The confirmation of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education has become the most contentious of all of President Trump’s nominees. A full Senate vote is expected early next week. DeVos needs 51 votes to be confirmed. Currently, the Senate is split at 50 – 50 after two Republicans defected and announced this week that they are voting “nay”. Unless there are more defections from Republicans, Vice-President Pence will be called upon to break the tie.
The media would have everyone believe that her opposition is just from the Democrats and teachers unions. Not so. Many grassroots Republicans oppose DeVos because they are very aware of what her “school choice” ideas mean for our children. Social media is abuzz and has Senators phones ringing off the hook, imploring Senators to vote “no.”
Senator Lamar Alexander is pushing DeVos over the finish line. He is desperate to see her confirmed and finally see his goal of a cradle-to-career education system completed. It’s been a 30 year effort for him. In 1989 Senator Lamar Alexander talked about a brand new type of school,
“I would think the brand new American school would be year-round, open from six to six. The second characteristic might be that these schools will serve children from age three months old to age 18. That maybe a shocking thought to you but if you were to do an inventory of every baby in your community and think about what the needs of those babies were for the next 45 years you might see that those needs might not be served any other way.” (video link below)
He was Secretary of Education under President George H.W. Bush and pushed “America 2000.” He’s now chair of the Senate Education Committee, and pushing DeVos. This is beyond teachers unions objecting to a nominee. Every parent should be objecting not just to DeVos but the entire P-20 seamless education system they seek to create now being pushed as “school choice.” School choice is just the current buzzword for the same tired, old, ideas. They continually “rebrand” their ideas in new terminology as people catch on to the true intentions. In 2013, Governor Snyder talked about a similar vision as Senator Lamar Alexander did in 1989,
“I want to emphasize a vision of P-20. A PRENATAL to life long learning. We have to get beyond the old models of saying there are silos for for K12, silos for community college, for higher ed, for preschool. They shouldn’t be separate. They can be separate institutions. not to threaten the institutions. But shouldn’t we make it a seamless system. Where a student in that system doesn’t have to figure out all these tough choices but can just focus on success…and understanding it starts even at the prenatal stage and looking at is the expectant mother getting the right diet, the right primary care…” (emphasis added)
Parents, your babies are neither wards of the state nor their agents in the schools. They are YOUR children. If the student doesn’t have to figure out the “tough choices” that means the state is making those choices not YOU and not your children. The state does NOT give you choices, it can only limit them.
For more information on how so called, “school choice” means no real choice for parents, please read the following post.
The DeVos Choice Means NO Real Choice for Parents, Students, and Educators.