Detention!

Betsy DeVos is, without a doubt, the worst White House Administration nominee I've ever seen.  She's so grossly unqualified for the position she's being considered for (Secretary of Education), anyone who does vote for her is making a strong argument THEY should immediately be removed from government.  This is an anti-Public School zealot, who used her family's wealth to make political donations, and in turn got rewarded with a plumb cabinet nomination.  She knows absolutely NOTHING about our current education system in the US!  The fact the GOP didn't reject her immediately is stunning, but they, knowing her qualifications are incredibly skeptical, changed the hearing rules to forbid anyone from asking follow up questions during her nightmarish confirmation hearing.

I want to give everyone a stark look at what our public education system will be like under her reign, but first:

• Betsy DeVos is for 'School Choice.'  This term is used to describe taking money from the public school system and funneling it into schools run by for-profit companies, mostly charter schools.  Charter schools are the main focus of this education philosophy, as most private and religious schools are one or two school operations.  Some of the larger charter school companies run over a hundred schools, nationwide.  These people run schools as businesses.
• 'Open Enrollment' is different from School Choice, as Open Enrollment mainly refers to enrolling in a different public school option.  Most School Choice advocates I've talked with are against public schools completely.
• Every School Choice advocate I've ever talked with despises the teacher's unions.
• School Choice was NEVER meant for an entire school district to participate in, but for 15-20% of a school district only, designed predominately for the wealthier, white students.  It's not financially possible to offer 100% of a public school's student body a School Choice/Open Enrollment option.
• School Choice/Open Enrollment doesn't make public schools better.  It funnels tax payer money to handful of private companies/public school districts.  The public schools left behind have less money, less staff, and less resources.
• There's no successful education model in the world where you're able to educate a student body better with less money, less staff and less resources.  NONE!
• Charter schools do a poorer job overall at educating kids verses Public Schools, when compared in fair, unbiased studies. 

Okay, let's look at what education will look like if Betsy DeVos takes over.

Outstate Schools - The public school districts in outstate America will be devastated.  Due to the sparser population, school districts will be trimmed by half to 2/3rds.  Rural areas will likely have only one school district per county.  There will be some private, religious or charter school options, but they'll have higher out of pocket expenses, costs beyond having to drive your child 30 minutes one way just to get to the school.  The remaining public schools will be woefully underfunded, with class sizes of 30 to 50 kids, limited classes beyond the base curriculum, no advanced education, physical education, special needs education or art/music education.  The public school's main goal will be to teach an annual test, and that's it.

Inner City Schools - Inner city schools will be consolidated further, potentially leading to a single education 'compound' for an entire city's public school body.  Class sizes will be astronomical, 50-100 per class.  There will be charter school options, but since their quality is subpar, students will be worse off.  Open enrollment will be a mass exodus.  Similar to outstate schools, classes will be limited to a base curriculum, with no STEM classes, no physical education, extremely limited special needs education and art/music classes will be gone.  As with outstate schools, the main goal will be to teach an annual test, and that's it.

Suburban Schools - Suburban public schools feel safer, due to their high tax base and high incoming open enrollment population, but Betsy DeVos is an advocate of private school vouchers, and easing school district tax requirements.  Currently, parents of a child who live in a suburban school district, but who attends a private school, still pay property taxes to fund public schools.  DeVos wants to cut that by up to a 90%.  This will dramatically eliminate suburban public school revenue.  Vouchers mean suburban public school district's will offset tuition costs of private school kids.  Just like Wisconsin, many of the private school vouchers will end up in the hands of the wealthiest families, meaning middle class tax payers will be subsidizing private school education for the wealthy.  With quality decreasing, more suburban kids will opt for private, religious and charters schools. DeVos' butchery will affect all communities, including Minnetonka, Wayzata, Edina and Woodbury.  The suburban districts might have a few extra curriculum perks, but just like outstate and inner city schools, their main goal will revolve around teaching an annual test.

Annual Testing/ Teachers - Annual testing's primary goal won't be educating kids, rather punishing teachers.  The ability for a teacher to mold the education to the individual student will cease to exist.  Betsy DeVos will wage a war on the teacher's unions, much like they did in Wisconsin.  She'll enact national tenure restrictions and weaken education requirements to become a teacher.  Federal funding will dry up, meaning massive layoffs of the most experienced educators.  DeVos has to get rid of the union to be able to enforce her most Draconian policy; the eventual whole scale closure of many public schools.

The Classes - Quality education will be replaced with kids taking test, after test, after test.  Textbooks will be rewritten to reflect a specific political slant.  STEM will cease being taught, and basic science, mathematics and English will be streamlined.  For students who have trouble with the tests, their classes will be replaced with mop buckets, rakes and brooms, with the eventual goal of funneling those kids out of school and into low paying, manual labor jobs.  And school lunches will become deep fried, processed crap.

Betsy DeVos' goal is to break the public school system once and for all, pushing middle and upper class kids into charter schools, where billionaire CEO's can rake in the profit, and pushing lower income kids out onto the street.  Elections have consequences, and white rural Americans and suburbanites who voted for Trump, who foolishly thought the pain would be limited to the more liberal, ethnic areas of the country, will soon realize they're going to suffer, too.

Imagine a President puts forward a candidate to run the National Parks.  The candidate A) has never been to a National Park, B) hates the idea of National Parks, C) hates all Park Rangers and Park employees, wanting them all fired, and D) has an ultimate goal of giving away all of the National Park land to their friends.  Yikes.  This is how Betsy DeVos is approaching becoming Secretary of Education.  

If the GOP pushes her though, Betsy DeVos will be the end of quality public education in America.  She has to be stopped.