Local educators skeptical of Trump’s pick for secretary
Protesters gather Friday outside Jefferson Middle School in Washington, D.C., where Betsy DeVos paid her first visit as education secretary in a bid to mend fences with educators after a bruising confirmation battle.
In this Jan. 17 photo, Betsy DeVos testifies on Capitol Hill at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
Some local public education officials are skeptical of the country’s new education secretary.
Betsy DeVos was confirmed Tuesday by the Senate despite two GOP lawmakers – amid widespread criticism from education advocates and other activists – siding with Democrats in opposing the appointment.
DeVos, a billionaire political donor to Republicans, is a leading supporter of privately run charter schools and voucher programs that allow private schools to receive public funding.
Carmichaels Area Superintendent John Menhart said he will take a “wait-and-see” approach to DeVos and her plans. He added cyberschool options are more prevalent in urban school districts as compared to his rural district in the eastern part of Greene County.
“How much money is it going to cost us?” Menhart said, adding charter schools – which a public school district must reimburse for students attending – are not as prevalent in the eastern Greene County school district as in Pittsburgh.
Menhart said some students with truancy issues leave their district to attend cyberclasses, with most eventually returning and, in some cases, dropping out of school.
“I know high school isn’t for everyone. Kids will leave here for truancy reasons and go to cyberschool,” Menhart said. “To think they’re going to do better? In most cases they come back in such a quandary and it takes a while to catch them up, and sometimes they don’t catch up and they have to drop out.”
Fritz Fekete, regional advocacy coordinator for the southwestern region of the Pennsylvania State Education Association, said DeVos has “zero experience in public education, and what she has said derides and diminishes our public schools.”
Canon-McMillan Superintendent Michael Daniels, who was previously the district’s director of special education, said he was “appalled” by DeVos’ answers to questions a Senate panel posed about the Individuals With Disabilities Act – the federal law requiring schools to give students with disabilities the same opportunities as those without disabilities – that showed the new secretary was “clearly stumped” about the provisions in the law.
“She was weak in her responses in regard to upholding the rights of others and not being discriminatory,” Daniels said.
That wasn’t the only part of the hearing that raised eyebrows.
Fekete said the new secretary “demurred” during her confirmation hearing when asked whether she supported holding private and charter schools to the same accountability standards as their publicly run counterparts.
“If we’re going to steer taxpayer dollars toward those entities, we have to have equal accountability,” he said.
Joseph Zupancic, a former Canon-McMillan school board member, called the appointment a “tragedy for public education in America” and described DeVos as belonging to an ideology that favors using public funding to support private industry.
He compared it to George W. Bush picking Michael D. Brown – the former director of the International Arabian Horses Association – to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown later resigned amid fierce criticism over the agency’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
“It’s very dangerous when the government uses people who are wholly unqualified for the field to which they are appointed, and this is an example of that,” Zupancic said.
Washington Superintendent Roberta DiLorenzo said the public should take a close look at alternative schools, such as charter schools, and hold them to the same standards of public institutions.
“Obviously, there will be a stronger emphasis on educational choice, a term used to privatize education … which diverts funding from public and private schools.”
Tina Chekan said that as superintendent and CEO of Propel Schools Pittsburgh, a network of public charter schools, she believes in school choice.
“We are hopeful that DeVos will be willing to listen to all stakeholders to develop real solutions for improving the landscape of public education and strengthen the accountability of all schools,” Chekan said in an email.
Staff writer Natalie Reid Miller and regional editor Mike Jones contributed to this report.