The first and foremost thing that these so pseudo successful business leaders want to fix is our bureaucrats, i.e. the people with that have the knowledge and experience to lead our institutions. What is most concerning about the nomination of DeVos is that she has no experience in leading educational institutions whether that is k-12 or higher education. See below video in which Sen. Warren questions her lack of experience in leading higher education.
The hypocrisy is very evident on her last comment. She is coming to "repair" a "broken" education system, and her plan is to delegate her job to career bureaucrats in the department of education. If the intelligent educational professionals reporting to her tell her that her plans are harmful to the education of America's children, you can be certain that they'll be fired or that they'll resign. Because the game of this new administration is: you must go out, if you can't go along. Need an example and an early warning. The Trump administration fired acting U.S. Attorney General Yates for her dissent on the executive order banning immigration from Muslim countries.
Even more concerning is Ms. DeVos inability to commit to enforcing existing regulations such as the Gainful Employment rule that requires career colleges to actually prepare their students for the job market.
Ms. DeVos lack of experience is a threat to the future of both K-12 and higher education. Her incompetence was further highlighted by Senator Al Franken, in which Ms. DeVos was unable to differentiate between the philosophies of growth and proficiency which has been an ongoing debate in the education field.
The people's champion, Senator Sanders expresses that the only reason she is interviewing is due to her connections not her competence. "Do think if you were not a multimillionaire, if you're family has not made hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions to the Republican Party, that you would not be sitting here today?" Hmm, honestly, she would not.
And where exactly does her family wealth come from? Amway, a MLM (multi-level marketing) organization. That is just a fancy way of saying a company built on a pyramid scheme.
It is obvious that Ms. DeVos supports charter schools, but the success of charter schools is mixed and possibly no different from public schools. The exception is that charter schools effectively market to low income families and pay their executives handsomely. This is exactly what you'd expect from a private enterprise - whatever it is market it down the customer's throat.
On a personal note: Last month, I was at the Grove Hall Boston Public Library. On the bulletin board, a flyer by a local charter school was posted. It appeared professionally done. The flyer did not highlight any of the achievements of the school, it was a call to submit admissions applications to the school. What I found odd is that my cousin calls me on that same week to ask if I can assist her with an application to transfer her twin daughters from their junior high (public) to another school - the charter school whose posting I saw at the library. When I inquired on why she wanted to do that, she could not cite anything about the charter school's performance other than that it was better. She did not know why that charter school was better, it just was. Mind you, she didn't even visit the school, nor call the school, nor ask anyone about the school's performance. I bet it was the fancy flyer with pictures of children happy in school.
If public schools are unable to counter charter school marketing campaigns,it may be time to start the count down for the end of America's public school system. Just because public schools currently have a competitive advantage (a legislative advantage) doesn't mean they are safe from competition, particularly now when an anti-public schools leader is going to to lead America's education department. Now more than ever, public school must re-imagine and protect their brand from, yes greedy and shady business people.
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