Hundreds of Protestors Rally to Oppose Secretary of Education
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is calling liberals, progressives, Democrats, and those who oppose her policies, “defenders of the status quo,” and saying “defenders of the status quo don’t have their kids’ interests at heart.” DeVos delivered her stunningly partisan speech Thursday amid hundreds of people out protesting her and her policies for the second day at the annual meeting of a right-wing consortium of corporations and lawmakers.
ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, is responsible for dangerous laws spanning dozens of states, including “Stand Your Ground” ordinances, voter identification laws, anti-immigrant laws, anti-health care laws, and laws that discriminate against people living with HIV/AIDS.
DeVos mocked the protests outside Denver’s Hyatt Regency as “excitement on the Left” and “organized protests by defenders of the status quo,” according to her published remarks.
“Our opponents, the defenders of the status quo, only protest those capable of implementing real change. You represent real change,” Secretary DeVos added.
She lauded “school choice’s increasing momentum,” noting that in “the first six months of this year, 40 legislative chambers in 23 states have passed bills expanding school choice for students and their families.”
Since becoming Education Secretary DeVos has not been shy about her sheer hatred of the U.S. public schools system. At ALEC, she doubled down, mocking it as “one that was created in the 1800s.”
At one point DeVos said: “Choice in education is good politics because it’s good policy. It’s good policy because it comes from good parents who want better for their children. Families are on the front lines of this fight; let’s stand with them!”
She then added, “Parents have seen that defenders of the status quo don’t have their kids’ interests at heart.” She used the phrase “defenders of the status quo” four times during her speech.
DeVos, who is the nation’s Secretary of Education, also delivered this incredibly inane quip that also denigrates her very position – something most of Donald Trump’s cabinet members have in common.
“If you need another reason to believe the federal government shouldn’t be involved in education, look no further than Obamacare. The federal government couldn’t build a website that worked, but progressives think it should run a national healthcare system?”
(Actually, the federal government runs several national health care systems, and exceptionally well. They’re called Medicaid and Medicare.)
She went on to describe expanding school choice programs –  which studies show do not overall provide students with a better education but do funnel cash out of public schools that are generally desperately underfunded – as a “manifestation of expanding human liberty.”
In fact, in February The New York Times noted “a wave of new research has emerged suggesting that private school vouchers may harm students who receive them.”
And in April US News & World Report noted that America’s “only federal private school voucher program negatively impacted student achievement, a team of federal researchers concluded – a finding that comes as the Trump administration pursues a private school choice education policy agenda.”
Last month, education news site ChalkBeat reported, “DeVos says school spending and student outcomes aren’t related, but recent research suggests otherwise.”
The main number for the Secretary of Education is (202)Â 401-3000. DeVos is on Twitter @BetsyDeVosED.
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