In light of my experiences as a parent with an HG+ child in a virtual charter school ... I find this nomination abhorrent in every way.
We have endured the kind of "choice" that she is apparently championing. It's what got my daughter 32 hours of scheduled instruction the year that she took second year German in high school. Oh-- and about 15 hours of instructional support of any kind the year that she took AP Statistics. Yes, I said "year."
Not sure I entirely follow here. When I look outside-in Detroit has a history of miserable public schools which doomed generations of kids. My understanding of the concept Devos championed is of allowing parents to pull kids out and send them to private schools with vouchers.
DeVos is a huge proponent of charter schools.
Speaking of Detroit:
DeVos ... has also been a force behind the spread of charter schools in Michigan, most of which have recorded student test scores in reading and math below the state average. ...
In Brightmoor, the only high school left is Detroit Community Schools, a charter boasting more than a decade of abysmal test scores and, until recently, a superintendent who earned $130,000 a year despite a dearth of educational experience or credentials.
On the west side, another charter school, Hope Academy, has been serving the community around Grand River and Livernois for 20 years. Its test scores have been among the lowest in the state throughout those two decades; in 2013 the school ranked in the first percentile, the absolute bottom for academic performance. Two years later, its charter was renewed.
It sounds to me like charter schools are not exactly saving education in Detroit --- in spite of not having to follow all those burdensome regulations the public schools have to follow, like taking all comers.
IMO, there's a lot of ideology driving the "school choice" movement. Certainly, the facts aren't driving it, given the above and the performances of many other charters (e.g.
Magnolia Science Academy, which has closed 3+ schools due to financial irregularities).
Not to mention VR00's disparaging of Detroit public schools while sparing the charters' equally bad performance. Unless I've missed some alternative facts (
), this is ideology talking.
Yes, there are problems in public schools, and they're caused in part by factors I noted above. But it seems to me that lack of oversight in charter schools creates problems with equivalent results (poor education). Yet advocates for charter schools will still make excuses for them, because...ideology.
We will never fix our education problems until we stop looking to free market solutions on one side or the status quo on the other. But as I said, I don't think that Betsy DeVos cares about fixing problems so much as...something else. Perhaps, something like
building God's kingdom. Gee, I didn't know that Jerry Falwell was Trump's first pick for Secretary of Education.
