Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos is heading the administration’s effort to force schools to reopen in the fall for in-person instruction. What’s her plan to reopen safely? She doesn’t have one.
Rather than
seeking additional federal funds, she’s using this pandemic to further
her ploy to privatize education — threatening to withhold federal funds
from public schools that don’t reopen.
Repeatedly pressed by
journalists during TV appearances, DeVos can’t come up with a single
mechanism or guideline for reopening schools safely. She can’t even
articulate what authority the federal government has to unilaterally
withhold funds from school districts — a decision that’s made at the
state and local level, or by Congress. But when has the Constitution
stopped the Trump administration from trying to do whatever it wants?
DeVos
is following Trump’s lead — prematurely reopening the economy, which he
sees as key to his re-election but is causing a resurgence of the
virus.
Let’s get something straight: Every single parent,
teacher, and student wants to be able to return to in-person instruction
in the fall — but only if no one’s life is put at risk.
Districts
need more funding, not less, to implement the CDC’s guidelines. Given
that state and local governments are already cash-strapped, it’s
estimated that K-12 schools need at least $245 billion in additional
funding to put safety precautions in place — funding that Republicans in
Congress and the Trump administration refuse to give.
One might
think an education secretary would be studying what kind of safety
precautions would work best, and seeking emergency funding for those
safeguards. Not DeVos. Just like her boss in the Oval Office, she’s been
hard at work shafting working families to advance her personal agenda.
In
late April, she issued rules for how states should use the $13 billion
allocated in the CARES Act for schools. Her rules would divert millions
of dollars away from low-income schools into the coffers of wealthy
private schools. It’s such a blatant violation of federal law that
several states are suing her and her department.
DeVos’ entire
tenure has centered on shafting low-income students and their families —
the very people she’s supposed to protect.
She has repeatedly
empowered the predatory for-profit college industry at the expense of
the students they prey upon. Why? She has considerable financial stakes
that are rife with conflicts of interest. Her financial investments are a
web of holdings in for-profit colleges and student loan collectors.
When
DeVos took office, she repealed an Obama-era rule imposing stricter
regulations and higher standards on for-profit colleges. She also
stopped canceling the debts of students defrauded by these institutions —
a move that has prompted 23 states to bring a lawsuit against her. In
the process, she was even held in contempt of court for violating a
federal court order.
Now, in the middle of the worst public
health crisis in more than a century, she’s jeopardizing the safety of
our students, teachers, parents, bus drivers, and custodians, while
rerouting desperately needed public school funds towards the private
schools she’s always championed.
Remember, when you vote against Trump this November — you’re voting against her, too. It’s a win-win.
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