Transcripts of the debate leading up to the DeVos confirmation vote:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?423606-1/us-senate-democrats-continue-hold-floor-devos-vote-looms
Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio’s comments really stood out to me as a parent of three children that run the entire spectrum of the kids that IDEA is meant to protect:
“I can’t support Betsy DeVos because I can’t look Ohio parents in the eye and tell them she won’t put profits ahead of their children’s education. Our children deserve to be — deserve better than that. Mr. President, I’m come back in closing to my — my comments about the individual disabilities education act about which she knew nothing, who new little. I think about that. I think how could a secretary of education designee who prides herself on knowing a lot about education, how could she not know much about idea? Then it occurred to me. If you’re running a for-profit charter school, you don’t want disabled kids coming to your school. Why? Because it costs more to educate a disabled child than it does with — than a child without any disabilities. Costs more because you might need more use of a nurse. You might need a student aide. You might need wheelchair accessibility. You might need special tutoring so it costs more to educate a disabled child. A for-profit charter school doesn’t want children with disabilities to walk through their doors or to bring — come in a wheelchair through their doors because they can’t make as much money. So let — this is how we do privatization in this country. Let the public schools take care of the disabled, the child with disabilities because we’re in this for profit. Its a he a little like medicare. The private for-profit insurance companies want the healthiest people in medicare and the 65 and 70-year olds that are active and take walks, they don’t want the sickest and the oldest. Let taxpayers pay for them. That’s exactly what her model of education is all about. Let the for-profit charters skim the cream, if you will, take the children that cost the least, that are easiest to educate. Let the public schools take care of the children with disabilities. Let the public schools take care of the children that maybe didn’t have as much advantage in life as Betsy DeVos growing up. Let the public schools worry about the kids that might be a little bit more difficult because of discipline and other issues because of what’s going on in their homes. That’s pretty clear at how she looks at the world and how she looks at this job and most importantly how she looks at education in this country. That’s what disturbs me. That’s fundamentally, Mr. President, why I oppose Betsy DeVos and I plan to vote emphatically today”
Senator McCaskill of Missouri did a good job of showing why Betsy DeVos’ idea of taking taxpayer funds out of public schools and giving it to for-profit charter schools is a very bad idea for any state that has a significant rural population (as NC does):
“In rural areas of this country, there are not private schools for parents and kids to choose. They would have to drive miles. And, by the way, in my state, the newly elected governor just cut transportation funds for public schools. Just cut them. So they now have less money for transportation than they had last year. And, by the way, it isn’t like public schools are getting fully funded in my state. They’re not. So I guess what I’m confused about — and I know what public schools mean to rural Missouri. I know they are the essence of the community.”
That’s on top of the fact that the vouchers rarely cover the full cost of private tuition even if a suitable private school is available and is willing to take on the student (which they don’t have to if they come with disabilities or other challenges). So essentially the wealthier families get subsidised private education and the students that can’t escape the even more underfunded public schools get short-changed.
Again.
🙁