WaPo: Betsy DeVos is an abysmal failure and our nation's schoolchildren are paying the price

[spanone]

Months after schools across the country closed to stop the spread of the coronavirus, it’s still not clear how, or even if, children can safely return to classrooms in the coming weeks and months. Despite the best efforts of teachers suddenly plunged into teaching remotely, the loss of learning has been staggering, especially for low-income students. This would be the moment, you’d think, when the nation’s top education policy official would step up and attempt to offer leadership and best practices going forward. Instead, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is missing in action, at least when it comes to the issues that matter most.

Almost two months ago, the American Federation of Teachers released a plan detailing how schools could reopen safely. Their recommendations include mandatory hand-washing on entering the school and capping class sizes to encourage physical distancing. Last month, the conservative American Enterprise Institute released one as well; among other things, it urges schools to evaluate students for learning gaps as a result of the closures.

The Education Department, by contrast, is all but silent, issuing little in the way of guidance, and doing little to review what did and didn’t work. Anecdotal evidence suggests many parents and teachers found virtual learning dissatisfactory, while surveys found a large number of students didn’t attend their online classes regularly. A poll of North Carolina parents found a majority believed their children learned less online then in-person. The Education Department’s response? According to The Post’s Laura Meckler, just this month, “the department invited education officials to a panel discussion on the practical applications of virtual learning."

The result is that states, cities and individual districts are on their own trying to dig out of a deep hole. One study estimates that students will return for the new academic year — if they return at all, that is — with less than half the gains in math knowledge they normally would be expected to possess.

--PayWall--https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/06/21/our-schoolchildren-are-paying-price-betsy-devoss-failures/

[keithbvadu2]

1. Depends on how you define 'success'.

Depends on how you define 'success'.

She's doing great at steering money to the 'right' people.

[overleft]

3. She is no failure. She is very successful at destroying public schools so you have to go to

private "christian" schools. The grifting of this administration has no bounds.

[Hortensis]

7. Exactly. She is no failure. Of course, because she's an extremist,

and part of that corrupt cabal, she's inevitably not competent to normal standards and has messed up her own plans a bunch of times, but she has managed to cause a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people, all intentional.

[Andy823]

2. The whole trump administration

a failure. It's almost like they are "trying" to destroy the country. Of course I guess Putin will be happy!

[lark]

4. Cruella DeVos is doing exactly what drummpf wanted her to do, destroy public education.

RW Russian Repugs have wanted to end free school forever - want the poor to be so ignorant they will work virtually for free and Cruella has advanced that probably more than drumpf could have expected. She is awful and has actually made letting rapists not be punished one of her very top initiatives. I weep for the destruction of learning opportunities she's rained upon our children and can't wait for her to be tossed on the trash heap of history.

[weissmam]

5. she belongs in jail

[FakeNoose]

6. I don't believe there are any teachers in the USA that will vote for Chump

Nobody is benefiting from this awful administration - certainly not the teachers, not the students, not the families involved. Betsy DeVos should be hung in effigy, and I don't say that lightly.

It's a crime what has been done to our American public education system. What was once the envy of the world, now receives mockery from the world.

[Master_Monstruwacan]

8. If only this were true.

I'm a 30+ year teacher in SW Pennsylvania. My county (and school district) are hard-core Trump country. I have plenty of colleagues who will pull the lever for Bunker Boy this November. I have lived here most of my life, and, sadly, it is one of the most racist and backward places you'll ever see. Even educated folks like teachers have fallen for it. Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece, Fallingwater, is practically in my backyard, and people from all over the world visit that place and the surrounding area filled with wonders of nature. I can only imagine the stories they take home about the folk who live here.

[onecaliberal]

9. I am in an identical situation in California.