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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