There are a lot of different people within the education field, and with the different people comes differences in opinions. While there are a lot of opinions I agree with, there are also some that I do not. Two people’s opinions who I definitely do not agree with are Trump and his Secretary of Education, Betsy Devos. Her views are harmful to schools, educators, and students. I disagree with most, if not all, of what she says but especially her views such as privatization and school choice, putting Christianity back in schools and giving states more, power in deciding education. If you look at Devos’ past history in Michigan, you can see that she is all for privatization. She herself went to a private Christian school and so did her …show more content…
I believe that with the privatization of schools, education will decline. Along with privatization of schools, Devos also believes that putting Christianity back in schools is the way to go. In an interview in 2001, Devos states that “Our desire is to be in that Shephelah, and to confront the culture in which we all live today in ways that will continue to help advance God’s Kingdom, but not to stay in our own faith territory,” (Wermund, 2016). I think that if a parent and student both desire to go to a private Christian school that is their own choice that I support. I do not think that a child should be forced to go to a school that centers its education around a religion that goes against their beliefs. In the constitution it states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” (U.S. Constitution). This means that the government cannot establish a nation religion. Since public schools are a government institution that means that they cannot be centered around one religion. Devos wanting to fund charter schools more means that a lot of the charter and private schools will be Christian schools. This is inconvenient for children of other faiths that will either have to go to an underfunded public school or travel farther away from home. One of the reasons the first amendment was created was to establish religious freedom, and Devos wanted to put Christianity in schools goes against that.
It was with wild fanfare that the state’s Republican legislature and Republican Governor enacted their reforms for the state’s public school system. Among the panaceas was charter schools, a ‘90s education fad that gives individual parents the right to send their children to state-approved public charter schools at public expense. Politicians reasoned that less-bureaucratic charter schools would teach students better than traditional public schools because charter schools wouldn’t be subject to the same mandates that the state had heaped upon public schools. Furthermore, traditional schools would be forced to compete with charter schools as they lured thousands
From 1992 to 1997, Betsy DeVos also worked for the Michigan Republican Party. Moreover, she won a reelection to her post. In addition, Betsy DeVos holds the distinction of being an advocate for the charter school system in Detroit. Currently, she also remains a member of the board of the foundation for excellence and education. For those unaware, Dick DeVos remains the former CEO of the company Amway. Moreover, Richard DeVos remains her father-in-law. To expound further, she hails from a unique background. Moreover,
Education is the most powerful tool one can arm themselves with. Education provides people with the power to innovate, invent, and change the world. Recognized on a global basis as the ultimate key to unlocking one’s potential, education is one of, if not the most important aspect of a human being’s life. Despite this recognition of education as a necessary aspect of positive advancement, there has lately been a high amount of controversy surrounding the education system in the United States. A large amount of this controversy surrounds the views of the new secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, who strongly believes in the concept of school-choice vouchers, which are essentially subsidies given directly to parents to
Republican ideology has also stood for private school. Our senator wants to emphasize on private school and slowly want to replace public schools with private ones. According to District profile of District 16, 19.4% of our district’s population is school kids. Everyone is not privileged and financially able to attend a private school. Pushing people to educate their children in private school is not freedom of choice of education. Even if private education is being made free, we also need to consider if it is feasible and easily accessible to children or not. We need to consider situations where we don’t have one private school for a large area, so that students do not have to worry about time and distance to reach school. According to National Centre for Education Statistics, “Private school enrollment in prekindergarten (preK) through grade 12 increased from 5.9 million students in 1995–96 to 6.3 million in
Would you believe me if I told you that the person who is in charge of all the schools in the country isn't even qualified to be a superintendent, principal, or even a teacher? Well, it’s true. The presidential nominee and now approved Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, is not fit for this position. Although the DeVos family has provided many jobs for Michigan families with their businesses, this job should have been given to someone who has experience in the education field.
Nelson Mandela has a quote that reads, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Mandela’s choice of words certainly embodies the nature of facilitated learning, and teachers are a major key in constituting an educational system. A great proportion of educators are armed with facts, information, and the skills required to assist learners in comprehending a practical understanding of any subject that contributes to his/ her education— which usually is referenced to public schools. Donald Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos represents the diametrical opposite of public educations’ ideal structure, and is comprised of everything that goes against the public-school system. I strongly resist
One part of her being unqualified for the position includes her vast inexperience. This causes people to question her authority as Secretary of Education. The DeVos’ have only attended private schools for their education. By only attending private schools, she does not understand the struggles
“We are heading headlong into a new century, and thus,” DeVos’ memo states, “we are going to be heading into a new era in the Department of Education. We will be returning to the Three R’s, except with what I like to call the ‘DeVos Twist.'”
Charter schools have proven to be successful in college preparation in African American urban areas (Ducoff, 2017), but this has not come without dissenting opinion from others. Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Ky has been debating charter schools for many months after House Bill 520 was introduced. Gay Adelman, the co-founder of a group called Dear JCPS, says charters are a failed experiment, create a dual bureaucracy and can lead to forms of abuse. One of the arguments offered by the mayors in Louisville and Lexington was lack of control. This was resolved by adding an amendment in the bill giving the mayors power over the charter schools in their cities. Another argument from Jefferson County Public Schools was that charters will take funding from already suffering public schools. Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, a Louisville Democrat, said she was concerned that private financial interests could receive help from charter schools. Governor Bevins, of Kentucky, has been behind House Bill 520 and says, "The argument that this is somehow a threat to our public education system is a lie... I'm personally disgusted by the fact that the people who oppose this so adamantly continue at every turn ... to be passionate
Finally, Charter schools are a topic in which Democrats are against charter schools. According to a article by the AP regional state report, Senate Democrats say it’s illegal for The Treasure Department to take money from public school and pay for charter schools aid. (paragraph 1). For Democrats, they see charter schools as waste of money. Money that can be used somewhere else in the public school
Betsy DeVos financial and political support for several house Republicans has led many to believe is the reason she got elected with very little if any educational experience or qualifications, other than her support of Donald Trump.
It is common for groups to hold drastically different opinions on the same issue due to different perceptions of the issue at hand. Lindblom describes it in this way: “Social objectives do not always have the same relative values. One objective may be highly prized in one circumstance, another in another circumstance” (1959, 82). As social construction theory would suggest, policy makers employed arguments of equality when advocating for ESSA, “With this bill, we reaffirm that fundamental American ideal that every child — regardless of race, income, background, the ZIP code where they live — deserves the chance to make out of their lives what they will” (Obama 2015). Despite social constructions which view children positively, they have little political power, which oftentimes prevents meaningful beneficial reform from taking place. Rather, policy makers often make symbolic gestures, yet in 2015 public opinion met educational indicators and feedback with regards to educational reform before ESSA (Schneider 1993, 338). Oftentimes, there are competing versions of a problem definition that can prevent a policy from moving forward, but that was not the case in 2015. Diverse groups converged to agree on a problem definition, which was that NCLB was a failed initiative and something had to be done to address
When presidential nominees know they are not highly favored, they will come up with appealing policies and change their stances on issues in order to gain support, as here with Donald Trump. If Trump is elected, he would be using fiscal federalism, which is where the government uses money, taxing, and grants, often as a manipulator. The type of grant that Trump said he would use is a block grant, which is a chunk of money given to states and they have more discretion over where the money is to be used. However, where in the federal budget this $20 billion will come from has not be said by Donald Trump. Is is a normalcy in the presidential elections that the nominees stand for issues within their party, and on the issue of education, portability is a big idea that many Republicans support. However, the problem lies in with giving states the free choice to fund any private or charter school. Many say that this will drain money from public schools, and since some of these schools are religion-based, many taxpayers will reject the idea of their money going to these schools when the Constitution says in the first amendment that there is freedom of religion and nobody should have to fund a school of a religion in which they do not believe in or practice. This being said, it is highly unlikely that this policy will ever become the law, and this is part of the problem with U.S. politics. Many uneducated voters will vote based on things that nominees have promised, even if they do not know the unlikelihood of these promised being kept. Regardless, this policy would be an excellent example of federalism because the national government would be sharing the power with the states over the field of education. Federalism is the way a government shares the power between 2 or more
Education is an issue that touches everyone’s lives in one way or another. Whether you are a parent, student, teacher, taxpayer, or employee, the effects of education on society can be seen everyday. For this reason, public schools are a top concern among political leaders. Over the past twenty-five years, confidence in the nation’s public school system has dramatically declined. While the public for the most part seems to support their school district, criticism is not lacking. Recent years especially have shown dissipating support. It appears that the prevailing view is that public education, as a whole, is in bad condition and is in need of a renewed effort to fix it. Private schools seem to fare
Throughout the history of civilization, education has been an important tool in shaping an individual as well as the society that the individual is a part of. In the older civilizations, only the elite upper class had access to education. This kept these people at the top of the social ladder, and suppressed the common people who did not have access to the same education as the nobles. We have come a long way since then, with every child having access to a free high school degree. However, there is still some inequality in this modern education system that has similarities to the old injustices. In this day and age, a college degree is a great start for a young adult starting to enter the work force. According to a study conducted by Pew