by Sandy » Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:14 pm
The whole idea of Betsy DeVos as education secretary is absurd, not because of the position that she holds, but because she is so pathetically unqualified. I'm an advocate for a limited form of school choice, and all evidence points to the clear need for reform in American education. But she, like almost all of Trump's non-military cabinet appointees, got the job because of the amounts of money she's contributed to the campaigns of most of the Republicans who confirmed her, not because she's done anything outstanding in education. What work she has done in education has been a monumental failure in every way except generating profits for investors. The outcome of her venture was to take the run down, failing Detroit school system, rob it of some of its funding to put in the pockets of the already rich, and simply add to the number of failed, gang-ridden schools in the city, though now they have even fewer resources than before. So, yipee, folks! Lets see if she can do the same thing nationally!
I'm a proponent of school finance reform, and school choice. Throwing money at public schools doesn't solve the problems, because they are deep-seated, related to the way schools are operated and administered, and how outcomes are measured. But bankrupting the public school system, and allowing tax dollars to seep into for-profit schemes only limits the resources available for students, and it doesn't resolve the administrative problems that still cause failure to produce outcomes.
I will say, too, that the impression that is slathered around about private, religious based schools, and particularly private Christian schools is largely false. We do not just take the cream of the crop. Even though we are tuition driven in most cases, most families are making deep cuts into family budgets for luxuries that most people take for granted to send their kids because a quality education and their spiritual development is a priority. We do not "pre-select" the successes, and cast out the failures. If you were looking hard enough, I'm sure you could find a religious-based school that fit that profile, but they are the exception, not the rule. And we're not asking for taxpayers to fund our ministry, we are asking for our parents to be allowed to determine the destination of the tax dollars they pay, or for their expenses to be deductible in providing the education for their kids that they want them to have.