No experience working in public schools. What could go wrong? (Image Credit: YouTube / PBS Newshour)
Last night, Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education was in the hot seat during her confirmation hearing. Betsy DeVos is a billionaire because her father-in-law started — I swear I’m not kidding — Amway. Yes, folks, someone did get rich selling Amway and now his equally rich daughter-in-law is trying to be Secretary of Education.
Not because she’ll be awesome at it, mind you. She never went to public school, never taught in or served as an administrator for public schools, and never sent her own kids to public schools. She doesn’t even like public schools. She was chosen because her family donates trunkfuls of money to Republican politicians. Pay to play!
Anyway, Ms. Devos is known in many Michigan education circles as a person who causes those who love and care about public schools to emit the kind of primal screams usually reserved for discovering your home is built on a sacred burial ground and is now being overrun with poltergeists.
She’s a big advocate for what she calls “school choice." In practice, that translates to “funnel money away from public schools where poor kids go."
She likes the idea of using public school funds for vouchers for private and religious schools and for quasi-public charter schools that are funded with public dollars but can establish entrance criteria that exclude many students, including students with special needs.
Last night, Democratic Senators laid into Ms. DeVos and the results were hair-raising. When Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy, who used to be the Representative for Newtown, asked about allowing guns on school grounds, she demurred, saying that some schools probably need to have guns around to protect from - and I swear I am not making this up - “potential grizzlies.”
She said that. To a senator who represents the Sandy Hook families. Who lost children to a school shooting. Which was a real thing that happened. Unlike school grizzly attacks.
When asked by Senator Casey of Pennsylvania about upholding the Obama administration's guidance about how college campuses handle sexual assault, DeVos gave an answer that was so vague that it barely deserves to be called that. She said it was “premature” to say whether she’d be willing to uphold means of preventing and prosecuting sexual assault on campuses, and she looks forward to talking to other senators about it. She did acknowledge that sexual assault is bad.
Well, that’s a relief. I’m glad we can all agree on that.
The line of questioning that would have resulted in her being laughed out of the room if she’d been applying to be a school principal came when Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia asked her if she believed in upholding the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). She said that should be up to the states to decide. Senator Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire followed up later by asking Ms. DeVos if she understands that IDEA is a federal law and states don’t get to just not implement federal laws.
I MEAN, MY GOD, EVERYONE LEARNS THAT IN SOCIAL STUDIES IN 7TH GRADE IN PUBLIC SCHOOL. MAYBE YOU SHOULD HAVE GONE TO PUBLIC SCHOOL, LADY!
Okay, Senator Hassan didn't say that. That was all me. But she did ask, “So were you unaware when I just asked you about the IDEA that it was a federal law?” DeVos responded, “I may have confused it.”
She. Doesn’t. Know. What. IDEA. Is.
Eventually, Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee refused to allow a second round of questions, probably because he was afraid of more revelations of the gaps in Ms. DeVos’s own education about education.
A vote on her confirmation hasn’t been scheduled yet. Hopefully, she’ll learn a thing or two before that happens.
