooled, according to 2012 data, the latest available.
If you didn’t know before that meeting that Trump and DeVos were planning to push school “choice” — alternatives to traditional public schools — you would know from that list of invitees. And since then, the two have not disappointed choice supporters, proposing massive increases in spending for school “choice,” including a new program that would use hundreds of millions of public dollars to pay for tuition and other educational expenses at private and Sexual assault survivors to Betsy DeVos: ‘Exactly who are you here to serve?’ - The Washington Post:
