Billionaire Education Secretary DeVos: Choosing a School Should Be Like Choosing Uber, Lyft or taxi
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, near the top of the list of President Donald Trump's most unqualified cabinet appointees, this week shared her vision for the future of education in America. The billionaire heiress – Forbes reports she and her husband are worth $5.6 billion – thinks picking a school should be just like picking transportation options.
DeVos is an anti-public schools, pro-school vouchers activist. She has spent decades advancing what some like to call "school choice," the practice of taking taxpayer dollars out of often-desperate public schools and giving them to parents to use to pay private, prep, charter, or religious schools. (Yes, in a growing number of states, private religious schools are allowed to accept taxpayer funds, including school vouchers.) The net effect is less money going toward public schools, which are already in many cases vastly under-funded.
"How many of you got here today in an Uber, or Lyft, or another ridesharing service?" DeVos on Wednesday asked an audience at the Brookings Institution, just one month after saying Black colleges were the "real pioneers" of school choice. "Did you choose that because it was more convenient than hoping a taxi would drive by? Even if you didn’t use a ridesharing service, I’m sure most of you at least have the app on your phone," she said, as The Washington Post reported.
"Just as the traditional taxi system revolted against ridesharing, so too does the education establishment feel threatened by the rise of school choice. In both cases, the entrenched status quo has resisted models that empower individuals," DeVos continued, ignoring the fact that many families can't afford to use Uber, or even take a taxi.
Read more: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/billionaire_education_secretary_betsy_devos_choosing_a_school_should_be_like_choosing_uber_lyft_or_a_taxi
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