Betsy DeVos Hijacks Anniversary of Civil Rights Act to Push Failed Voucher Scheme that Diverts Money from Schools that Need It Most

This political move by USDOE Head Betsy DeVos must also always be seen as an attack on the teachers unions that overwhelmingly vote democratic.  This agenda is one that continues to do everything it can to cripple workers' voice and power.

It's also an attack on the poor and on people of color, generally, who are viewed as cash cows for venture capitalists who care more about money than democracy. They want to turn the whole system into a market so that they can profit from it together with the double-whammy of eliminating governance.

School choice privatizers always say that your shoes should to the walking to the school of your choice, but they never tell you that these same steps are an about-face from democratic participation in our school systems, meaning elective school boards and thusly, the capacity for voice and the assertion of rights in the process. In the process, as DeVos' desires, they rob education of much-needed resources.  As sharply critiqued by Randi Weingarten below, how heartless to be doing this during a pandemic.

Shame on Besty DeVos' privatization scheme at this very moment where we need more, not less, money. Furthermore, we do not need a system where education amounts to the best one you or me can buy in a market.

I just emailed my congressman about this.  I suggest you do the same.

-Angela Valenzuela

#SayNoToVouchers

For Immediate Release July 2, 2020

Contact: Andrew Crook 607-280-6603 acrook@aft.org www.aft.org

WASHINGTON—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement after the White House released details of a voucher program it would like to try to insert in a forthcoming congressional relief package:  "It is telling that, after spending more than three years doing nothing to help the public schools that 90 percent of children attend, Betsy DeVos races to divert resources into private hands 48 hours after the Supreme Court’s decision in Espinoza. With our country dealing with a pandemic, an economic recession and structural racism, she’s spied an opening to exploitthis crisis to resuscitate her failed agenda. "And it’s especially sickening that, in the middle of a national reckoning over race, when poor schools are in desperate need of funds to reopen safely, DeVos hijacks the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act to shift support away from where it’s needed most. "In the next stimulus package, Congress needs to reject this thought bubble and prioritize public schools that are open to all children, not failed 'choice' schemes that split us along racial, ethnic and religious lines. We need more money, not less, for physical distancing, staggered classes, personal protective equipment, and testing, tracing and isolation. “DeVos' craven attempts to divide and privatize would be laughable if the stakes weren't so high."  "And it’s especially sickening that, in the middle of a national reckoning over race, when poor schools are in desperate need of funds to reopen safely, DeVos hijacks the anniversary of the Civil Rights Act to shift support away from where it’s needed most. "In the next stimulus package, Congress needs to reject this thought bubble and prioritize public schools that are open to all children, not failed 'choice' schemes that split us along racial, ethnic and religious lines. We need more money, not less, for physical distancing, staggered classes, personal protective equipment, and testing, tracing and isolation. “DeVos' craven attempts to divide and privatize would be laughable if the stakes weren't so high."

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