The vigil against DeVos as Education Secretary is riddled in hypocrisy with claims that she will support charter schools and homeschool education leaving public schools in the lynch… The protesters response? They are going to yank their children from public school and homeschool… WHAT?
How is that considered a threat? In other words, these protesters will act in fear on something they think she might do without realizing the charter school/private school agenda was actually heightened during Obama’s tenure…
Let’s Take A Look:
- John King, Jr., appointed by Obama in 2016, went to a an exclusive prep boarding school after his parents died. Cost? Roughly $50,000 per year. He was expelled in his junior year for rebellious behavior and the inability to abide by the rules. He then moved in with his uncle who lived in the exclusive Cherry Hills Township of New Jersey and went to Harvard… I guess they like rebellious guys.
He worked at a ‘charter school’ for 3 years before co-founding Roxbury Prepatory Charter School. He is tagged as having instituted the ‘rules’ including ‘no talking in hallways’. really?
In 2011 King was named Commissioner of Education for New York. He served for one year under Obama.
- Ame Duncan, appointed in 2009 by Obama, was the controversial advocate that pushed through Common Core during Obama’s tenure.
After one of Chicago’s worst performing public elementary schools failed, Duncan and an investment banker friend reopened it as a charter school, for profit. Later, his tenure as CEO of Chicago’s public schools under Mayor Daly was mired in controversy for the number of public school closures during his tenure and their conversion to charter school status. His tenure was described as ‘militarization’.
During his tenure as Secretary of Education under Obama, he emphasized more money for ‘charter schools’.
His own children currently attend private schools.
Of course, Obama’s children both attended exclusive private schools as well, so the fact that the Liberal’s feel DeVos is out of touch is a bit humorous given she is no different than Obama and his own Education Secretary’s.
Today protesters in DC have attempted to block DeVos from entering into Jefferson Academy, a struggling public school whose current Principal came from a “charter school” background. Why did they hire her? Because her tenure gave her a better understanding of how to lift students who are failing.
Throughout Obama’s presidency, the US education performance ranking continued to slip in math, science and English scores against the world’s developed countries. Statistics point to China and India as the leading nations for education. Overall, the US ranks 17th out of 40 countries for educational performance. Not something to brag about…
According to a PISA test that ranks performance, the US remains unchanged in math and reading ranking at the proverbial bottom of the barrel.
Are charter schools the answer? I don’t know. What we all know is that the education system is failing. That $14,000 per year in taxes isn’t funding education, it’s funding pensions. And that making schools competitive thru a voucher system only serves to benefit the students – instead of the teachers.
So while the protestors are screaming about how DeVos is going to destroy the US education system and ramp up charter schools, they have once again ignored the facts that a) BOTH of Obama’s Secretary’s were very aggressive with promoting charter schools, and b) The US education performance has stalled at the bottom… c) and none of that occurred as a result of DeVos.
While the concept is that when you are at the bottom you have nowhere to go but up, we have apparently defied that axiom.