DeVos for Education

[ndrosen]

I have mentioned emailing my senators to oppose Jeff Sessions and Steven Mnuchin; also, I have been pretty clear about the sociopathic seventy-year old toddler himself. I do want to say that from wnt I've heard here and elsewhere about Betsy DeVos, Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, she seems to be admirably suited for the job. I just wish that a better President-elect had nominated her.

Comments

[catsittingstill]

Since she is apparently all about vouchers, and vouchers strikes me as a scam to cripple public schools by draining their funding into the pockets of private companies that can and do discriminate on the basis of religion, minority status and sexual orientation, I oppose Betsy DeVos.

I mean, none of them are going to be good--they're all Republicans and mostly chosen for being wealthy, big-ticket donors to the Trump campaign rather than any expertise with their subjects--but DeVos strikes me as particularly bad.

[ndrosen]

Vouchers don't drain funding from public schools unless the pupils and their parents decide to take their funding elsewhere. If the local government school is doing a fine job, people shouldn't want to take their children elsewhere. If the local government school is providing a third-rate babysitting service at great expense, many of the parents are likely to use vouchers to educate their children elsewhere.

Have you ever read about the quality and level of service provided by Soviet food stores, restaurants, and other shops? It was generally crummy, partly because the manager didn't have to worry that his customers would take their rubles elsewhere, and put him out of business. Why should education be a government monopoly, when we -- well, some of us -- know better than to have groceries or shoe stores be government monopolies?

My eight year old niece seems to be getting a good education, but children in slums very often aren't. People like that fine progressive, Bill de Blasio, want to keep the poor children in lousy schools, instead of in places like the Success Academy. I'm on the side of the children, against the NEA and the school bureaucracy.