Will This Unqualified Amway Heiress Destroy Public Education?
Defenders of public education have a few questions they want to ask Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's controversial pick to lead the Department of Education, when she appears at her senate confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
With a new campaign targeting members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), as well as its members and supporters, are sharing questions they'd like to see answered by the billionaire Amway heiress and notorious critic of public schools.
"DeVos has no relevant experience in public education, but as a billionaire with an agenda she's promoted disastrous ideology and pushed destructive policies across her home state of Michigan—working to undermine, defund and privatize public schools, expand for-profit charters without accountability, and push unconstitutional private school vouchers," Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, wrote in an email to supporters on Monday.
"We need a secretary of education who would strengthen and improve public schools, not one who is out to destroy them," Weingarten added. "We need our questions answered before she gets anywhere near our children's futures."
The million member-strong trade union offered up some of its own, inspiring others to do the same ...