Trump ' s Billionaire Education Secretary Has Been Trying to Gut Public Schools for Years
Meet Betsy DeVos , the anti-union , pro-voucher surprise nominee .
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THE DEVOSES CREATED A ROAD MAP FOR CONSERVATIVES ON HOW TO BRING DOWN LABOR , INCLUDING TEACHERS UNIONS
In 2007 , coming off Dick ' s unsuccessful gubernatorial bid in their home state of Michigan , the DeVoses focused their advocacy and philanthropy on controversial legislation known as " right to work ." These laws outlaw contracts that require all employees in unionized workplaces to pay dues for union representation . Back in 2007 , such a proposal in a union-heavy state of Michigan was considered a " right-wing fantasy ," but thanks to the DeVoses ' aggressive strategy and funding , the bill became law by 2012 . Right-to-work laws , now on the books in 26 states , have been a major blow to the labor movement — including teachers unions . Teachers in Michigan are no longer allowed to strike ; when educators in Detroit protested earlier this year against growing class sizes , pay cuts , mold , roaches , and rodents in their classrooms , they had to use their sick days to make their point . ( A month after the strike , Betsy DeVos wrote an op-ed in the Detroit News arguing that teachers shouldn ' t be allowed to stage sick-outs either .) Given her track record , there is very good reason to believe that DeVos would push to further erode the power of the teachers unions as education secretary . Randi Weingarten , the president of the American Federation of Teachers — the nation ' s second-largest teachers union — called DeVos " the most ideological , anti-public education nominee " in the past four decades .
FOR DECADES , DEVOS PUSHED TO GUT PUBLIC SCHOOLS
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Michigan serves as one of the most prominent examples of what aggressive DeVos-style school choice policies look like on the ground , especially when it comes to the expansion of charter schools . About 80 percent of state charter schools are run by for-profit management companies , a much higher share than anywhere else in the country , and with very little oversight from the state . And this year , the DeVoses were the biggest financial backers of the effort to oppose any new state oversight of charters . Detroit , in particular , provides a cautionary tale of how the proliferation of charter schools without sufficient regulations hurts student achievement . Detroit ' s public school test scores in math and reading on the National Assessment of Educational Progress have remained the worst among large cities since 2009 . In June , the New York Times published a scathing investigation of the city ' s school district , which has the second-biggest share of students in charters in America . ( New Orleans is No . 1 .)
Reporter Kate Zernike concluded that insufficiently regulated growth — including too many agencies that are allowed to open new charter schools — contributed to a system with " lots of choice , with no good choice ":
Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of The New Heights Education Group .
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