Betsy de Vos and her not so hidden agenda

Updated and revised: April 6, 2019

A version of this was published online in the Sky-Hi Daily News April 11, 2019
https://www.skyhinews.com/opinion/opinion-muftic-betsy-devos-and-her-not-so-hidden-agenda/


Education Secretary Betsy DeVos's proposed budget that would reduce the Department of Education by over $7 billion,  is cruel and possibly racist-tinged. Her budget eliminated all federal funding for Special Olympics while putting in her budget $5billion in tax credits for those funding vouchers for students to attend private schools. Public outcry caused Donald Trump to order her to reverse course on Special Olympics.

 Other cuts in federal funds remaining in her budget are harmful to programs which have helped low income and minorities, including, a program that operates after-school programs for low-income kids. Cuts also targeted programs that provide professional development for teachers and provide mental health services. The cuts in assistance to mental health services in the light of recent horrific school shootings are particularly disturbing. She also cut millions to literacy programs. https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2019/04/10/betsy-devos-education-literacy-cuts/3425172002/



 This was only a budget proposal and the Democratic-controlled House would have stopped it, but it is an indication of where she sees her priorities: find a way to fund private education by reducing support of programs for the most vulnerable, those with disabilities, and those from low-income families. 

DeVos has a long established history of advocating taxpayer support of religious-based schools, private education, and charter schools. That may be music to Donald Trump's Evangelical base and school choice advocates, but it strikes a sour note with supporters of public education and civil libertarians.   In Michigan where her influence in shaping her favored education policy implementation has been extensive,  test scores dropped in math and reading. While her banner is school choice, in Michigan that choice has been of poorer educational opportunities.

DeVos has clearly stated that she intends to interpret laws to suit her religious agenda.  Her agenda has always been to get federal funding for religious-based education. The separation of church and state has always been a fundamental provision of the Constitution that forbids the government from establishing a state religion. Those opposed to public funding of religious-based schools cite this as a reason. DeVos' way around this is to give vouchers to parents to use wherever they wish. In 2002, the US Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 split ruled in favor of a voucher program in Ohio if it went to parents, not to schools, had a secular purpose,  and did not fund religious education.   

In recent Congressional testimony, DeVos also was charged with racism since she is reviewing department guidance that protected minorities from unequal disciplinary treatment in public education. Rates of disciplinary action against African Americans are much higher for the same infractions as White students. DeVoss has cited a source that concluded that certain racial groups had more behavior problems, so they needed more frequent discipline.   The question was not only would she permit treatment of  African American students differently, but she cut the budget for enforcement of civil rights by $1million.  Critics of private education note that private schools can pick and choose who they admit and are exempted from federal anti-discrimination laws so long as they do not receive federal money.  There are limits and permissions, however,  that vary from state to state,  particularly regarding religious preferences and sexual orientation.

 Charter schools have a great deal of bi-partisan political support.  While charter schools are publicly financed and are bound by anti-discrimination rules and law, in practice some have found a way around that standard by making the admissions application process difficult for minority families. Minority students also have a record of more frequent expulsions. Charter schools have also been found to discriminate against admitting  "hard" to educate kids with behavior problems, low achievement scores, and special needs by ignoring inquiries from their parents seeking admission.   Often charter schools are administered by for-profit enterprises.


________________________________________________________________________

In my blog posting 11/27/16, there was a more thorough discussion of vouchers for religious-based school based on an attempt to set up a program in Douglas County, Colorado. Below are some excerpts.
"
So what is wrong about those who support using taxpayer money vouchers in support of "religious education".  What is at issue is the separation of church and state in the Constitution and if funding religious schools violates that. provision.
There was an attempt in a Denver suburb, Douglas County, to allow vouchers to be used for religious based schools. The effort failed in a federal court.


On the other hand, the Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 split ruled in favor of a voucher program in Ohio if it went to parents, not to schools, had a secular purpose,  and did not fund religious education.  

https://www.daytondailynews.com/news/private-school-voucher-program-nearly-double-some-suburbs-affected/c3PjW84qCy6rjmryeICx8I/

______________________________________________________________________




The Private Choice Test developed by the Court, for a voucher program to be constitutional was that  it must meet all of the following criteria:

• the program must have a valid secular purpose
• aid must go to parents and not to the schools
• a broad class of beneficiaries must be covered
• the program must be neutral with respect to religion
• there must be adequate nonreligious options

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelman_v._Simmons-Harris
However, the results have had mixed performance on student tests. From a public policy viewpoint, it has not been a great success.
." http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2016/07/ohio_vouchers_have_mixed_impact_on_student_performance_study_finds.html

" From the public policy perspective, will students' education benefit?  We do have some experience with vouchers and the results are contrary to expectations of many. advocates of vouchers.  From the public policy perspective, Students using vouchers to attend private schools in Ohio performed significantly worse on state tests than their peers who remained in public schools, according to a new study. In Wisconsin, a study finds little or no indication that pupils in those Milwaukee public schools that have more school choice possibilities nearby made significantly greater year-to-year gains in primary school tests than pupils in other Milwaukee public schools. (http://www.epi.org/publication/book_vouchers/)

The conclusion from these experiences is that vouchers do not benefit the students so much as it satisfies ideological and political beliefs that choice that includes private schools is the most important criteria or that anything private is better than that which is government funded."

Posted on Facebook in the comment section of the posting of this was a very well expressed comment: by Maggie Orth.
"The problem with vouchers is that they create a baseline cost for education. Those who can only afford the vouchers will get crap. Those who can supplement will get more. Moreover, vouchers assume that working parents have the resources and time to weed through a complex marketplace-- just as Medicare vouchers do with seniors. I shudder to think of my poor parents who are struggling with my father's Alzheimer's trying to sort through "market-based Medicare options." The only thing education vouchers guarantee is a parent's right to indoctrinate their children and deny them access to ideas the parents don't like. There are facts in the world- like geology and science. If people think the US can be a world-class stable democracy and economy when people can teach their children whatever facts they want, they are very wrong."

• www.privateschoolreview.com
 

https://www.futurity.org/charter-schools-students-1937902/

The private elementary school average is $8,522 per year and the private high school average is $12,953

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2018/05/16/betsy-devos-knows-little-about-public-education-and-she-doesnt-want-to-learn/?utm_term=.1bf2031f89ae.

https://www.apnews.com/0fdc0d971120465f881d50b947935ddf

https://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13206/devos-math-reading-scores-tanking-michigan

https://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13206/devos-math-reading-scores-tanking-michigan

https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2019-03-28/the-controversial-race-research-devos-used-to-revoke-school-discipline-guidance

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2013/02/16/how-charter-schools-choos


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/us/politics/betsy-devos-religious-restrictions-education.html

https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/26/politics/betsy-devos-budget-cuts-special-olympics/index.html

Making national news: Gilpin, a turn around school turns around, gets closed anyway

Today NPR used the closing of Gilpin School in Denver as an opportunity to shed light on the issue of school choice.  The Denver School Board has cited figures to support their school choice activities, but others say it has  widened the equity gap of education between the more privileged and the less privileged. The closing of neighborhood schools is a burden than falls more heavily on the poor because of transportation difficulties to schools farther away and that the openings in the higher performing schools are filled by the more privileged. Full disclosure: the teacher featured in the article, Tanya Streicher, is my daughter.  This  is an update that was posted on my blog January 14, 2017 that shows how the School Board made sure it got its way in spite of score improvements.

http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/02/20/515359394/the-mile-high-promise-and-risk-of-school-choice

Prior posting of a prior posting: Jan 14, 2017. This is an update of a prior posting. It is an example of where school choice as an ideal goal went awry. in this update is a letter to the Denver School Board, which includes a statement by Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, and an added comment of why he opposed Betsy Devos as Secretary of Education. For those interested in the school choice issue, this case may be instructive. Devos, an advocate for diverting public school funding to charter and private schools, was successful in her advocacy in Michigan. The result is that Michigan, once in the middle of the pack in test scores in reading and math plunged to the lower 40's in state rankings.The turnaround school turned around and got closed anyway. For those concerned about public education, be aware that Denver Public Schools mysteriously changed a critical score from the consultant's score to a lower one, resulting in closing the only self integrated walk to neighborhod elementary school in 5 Points, Gilpin Elementary Montessori, replacing it with DPS administration offices and a smaller charter school. In 5 months Gilpin increased its score by 8 points reaching the score needed to keep it open by DPS' own criteria....until DPS changed the score on its own.  Attempting to placate angry parents, DPS proposes a consolation prize: opening a small Montessori school within another at risk school.  There is strong evidence that DPS planned to use the upper floors for their own admin space and turn over the lower floor to a charter school. That Gilpin's scores improved so much to meet the criteria for non closure appears to have become an inconvenient truth for DPS.

 a mile away  http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2017/01/13/new-montessori-program-to-launch-at-northeast-denver-elementary-offering-home-for-students-at-school-slated-to-close/

http://www.9news.com/news/parents-outraged-over-denver-school-closure/388593854

Update February 11, 2017 and March 3, 2017

http://greaterparkhill.org/2017/03/flawed-process-leads-gilpin-closure/

http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13206/devos-math-reading-scores-tanking-michigan
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/161604/douglas-county-school-voucher-lawsuit

From the parents opposed to closing Gilpin Elementary School

Dear Denver Board of Education:

Although it may be presumptuous, I would like to remind you that when Bennet paved the way for Denver’s aggressive education reform movement he did so with a moral objective.
On his February 6th speech last week on the senate floor, Bennet stated:
“We must create space for innovation and school autonomy. And we must also provide choice to parents and kids.
But, our goal is not and should not be school choice for choice’s sake. For a youngster in a low-income family, there’s no difference between being forced to attend a lousy school, and being given the chance to “choose” among five lousy schools.
That’s no choice at all. It’s certainly not a meaningful one.
The goal is and must be to offer high-quality education at every public school, so that parents can choose among great schools in their neighborhood.
We must refuse to accept the false choice that you either support school choice — in whatever form — or defend the status quo.
Just as we must reject the idea that you cannot support public schools and advocate for change.
This old rhetoric and manufactured political division will not work for our kids. We need to rise above the narrow, small politics that consume our attention and permit us to avoid making tough choices.
Instead, we must recognize that a 21st century education can and should look different. And, no matter what approach or method of delivery, it must be high-quality.
The good news is we know it’s possible to reverse course and create meaningful change. Several cities around the country have already begun creating road maps to this 21st century approach.
Denver is one of them.
In Denver, we made a deal: create a public choice system that authorizes charters, creates innovation schools, and strengthens traditional schools.
We empowered schools through autonomy and worked to create a culture of shared learning and innovation focused on all ships rising.
We demanded quality and implemented strong accountability. High performing schools were rewarded, replicated and expanded. Low performing schools had to improve or be shut down.
We made tough decisions. We closed schools. I sat in living rooms and classrooms and gymnasiums with parents urging them to demand more from the school district, even if it meant their child had to go to a different school.
Along with concerned citizens, teachers, and principals, I went door to door to enroll kids in new schools.
Denver created innovative teacher and school leadership policies. We tried to rethink the tired model of the last century and create a new career for this one.
That’s why today in Denver you will find teachers teaching other teachers (and being paid for it), knowing that their job is not only to educate their students but to improve the honorable craft of teaching.
We used the levers of federal law, strong accountability, and civil rights protections as the backbone of change. We could not have made the changes we did had it not been for the national demand for improvement in our schools.
And the courage of our community to demand something better for our children.”
In opposition to the nomination of DeVos, Bennet later stated,
“A commitment to choice without a commitment to quality serves ideology rather than improvement, and a commitment to competition without a commitment to equity would forsake our democratic ideal that a free high quality public education must open the doors of opportunity to all.”
https://medium.com/@SenBennetCO/why-education-is-essential-to-our-democracy-931cfb7a1e1#.naaydw633
As you see it, you are closing a failing school, you are solving a problem. As we see it, you have created the problem by mismanaging the school and not listening to or acting upon the wishes of our community since Gilpin became a public Montessori neighborhood school. We have been working to make this school successful in spite of your corporate reform policies. Communities across the city for years have said no – stop closing our schools and work with our communities - together we can improve. Feeding money into struggling schools is fruitless when, at the same time, you have changed administrations and not allowed them time to implement changes. Our enrollment declines are amplified if not caused by the charter schools you have put into our area. If you can close our school due to low enrollment, then you should not have put in the charters nearby. We are demanding that the idealistic reforms you use to guide your policy be tempered. We demand that you reverse your decision to close Gilpin and give us a real chance to succeed.
Boasberg has been very clear that the district has provided Gilpin extra supports to turnaround our neighborhood school. This is true of course but what the Superintendent and board members have all failed to acknowledge and take ownership of is that at the same time these supports have been given, the district has been working against Gilpin’s success as well. While it may be inadvertent and I do believe everyone here has the best intentions to help kids succeed, Gilpin students are disproportionately affected by your reform agenda.

[it takes a village.png]The resources spent in new schools could have been used to bolster the existing persistently low performing neighborhood schools. In learning about all of this I have discovered that for years parents and community members who are against school closure have been isolated and ignored by DPS! Gilpin’s situation now is reminiscent of the closure and subsequent roller coaster of program and administration changes of Manual High School. How can a school ever achieve progress when it is constantly unsettled? The vulnerable population that Gilpin and Manual serves craves consistency and the ability to maintain relationships that serve as a foundation for trust and then confidence to face a challenging world. Michael Bennet likes to say that when approaching education management, you should think about the kids a school serves as your own. Is this how you would treat your own children? Can you even imagine what it is like to live in our neighborhood? Have you hung out here? You believe that you are doing these kids a favor by sending them off to a new school? Do them a favor and work within the community that they are already in. Do not tell me that it is impossible to advance positive change in this way.

The African proverb, "It takes a village" is a timeless saying and is really an appropriate anecdote for how lasting inequalities in our society could be better dealt with.
[Text Box: “It Takes a Village to Raise a Child.”  Mural at Mestizo Curtis Park Pool, 3 Blocks from Gilpin Elementary]I have noticed that the Superintendent forums are filled with advocates for traditional neighborhood schools. They are activating because, historically and now, DPS has not truly engaged them as parents and community members who have a say in their children’s education. DPS makes it look like they are requesting participation in the development of the district’s success. But time and time again, these advocates are flat out ignored and given the run around.
The end of bussing occurred at the same time as the education reform agenda was put in place. Manual was a high achieving school prior to the end of bussing and since, the school has re-segregated and decreased in performance. A decade later, you are closing Gilpin, a self-integrated school. That you have not ensured the stability of the school administration is directly related to the school’s struggling performance. How dare Boasberg blame Gilpin’s teachers and staff for failing the SPF. He actually told them that it was their fault Gilpin failed on the day the closure recommendation was announced.

The Gilpin community is not asking you to maintain the status quo!



The community's want for a walkable, neighborhood elementary school in Curtis Park is not based on some nostalgic Ozzy and Harriet fantasy (statement by board member Flores - http://www.chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2015/10/29/in-denver-school-board-race-a-telling-divide-over-what-defines-a-neighborhood-school/). It is a practical desire to send your child to a school close to home. There is nothing nostalgic about wanting a school that anchors a community of children who, as neighbors are destined to grow up with one another. It is an inconvenience to commute across city neighborhoods, walking a mile or even getting children to their bus stop as these add significant amounts of time to an already busy morning.



There will certainly be families who choose to go to a non-neighborhood school for a variety of reasons and extenuating circumstances. Is it not a consensus, given there were great schools in every neighborhood, the majority of families would attend the school closest to their home?  It is a practical, logistical request.



Gilpin is the only integrated elementary school in NNE Denver (See A+ Colorado’s report: http://apluscolorado.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/ADenver_School-Segregation-one-pager_FINAL.pdf?ref=806).

Parents Against Gilpin Montessori Closure Meeting- 1-10-17

Parents meet with 3 DPS school board members to present data against Gilpin Closure

School Voucher Plans: Who benefits more: the students or the holders of ideological beliefs?

This is a reposting of an 11/27/16 blog posting

Betsy DeVos has been tapped as Donald Trump's Education Secretary. She is an ardent supporter of charter schools and vouchers for private education but she is reported to be also in favor of testing which may or may not mean Common Core (which Donald Trump wants to trash). She is getting hit from both the left and the right.  

 Ideology should not be the basis for providing education that is good for our children. .The goal of some is to get religious based education paid for by taxpayer money.  They have had to buck numerous court decisions that upheld the Constitution's separation of church and state.  However, there are two questions involved:  One is the Constitutionality of a voucher program that can fund religious-based education. The other is it good public policy that improves educational outcome for all.   Will education teach kids to read, write, at least calculate using math, have critical thinking, understand history, its lessons and, yes civics?

 From the public policy perspective, will students' education benefit?  We do have some experience with vouchers and the results are contrary to expectations of many. advocates of vouchers.  From the public policy perspective, Students using vouchers to attend private schools in Ohio performed significantly worse on state tests than their peers who remained in public schools, according to a new study. In Wisconsin, a study finds little or no indication that pupils in those Milwaukee public schools that have more school choice possibilities nearby made significantly greater year-to-year gains in primary school tests than pupils in other Milwaukee public schools. (http://www.epi.org/publication/book_vouchers/)

So what is wrong about those who support using taxpayer money vouchers in support of "religious education".  What is at issue is the separation of church and state in the Constitution and if funding religious schools violates that. provision. 

There was an attempt in a Denver suburb, Douglas County, to allow vouchers to be used for religious based schools.   The effort failed in a federal court.  http://www.denverpost.com/2016/06/09/attorneys-battle-it-out-in-federal-court-on-douglas-county-voucher-program/

On the other hand, the Supreme Court in a 5 to 4 split ruled in favor of a voucher program in Ohio if it went to parents, not to schools, had a secular purpose and did not fund religious education.  The Private Choice Test developed by the Court, for a voucher program to be constitutional was that  it must meet all of the following criteria:

• the program must have a valid secular purpose
• aid must go to parents and not to the schools
• a broad class of beneficiaries must be covered
• the program must be neutral with respect to religion
• there must be adequate nonreligious options

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelman_v._Simmons-Harris
However, the results have had mixed performance on student tests. From a public policy viewpoint, it has not been a great success.
." http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/charterschoice/2016/07/ohio_vouchers_have_mixed_impact_on_student_performance_study_finds.html

The conclusion from these experiences is that vouchers do not benefit the students so much as it satisfies ideological and political beliefs that choice that includes private schools is the most important criteria or that anything private is better than that which is government funded...

Posted on Facebook in the comment section of the posing of this was a very well expressed comment: by Maggie Orth.
"The problem with vouchers is that they create a baseline cost for education. Those who can only afford the vouchers will get crap. Those who can supplement will get more. Moreover, vouchers assume that working parents have the resources and time to weed through a complex marketplace-- just as Medicare vouchers do with seniors. I shudder to think of my poor parents who are struggling with my father's Alzheimer's trying to sort through "market-based Medicare options." The only thing education vouchers guarantee is a parent's right to indoctrinate their children and deny them access to ideas the parents don't like. There are facts in the world- like geology and science. If people think the US can be a world-class stable democracy and economy when people can teach their children whatever facts they want, they are very wrong."

• www.privateschoolreview.com
•  

The private elementary school average is $8,522 per year and the private high school averages $12,953.   ..

Michigan has gone from a middle-of-the-pack state to the bottom tier in just 12 years. The state's NAEP ranking on fourth-grade reading has dropped from 28th in 2003 to 41st in 2015, the latest results. The fourth-grade math ranking has dropped from 27th in 2003 to 42nd, writes Ravitch. The Detroit Free Press runs down the numbers here.  http://www.prwatch.org/news/2017/01/13206/devos-math-reading-scores-tanking-michigan