Fight for Education Just Beginning

Billionaire Betsy DeVos, who was confirmed as Donald Trump’s education secretary on Tuesday, February 7, has been widely criticized for being incredibly unqualified for her new position. Vice President Mike Pence was called to break a 50-50 deadlock in the Senate, meaning DeVos was confirmed with the fewest number of votes necessary and the fewest number of votes relative to every other Cabinet secretary ever confirmed in American history. The only reason she was confirmed at all is because Senate rules were changed in 2013 so that only 51 votes are needed to confirm nominees, making wide bipartisan support -which DeVos certainly does not have- unnecessary.

DeVos has come under intense scrutiny for having no prior experience as an elected official in a position relating to public education, and perhaps as a result, during her confirmation hearing, DeVos appeared generally unaware of the responsibilities of the position.

The views that DeVos has voiced have been widely criticized as well. DeVos is a strong supporter of charter schools and their unregulated growth. This prioritizes for-profit schools over public schools, though according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, only 1 in 10 students in the United States attends private school, and that funneling federal money into charter schools negatively affects public schools, according to The Washington Post.

It has been statistically proven that charter schools do not out-perform public schools as a whole, according to GreatSchools. In general, the caliber of education they offer is inconsistent. They can be publicly funded but privately run, even by for-profit companies, so the primary interest of such institutions is to make money, not educate students.

In Michigan, DeVos’s home state, she served as chair of a group called the American Federation for Children, which is pro “school-choice.” Or, rather, it attempts to further privatize education. She advocated for the spread of charter schools there, which report math and reading scores that are consistently below the state’s average.

What DeVos has done is transfer her money into organizations that prioritize for-profit schools that can afford to be less diligent in the quality of education. This shows someone out of touch with the the needs of the vast majority of schools in America.

DeVos herself never attended public school.

While she is controversial, she is easily just another conservative wild card that Trump has handpicked for his administration, like Scott Pruitt for the EPA, who believes that climate change is a hoax, and Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, who was considered too racist to be a federal judge even during Ronald Reagan’s administration. Pruitt was confirmed Ferauary 17; as was Sessions, on February 8.

This means that while more radical and pressing issues dominate the national conversation, DeVos’s talk about school vouchers, or even supplying schools with guns- to fend off grizzly bears -will likely fly under the radar. Education often takes a back seat to other political topics.

Though federal funding for education increased in the Obama administration, how will schools fair in the hands of Betsy DeVos?

Perhaps a more important question is this: With all DeVos has going for her in regards to both her misguided policy and her lack of competence, how much power does she actually have? And what is the worst she could do to jeopardize this generation’s shot at a decent education?

As a student who is not likely to finish college until after Trump’s presidency is over (let’s hope!), I have to wonder just how much damage DeVos’s can inflict, on a federal level, and if her decisions will truly affect both children and young adults alike.

DeVos is in charge of where federal education money is spent. She could move to implement President Trump’s plan to use $20 billion to support a school voucher system (school vouchers are defined as “a certificate of government funding for a student at a school chosen by the student or the student’s parents”). This specifically targets impoverished students, so that they can attend private schools. The problem with this is that funds are diverted from better public schools, and charter schools can be unregulated. It doesn’t ensure that impoverished students will receive a better education, especially if the only aim is to bring in students that receive vouchers in order to fund the school.

The fact remains that states don’t have a consistent way to keep these schools accountable for how their students perform academically. This scenario also ignores the needs of public schools, which serve the vast majority of impoverished students.

Congress has set limits on what Education Secretaries can actually do, after Arne Duncan, Obama’s Education Secretary, attempted to reform education drastically with programs like Common Core. DeVos can make smaller changes, though. Meaning that she has the power to let for-profit schools and colleges be left alone even if they aren’t meeting the standards.

Politics are very much day-by-day in the world of a Trump presidency; fights against people like DeVos are of the moment. However, someone like DeVos and what she stands for has drawn opposition from many. The night before her confirmation, over a million calls flooded senators, demanding that DeVos not be confirmed.

In spite of her confirmation, the fight is not over. It’s still about something personal that hits a lot of people: quality education for children. Children themselves hold little power to fight for this, though it affects them the most.  It falls upon the parents, community members and other sympathetic citizens to champion their cause.

The whole country will be watching.