The New York Times Published and opinion editorial by
columnist Gail Collins titled “Trumps War on Education”. This piece focused on concerns about
President Trumps nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. DeVos is a
billionaire from Michigan who supports for profit education and is not opposed
to teachers carrying guns in schools.
The article highlights opposition to the nominee pointing
out the concerns of others as well.
Senator Patty Murrray (D-Wa) was quoted about how many people are
opposed to this nominee. One of the
concerns is DeVos’ history of lobbying for less regulations and oversights for
Charter Schools. Many studies have found that while some Charter Schools are
doing well, some are not. Most Charter
Schools spend more money on administration and not classroom activities.
In addition to all other concerns, Collins says that DeVos
is grossly under qualified for two primary reasons. The first is that she has never worked for a
school or managed any other large institution. The second is that not only does
she support Charter Schools, she strongly supports and even has family
investments in for profit schools. She ended the piece with quotes from DeVos’
confirmation hearing where she would not agree to impose equal accountability
for public and charter schools.
I do see a need for charter schools. I did an internship at a credit recovery charter
school, I know some of those youths would never be able to attend traditional
schools due to various circumstances.
They do need alternative options; however, there absolutely should be
strong oversight and accountability. We
need to also think about the qualifications of who is nominated and confirmed to
head major government departments. I think there should be minimum
standards. If students and teachers are
held accountable by requiring standardized measures, then so should the
administration consider minimum standards or may test those who get to make
major policy decisions regarding all students in our country.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/opinion/the-trump-war-on-public-schools.html?rref=collection/sectioncollection/education&_r=0
Hi Kassandra!
ReplyDeleteAs I see it, I have no issue with anyone investing in for profit schools. It is some of the other characteristics of Trump's nominee that I find more concerning.
This issue around the education system was interesting to me so I began reading a book, "The Death and Life of the Great American School System", by Diane Ravitch. What I learned from reading this was that no one really knows what makes a good school or how to cultivate an environment to generate successful students.
What we can know is that taking the focus off of the child and turning it instead to administration and/or other interests will absolutely not achieve these goals. Still, while it is easy to make claims on who should /not/ be tasked with solving this issue, I have a much more difficult time coming up with an answer as far as who should.
Thank you for your interesting post :)