While I imagine that some of you have abandoned your newsfeeds and newspapers in despair by now, I’d like to think that most of you have fought through the existential terror to stay current on the political upheavals our country is currently experiencing. And even if you have, there are too many issues to keep track of. There’s the set of executive orders banning refugees from seven countries from entering the United States, the renewal of the efforts to build the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines, and the walking horror show that is Steve Bannon. But today, we’re going to talk about the nominee for Secretary of Education, and why the institutions she claims to care about deserve far better than she can offer.
Public schools are one of the most cherished institutions in the United States. We spend more money per student than any other country. Still, we’re failing to support the students who need it the most, and it’s partly due to the way education is funded in the United States. Rather than providing national funding for public schools, the bill for public education is left for states, counties, and individual school districts to pay. And even within individual school districts, the experience of students can vary drastically from school to school. The poorer neighborhoods have the least access to resources, funding, and skilled teachers, while richer neighborhoods have all the resources they could need and more. This isn’t fair by any stretch of the imagination, and even so, some people consider it to be the natural order of things. And Betsy DeVos, the current administration’s nominee for Secretary of Education, doesn’t intend to improve things. The policies she’s planning to propose will only make it worse.
Betsy DeVos supports school vouchers, a program which gives families the money to choose either a public or private school. Where would this money come from, you ask? From the current, and already inadequate, public school funding. But let’s set that aside for a minute. In theory, school vouchers would allow families more freedom of choice in their schools by giving parents the option of sending their children to private school instead of public school. Private schools, however, aren’t obligated to teach every child the way public schools are. They can afford to be selective, and they very often are. What incentive do private schools have to educate underprivileged students? None, and that’s why school vouchers disproportionately benefit students who already come from a privileged background.
I was lucky enough to benefit from an excellent public school education. I grew up in a city that values public education, that is willing to pass levies to fill the gaps in funding provided by the state and federal governments. Not everyone is so lucky. For many people, public education is their only path out of poverty, and if we risk undermining public schools in favor of private schools and the illusion of “school choice,” we close off that path forever. I’m not willing to do that. You shouldn’t be, either. Call your senators and demand that they oppose the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. There aren’t many opportunities in life to affect future generations. This is one of them.
Give your senators a call. Protect public education.
