Her
Credentials in a Funny Sort of Way
(Not Ha-Ha Funny, but Factually True)
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos (R-MI) is once again carrying Trump’s
water by demanding that states reopen their schools after the summer break or
lose Federal funds.
Let’s be clear here: DeVos and Trump threats to withhold school funding
unless they open — however hollow — is dangerous.
It puts the
spotlight on them and distracts from many serious problems like this
runaway virus and taking rights away from states where education policy is now and where it belongs, period.
Notice: There is no right to education in the United States
Constitution.
But, that legal right for public education is the Constitutions of all 50 states where they, through their duly-elected branches of government, maintain, support, and fund our free
public education system for all resident children.
DeVos again is making demands with no sense
of how schools can re-open safely. Beneath her disregard for public health is her
shocking ignorance about the fundamental nature of authority over public
schools in this country in general.
DeVos falsely assumes (like many times before) that she has the power to run roughshod over state officials who that actually have the power and legal right over public schools.
Her blanket demand that
schools open is dangerous in its complete lack of consideration for student and
teacher safety.
Ø She dismisses the risk of spreading COVID-19 among
students, teachers and staff in school buildings.
Ø She offers no guidelines on what or how to safely reopen.
Ø She refuses to say schools should follow guidance from the CDC, or to even acknowledge that schools will need to close and return
to remote learning in the event of an outbreak.
Ø She threatens to open then potentially in unsafe
conditions or lose Federal funds (money later wold be needed to open
safely).
Now, when the pandemic has
focused the nation’s attention on the essential role of public schools
for families and communities, and when they need more, not fewer,
resources to safely reopen, she wants to pull the plug on the funds schools
must have to safely reopen.
However, DeVos lacks the statutory power to follow
through on her threats:
(1) She can’t close schools,
and she sure can’t open them either.
(2) She can’t cut Federal education statutes as long as schools deliver
education.
(3) She can complain and
threaten all she wants, but she has zero power to stop the flow of funds that are appropiated by
congress.
My 2 cents: Based on my view and the above, DeVos has to go and ASAP would be just fine. She
is stupid, in a job way over her head, and she has a total lack of knowledge or experience about public education
or even her official Federal duties.
This
from CNBC and NBC – key points and facts re: the CDC finally
releases the long-awaited guidelines for reopening schools this fall
with an emphasis on getting students back to class. The guidelines involve the
social, emotional, and mental risks of keeping students at home.
They give a
broad outline on how to resume in-person instruction already in line with already
recommended things such as: practicing good hygiene, disinfecting surfaces
regularly, spacing students, and other social distancing.
Other recommendations:
repurposing unused or underutilized buildings, or moving classes outside when
possible, and keeping students in pods where their groups can stay together
throughout the school day.
NOTE: The White House emphasized that this new guidance is only a
recommendation and will not replace state and local decision-making.
So, memo to Ms. DeVos: Shut
your yap.
Trump et al have been pressing states to get kids back to school
as a key component to return the nation to some semblance of normalcy, and thousands
of teachers and staff say it must be prudently done, NOT for political points.
Thanks
for stopping by.
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