Betsy DeVos Still Doesn’t Get the Connection Between Democracy and Our System of Public Schools | janresseger

Betsy DeVos Still Doesn’t Get the Connection Between Democracy and Our System of Public Schools | janresseger

Betsy DeVos Still Doesn’t Get the Connection Between Democracy and Our System of Public Schools

A week ago, at one of the nation’s most conservative Christian colleges, Betsy DeVos delivered a vehement attack on the idea of public education. With the election coming up next week, we can hope it was the final attack on the institution of public schooling DeVos will deliver from per perch as U.S. Secretary of Education.

In a column last Wednesday, the Washington Post‘s Valerie Strauss describes DeVos’s Hillsdale College address: “In 2015, billionaire Betsy DeVos declared that ‘government really sucks’—and after serving nearly four years as U.S. education secretary, she has not tempered that view one iota.  She gave a speech this week at a Christian college disparaging the U.S. public education system, saying it is set up to replace the home and family. While blasting the government is nothing new for DeVos—critics see her as the most ideological and anti-public-education secretary in the Education Department’s 40-plus-year history—she gave what may be her fiercest anti-government polemic at the Hillsdale College event in her home state…. She explained how her philosophy was formed by Abraham Kuyper, a neo-Calvinist Dutch theologian-turned-politician who was prime minister of the Netherlands between 1901 and 1905 and who believed that Protestant, Catholic and secular groups should run their own independent schools and colleges. The United States could fix its education system, she said, if it were to ‘go Dutch’ by embracing ‘the family as the sovereign sphere that is, a sphere that predates government altogether.'”

Strauss reprints DeVos’s Hillsdale College speech in its entirety. In it DeVos confides to her audience the secret she has learned while serving as our education secretary: “I assume most CONTINUE READING: Betsy DeVos Still Doesn’t Get the Connection Between Democracy and Our System of Public Schools | janresseger

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes

Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools

By Amanda Meanas

Instead of waiting until the American people have had their say and the next president is inaugurated, President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Senate are determined to rush through Trump’s Supreme Court nominee. Those efforts led to a COVID-19 “super spreader” event at the White House. More than 20 people, including the president, tested positive soon after the event.

Voters should decide who fills Justice Ginsburg’s seat. But Senate Republicans are attempting to rush through President Trump’s nominee, Amy Coney Barrett, even though they have dragged their feet and failed to pass coronavirus relief legislation that would help so many Americans and public school systems across the country.

“Judge Amy Coney Barrett has sided with the powerful and well-connected throughout her career. … She has sided with the powerful against workers, allowed racially segregated workplaces, ruled in favor of Trump policies harming immigrants, and against those seeking to protect women from sexual assault,” said former science teacher and NEA President Becky Pringle.

The Supreme Court is a critical institution in our federal government for protecting the rights of those who might otherwise not have a voice in our institutions. That means the next justice absolutely must not be beholden to partisan or corporate interests.

Here are five reasons the Supreme Court and the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett matter for educators:

1. Judge Barrett wants to repeal the Affordable Care Act

In her short three years as a federal judge, Barrett’s record was alarming, and she has promised to continue to side with corporations over working people. While Americans continue to struggle through the global coronavirus pandemic, access to healthcare is at the forefront of conversation.If Barrett is confirmed, she is poised to strike down the Affordable Care Act, throwing millions off their insurance and ending protections for those with preexisting conditions. In fact, for the 7 million Americans who have battled COVID-19, those side effects could now be considered preexisting conditions.

2. The Supreme Court will vote on workers’ rights to join and form unions<

Educators could face increased difficulty in holding their employers accountable for illegal discrimination and unfair employment practices if Barrett is confirmed. During her time in the lower court, Judge Barrett limited workers’ tools to fight against racial discrimination in the workplace, wrote in favor of age discrimination when applying to jobs, and worked to set dangerous precedent that would hurt gig workers. The Court already weakened the rights of educators to collectively bargain in 2018, and the nomination of Barrett means unions will face CONTINUE READING: Five reasons the Supreme Court matters for educators and public schools - Education Votes