Good Riddance: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a dangerous and deplorable religious extremist, has submitted her resignation to President Donald Trump.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her resignation to President Trump on Thursday night, becoming the second member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet to resign since pro-Trump rioters stormed the Capitol on Wednesday.
We should be highlighting and celebrating your Administration’s many accomplishments on behalf of the American people.
Instead we are left to clean up the mess caused by violent protesters overrunning the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to undermine the people’s business. That behavior was unconscionable for our country. There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.
She added:
Impressionable children are watching all this, and they are learning from us.
According to reports, her resignation is effective Friday.
The decision to resign at this late date of the Trump administration is unimpressive, and is simply the action of a rat fleeing from a sinking ship.
For the record, DeVos is and has been a religious extremist who has made it clear that she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools.
Previously, when asked about spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools, DeVos declared:
There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education…[versus] what is currently being spent every year on education in this country…Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s Kingdom.
In fact, DeVos is an anti-secular Christian theocrat with no experience working in public education. She never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
In short, DeVos has always used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
Bottom line: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a dangerous and deplorable religious extremist, has submitted her resignation to President Trump.
Good News: A federal judge has issued an injunction preventing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from sending COVID aid meant for public schools to private religious schools.
A federal judge in Washington state temporarily blocked Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from enforcing a controversial rule that directs states to give private schools a bigger share of federal coronavirus aid than Congress had intended.
A federal judge has ruled against the U.S. Department of Education in a lawsuit over how much coronavirus aid public schools must set aside for private school students…
U.S. District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein harshly and repeatedly rejected the department’s arguments. She said that the agency subverted the intent of Congress and hurt students most affected by the pandemic, and that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did not have the authority to issue the rule in the first place.
In her ruling, Judge Rothstein hammered DeVos for her “remarkably callous” attempt to divert funds meant for public schools to private religious schools.
The department claim that the state faces only an economic injury, which ordinarily does not qualify as irreparable harm, is remarkably callous, and blind to the realities of this extraordinary pandemic and the very purpose of the Cares Act: to provide emergency relief where it is most needed.
Forcing the State to divert funds from public schools ignores the extraordinary circumstances facing the State and its most disadvantaged students.
Judge Rothstein is right. DeVos is “remarkably callous.” Indeed, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools.
DeVos is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. She never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
In short, DeVos has always used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America. And now, at least for the moment, a federal judge is preventing her from doing that.
Bottom line: A federal judge has issued an injunction preventing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from sending COVID aid meant for public schools to private religious schools.
Federal Judge Stops Betsy DeVos From Sending COVID Aid To Private Religious Schools (Image via YouTube)
Truth To Power: Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl defends teachers in the age of Trump, DeVos, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Grohl, whose mother was a public school teacher, defends teachers while questioning the competence of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a new essay for The Atlantic.
At one point in the essay Grohl questions the competency of DeVos, asking:
I wouldn’t trust the U.S. secretary of percussion to tell me how to play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ if they had never sat behind a drum set, so why should any teacher trust Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to tell them how to teach, without her ever having sat at the head of a class?
Grohl is right. DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Indeed, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. She is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. However, she has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
More from Grohl’s essay:
Every teacher has a ‘plan.’ Don’t they deserve one too? My mother had to come up with three separate lesson plans every single day (public speaking, AP English, and English 10), because that’s what teachers do: They provide you with the necessary tools to survive. Who is providing them with a set of their own? America’s teachers are caught in a trap, set by indecisive and conflicting sectors of failed leadership that have never been in their position and can’t possibly relate to the unique challenges they face. I wouldn’t trust the U.S. secretary of percussion to tell me how to play ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ if they had never sat behind a drum set, so why should any teacher trust Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to tell them how to teach, without her ever having sat at the head of a class? (Maybe she should switch to the drums.) Until you have spent countless days in a classroom devoting your time and energy to becoming that lifelong mentor to generations of otherwise disengaged students, you must listen to those who have. Teachers want to teach, not die, and we should support and protect them like the national treasures that they are. For without them, where would we be?
Remote learning is an inconvenient and hopefully temporary solution, but as much as Donald Trump’s conductor-less orchestra would love to see the country reopen schools in the name of rosy optics, ask a science teacher what they think about White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s comment that ‘Science should not stand in the way.’ It would be foolish to do so at the expense of our students, teachers and school.
Bottom line: Dave Grohl defends teachers while questioning the competency of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in a new essay titled: In Defense Of Our Teachers.
Dave Grohl Defends Teachers, Trashes Betsy DeVos For Being Incompetent (Image via Twitter)
Dreams of Theocracy: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is redirecting coronavirus aid meant to help fund public schools to fund private Christian schools.
DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds to Favored Private and Religious Schools
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools.
In March, Congress passed the CARES Act to provide relief and recovery to individuals, the economy, and states and localities from the Covid-19 pandemic. Yet over the last several weeks, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has made two critical decisions that undermine the intent of this law. Instead, she is using the crisis to promote her long-standing anti-public education agenda of taking resources away from the 90 percent of students that attend public schools and directing them to private schools and private companies.
Summarizing the two main issues involved, The Daily Beast reports:
About $350 million of funding has reportedly been allocated to small colleges, many of which are private or religious, regardless of need.
DeVos has reportedly also used $180 million of the relief to encourage states to create “microgrants” that parents can use to pay for educational services, including private-school tuition.
In a statement, The National Coalition for Public Education denounced the scheme:
Public dollars should fund public schools. This scheme is no different than other attempts by this administration to divert federal funding to unaccountable private educational entities. Years of research tells us that private school voucher programs don’t improve student academic achievement and are unaccountable to taxpayers. Further, they fail to provide better educational opportunities for low-income students and also fail to provide effective services and protections for students with disabilities – two groups of students which the grant proposal singles out for higher priority. “If Secretary DeVos truly wants to help the most disadvantaged students across the country during this pandemic, the solution is to fund the public schools they attend rather than diverting taxpayer dollars to private school and for-profit programs that lack quality control, oversight, and accountability.
Commenting on the scheme, American Humanist Association Executive Director Roy Speckhardt declared:
The proposed expansion under the CARES Act would fracture the quality and secular nature of our education system and leave students vulnerable to having their rights violated. Secretary DeVos has constantly sought chances to funnel federal money away from our public education system and toward private religious or parochial schools. To attempt this power grab during a national crisis is shameful.
Indeed, Betsy DeVos is a radical Christian extremist who wants to use American schools to advance “God’s kingdom.” She wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund private Christian schools, and she has no problem with private schools using taxpayer money to discriminate against gays and others who offend the sensibilities of conservative Christians.
Previously, when asked about spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools, DeVos declared:
There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education…[versus] what is currently being spent every year on education in this country…Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s Kingdom.
In fact, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. She is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. However, she has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Previously, an alarming report was released by a conservative Christian group with ties to DeVos advocating for the promotion of Christianity in public schools and putting an end to the Department of Education.
Bottom line: Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is redirecting coronavirus aid meant to help fund public schools to fund private Christian schools.
Report: DeVos Exploiting Coronavirus Aid Package To Fund Private Christian Schools (Image via Flickr/GageSkidmore)
Lock her up: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is facing jail after ignoring a federal court order and continuing to collect on debt from former students of a bankrupt for-profit college.
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been threatened with the possibility of jail after a judge deemed she was violating a court order for continuing to collect student debts on a now-defunct school.
That ruling, handed down in June of 2018, was made by U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim and prevented DeVos and her Department of Education for going after former students at the bankrupt Corinthian Colleges Inc.
At a federal hearing on Monday in San Francisco, U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim told lawyers for the Education Department that DeVos may go to jail for contempt of court:
I’m not sure if this is contempt or sanctions. I’m not sending anyone to jail yet, but it’s good to know I have that ability.
Saying that she was “astounded” that DeVos had ignored her court order, Judge Kim warned:
At best it is gross negligence. At worst it’s an intentional flouting of my order.
DeVos is no stranger to controversy, and has often expressed a contempt for education, teachers, and students. Indeed, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. She is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. However, she has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Previously, an alarming report was released by a conservative Christian group with ties to DeVos advocating for the promotion of Christianity in public schools and putting an end to the Department of Education.
Bottom line: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is a cruel monster, and is now facing jail time after ignoring a federal court order and continuing to collect on debt from former students, even going so far as to seize tax refunds and wages from those former students, despite a previous court ruling finding that the debts were no longer valid.
Betsy DeVos Facing Jail For Ignoring Court Order On Student Loans (Image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Cruel: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos plans to cut all federal funding for the Special Olympics, the program that provides opportunities for disabled athletes.
In her budget proposal for 2020, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos moved to cut all federal funding for the Special Olympics, the program that provides opportunities for disabled athletes to compete and train year-round.
Critics expressed shock and anger Tuesday after Education Secretary Betsy DeVos defended the Trump administration’s proposed budget, which cuts ten percent of her department’s overall funding—including huge cuts to the Special Olympics—while increasing funds private charter school.
Attempting to explain the cruel cuts during her testimony before a House appropriations subcommittee earlier this week, DeVos said:
We had to make some difficult decisions. We are not doing our children any favors when we borrow from their future in order to invest in systems and policies that are not yielding better results.
I think the Special Olympics is an awesome organization, one that is supported by the philanthropic sector as well.
WATCH: Education Sec. DeVos is grilled by members of Congress over funding cuts to special education programs and the Special Olympics. pic.twitter.com/iDp2uEpCjf
Despite her half-hearted attempt at damage control, DeVos drew scorn and contempt from many for her plans to cut all federal funding for the beloved program that provides opportunities for disabled athletes. For example, Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro blasted DeVos for proposing the cruel and heartless budget cut to the Special Olympics, declaring:
The three education budgets from this administration have proposed the largest cuts to education funding in four decades. That’s since the department was created in 1979.
DeLauro, who chairs the Appropriations Committee’s education subcommittee, continued:
Madam Secretary, I have to say, and maybe it’s offensive: Shame on you!
Representative Mark Pocan also grilled DeVos about her plan to eliminate Special Olympics funding. Pocan asked:
Do you know how many kids are going to be affected by that cut?
DeVos answered:
We had to make some difficult decisions with this budget. I don’t know the number of kids.
Pocan replied:
It’s 272,000 kids.
She didn’t even know or care how many children her cruel policy changes would damage.
In @BetsyDeVosED’s budget, there are major cuts to programs like the Special Olympics. Sec. DeVos didn’t know the number of kids who would be hurt by that cut, so I made sure she now knows that 272,000 kids are seeing their support taken away. pic.twitter.com/6ZiOfDU4Ou
Bottom line: In an act of profound cruelty Education Secretary Betsy DeVos plans to cut all federal funding for the Special Olympics, the program that provides opportunities for disabled athletes.
Cruel Betsy DeVos Eliminates All Federal Funding From Special Olympics Budget (Image via YouTube)
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Thursday pitched a $5 billion federal tax credit that would fund scholarships to private schools and other educational programs…
The billionaire heiress who bought her position as Donald Trump’s Education Secretary plans to spend $5 billion of your tax dollars on private, religious, and parochial schools.
DeVos called her proposal to give $5 billion in taxpayer money to private religious schools a “bold” proposal that gives “hundreds of thousands of students across the country the power to find the right fit for their education.”
The biggest winners will be America’s forgotten children, who will finally have choices previously available only for the rich, the powerful and the well-connected.
However, those in the know understand that the proposal is yet another attempt by religious extremists to destroy public education while using taxpayer funds to promote ignorance and religious superstition.
Commenting on the new proposal, JoAnn Bartoletti, the executive director of the National Association of Secondary School Principals, called the proposal “particularly tone deaf,” noting:
Mobilizing behind a scheme to further starve public schools and nine in 10 American students of the resources they need is not only unresponsive but insulting, and it reflects this administration’s persistent disdain for public education.
Indeed, DeVos has a well documented desire to destroy public education while using taxpayer money to subsidize religious education. Last year, speaking about her desire to use taxpayer money to support religious schools, DeVos told her audience:
I know very well there are powerful interests that want to deprive families their God-given freedom. I know that those sycophants of ‘the system’ have kept legislators here from enacting a common-sense program that would open options to thousands of kids in need.
Making her case for public money to be used in supporting private religious schools DeVos cited a recent Supreme Court decision:
As many of you know, the Supreme Court ruled in last year’s Trinity Lutheran case that it was unconstitutional for a playground restoration program funded by state-taxpayers to exclude a school ‘simply because of what it is – a church.’
These amendments should be assigned to the ash heap of history…
The amendments DeVos is talking about are known as Blaine Amendments, “constitutional provisions in 38 of the 50 state constitutions in the United States that forbid direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation.”
So when the Secretary of Education says “these amendments should be assigned to the ash heap of history” she is in essence saying the separation of church and state should be assigned to the ash heap of history.
Note: Advocating for an end to the separation of church and state is standard operating procedure for theocratic Christian conservatives like DeVos.
Previously, when asked about spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools, DeVos declared:
There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education…[versus] what is currently being spent every year on education in this country…Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s Kingdom.
Indeed, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. She is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. However, she has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Previously, an alarming report was released by a conservative Christian group with ties to DeVos advocating for the promotion of Christianity in public schools and putting an end to the Department of Education.
Bottom line: In a new proposal Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is demanding that $5 billion in taxpayer money be used to fund private, religious schools.
Betsy DeVos Demands $5 Billion In Federal Tax Credits For Religious Schools (Image via Screen Grab)
Many of the immigrant children ruthlessly separated from their family by the Trump administration are being shipped to a Christian adoption agency with ties to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.
Rewire News reports on the condition of some of those children separated from their family:
Migrant children in Michigan who have been separated from their parents by the Trump administration are attending “a special school” run by Bethany Christian Services, an anti-choice organization with a record of coercive adoption practices that has yet to receive instructions about how to reunify these children with their detained parents.
The Other 98%, a left leaning Facebook page, explains more about the controversial Bethany Christian Services and their relationship with Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, noting:
Bethany Christian Services, an adoption center with financial ties to [Education Secretary] Betsy DeVos, has taken 81 immigrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents at the border. Most have had no contact with their families. They’re charging $700 per child per night. This isn’t foster care, this is state-sponsored kidnapping.
Fact checking website Snopes confirms the well established links between the DeVos family and Bethany Christian Services:
The links between the extended DeVos family and Bethany are undeniable. Tax filings archived by ProPublica show that between 2001 and 2015, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation (the philanthropic organization run by DeVos and her husband) gave $343,000 in grants to Bethany Christian Services.
Between 2012 and 2015, Bethany received $750,000 in grants from the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation, which is run by the Education Secretary’s father-in-law, the billionaire founder of Amway Richard DeVos, and his wife Helen.
Furthermore, Brian DeVos — a cousin of Betsy DeVos’s husband Dick — was the Senior Vice President for Child and Family Services at Bethany as recently as 2015, and Maria DeVos — who is married to Dick DeVos’s brother Doug — has served on the board of Bethany.
Democratic Underground explains the nefarious methods of the “radical Christian adoption trafficking mill” being run by Bethany Christian Services:
Here’s the way Bethany Skirts the Laws:
In six months they’ll file abandonment petitions on John Doe and Jane Doe.
That’s the plan. They have no intention of trying to find, much less uniting parents with their children. It’s a radical Christian adoption trafficking mill.
In fact, there is already in place a huge and thriving business in the trafficking of children via Christian adoption agencies like the DeVos connected Bethany.
In her 2013 book, The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption, Kathryn Joyce documents this alarming trend of conservative Christians adopting children removed from their natural parents via nefarious means to feed the business of Christian adoption and serve the agenda of Christian theocracy.
Indeed, a growing concern is that many of the immigrant children separated from their parents at the border will be “lost” in the system and eventually trafficked via Christian adoption agencies like Bethany.
In short, for many of the immigrant children separated from their parents at the border, their nightmare is only beginning. Many of these children will never see their parents again. Many are already being shipped out to a Christian adoption agency like Bethany where they will be be trafficked, and placed with conservative Christian parents eager to brainwash the innocent children in the grotesque attempt to create “warriors for Christ” – soldiers in the never-ending culture wars.
Bottom line: Many of the immigrant children separated from their parents at the border will be “lost” in the system, and eventually they will be trafficked by a Christian adoption agency like the DeVos connected Bethany Christian Services.
DeVos Linked To Christian Adoption Agency Implicated In ‘State Sponsored Kidnapping’ (Image via Wikimedia)
Incompetent: Like a deer caught in the headlights, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos fails to answer some simple questions about civil rights policy.
In yet another embarrassing demonstration of incompetence, Betsy DeVos flounders while being questioned by congress.
On Tuesday DeVos appeared at a hearing before a House committee to answer questions from Democrats about the Education Department’s Office of Civil Rights and how it plans to protect LGBT students from discrimination and harassment in schools.
I am concerned about the low performance of your civil rights office. Could you please just state for me the mission of your civil rights office?
DeVos replied with a non-answer:
The office for civil rights is committed to protecting the civil rights as determined under the law of this land, and we do so proudly and with great focus each day.
An exasperated Fudge said:
That’s not the mission statement. Do you know what it is?
An obviously unprepared and embarrassed DeVos said:
Perhaps you can share it, I have not memorized the mission statement.
Obviously exasperated with DeVos’ inability to answer basic questions, the Ohio congressman continued, asking the education secretary to explain her understanding of “vigorous enforcement” of civil rights in schools.
Again DeVos gave a non-answer, stating:
It would be following the law and enforcing the law as stated.
After DeVos responded, Fudge simply sighed and said “OK.”
Watch the entire exchange below:
A headline from The Root sums up DeVos’s dismal performance:
Video Evidence Proves That Betsy DeVos Might Be the Dumbest Person in Trump’s Cabinet
Last week DeVos made headlines after demanding the removal of constitutional restrictions on taxpayer money being used for religious education and suggesting that the separation of church and state should be assigned to “the ash heap of history.”
In addition to being a lazy and incompetent bureaucrat, DeVos is also a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. An anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education, DeVos has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Bottom line: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is uninformed on the rights of students, and clueless about her department’s civil rights policies.
Incompetent DeVos Decimated – Can’t Explain Civil Rights Policy (Image via Screen Grab)
On her tour of private religious schools, DeVos spoke during a breakfast meeting hosted by the Alfred E. Smith Foundation. At the meeting Devos defended the use of public money for religious schools, telling the guests in attendance, including Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Archbishop of New York, that constitutional restrictions on spending tax dollars for religious schools should be overturned.
We haven’t checked in with U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos for a while. She spoke yesterday in New York City to the influential Alfred E. Smith Foundation, which raises money for Catholic causes and charities.
Her speech doubled down on her belief that American parents should be free to use tax dollars to send her children to religious schools, a point she underscored by visiting two New York City schools, neither of which was a public school. DeVos visited two Orthodox Jewish schools.
Speaking about her desire to use taxpayer money to support religious schools, DeVos told her audience:
I know very well there are powerful interests that want to deprive families their God-given freedom. I know that those sycophants of ‘the system’ have kept legislators here from enacting a common-sense program that would open options to thousands of kids in need.
Making her case for public money to be used in supporting private religious schools DeVos cited a recent Supreme Court decision:
As many of you know, the Supreme Court ruled in last year’s Trinity Lutheran case that it was unconstitutional for a playground restoration program funded by state-taxpayers to exclude a school ‘simply because of what it is – a church.’
These amendments should be assigned to the ash heap of history…
The amendments DeVos is talking about are known as Blaine Amendments, “constitutional provisions in 38 of the 50 state constitutions in the United States that forbid direct government aid to educational institutions that have a religious affiliation.”
So when the Secretary of Education says “these amendments should be assigned to the ash heap of history” she is in essence saying the separation of church and state should be assigned to the ash heap of history.
Note: Advocating for an end to the separation of church and state is standard operating procedure for theocratic Christian conservatives like DeVos.
Commenting on the story, Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers told Shareblue Media:
Her actions have repeatedly demonstrated her disdain for public education.
DeVos is about defunding and destabilizing public schools, not strengthening and building the public schools she’s charged with overseeing and improving.
The fact that DeVos wants to destabilize public schools while shifting taxpayer money to religious schools is not a surprise. In fact, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is a radical Christian extremist who wants to use American schools to “advance God’s kingdom.”
Previously, when asked about spending taxpayer dollars on private and religious schools, DeVos declared:
There are not enough philanthropic dollars in America to fund what is currently the need in education…[versus] what is currently being spent every year on education in this country…Our desire is to confront the culture in ways that will continue to advance God’s Kingdom.
Indeed, DeVos is a religious extremist who has made it clear she wants to destroy public education and use taxpayer money to fund Christian schools. She is an anti-secular theocrat with no experience working in public education. However, she has used her immense wealth and influence to try and destroy public education in America.
DeVos never attended public school. She did not send her kids to public school. She has never worked in a public school. She does not have an education degree, and she has never been a teacher. In fact, she has demonstrated an open hostility to public education, and a desire to destroy public education by using taxpayer money to subsidize private, religious schools.
Last year, an alarming report was released by a conservative Christian group with ties to DeVos advocating for the promotion of Christianity in public schools and putting an end to the Department of Education.
And DeVos is not alone in wanting to use taxpayer to subsidize the religious indoctrination of children. During his address before a joint session of Congress last year, President Donald Trump repeated his campaign pledge to provide taxpayer money to fund private, religious schools.
Bottom line: DeVos is demanding that taxpayer money be used to fund private religious schools while suggesting that the separation of church and state be “assigned to the ash heap of history.”
DeVos Demands Taxpayer Money For Religious Schools (Image via Wikimedia)
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