Shortly after being confirmed as the nation's secretary of education, Betsy DeVos paid a visit to a public school in Washington, D.C. She was met by about 50 demonstrators, including one person who was arrested for blocking the entrance.
In an ironic comment, DeVos evoked memories of late Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who in 1963 blocked access to the University of Alabama by standing in a door to keep blacks from entering. She said no one should "stand in the schoolhouse door" to keep her out.
While I am not a connoisseur of fake news _ something DeVos' boss, President Donald Trump, frequently talks about _ I am well aware that the details of this encounter could easily be misconstrued.
Still, I know enough to defend DeVos' right to enter this school. In fact, I think she should see every good and bad thing about our public schools. Perhaps she will then begin to grasp the enormity of the challenges facing American public education. Perhaps she will then realize the educational needs of Americans cannot simply be solved by charter schools and vouchers.
It's easy to see how enormously successful capitalist businesspeople like DeVos can actually believe that public education needs the sting of a good competitor to spur it to improvement. I once interviewed men who said they were investing in a scholarship fund to give poor students partial tuition to parochial schools _ not to give them a religiously solid education, but because if enough students were drawn away from public schools, the competition would force public schools to improve.
But we are not talking about units of sales here. We are talking about children. We are talking about the principle of public education. During her confirmation hearings, DeVos said that schools need guns in some places to fend off grizzly bears. The comment was laughable, but also revealed a stunning lack of awareness that this is a serious issue for schools in states with liberal gun ownership laws, including public colleges and universities where open-carry is allowed.
In an even more troubling gaffe, DeVos appeared to have a poor grasp of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The law sets forth the rights of students with disabilities. Parents of such students need to know this information so they can advocate for their children.
There is much more that DeVos needs to learn to responsibly oversee the country's education system. The minute details of public education are bewildering, and hell hath no fury like a parent convinced that something happening in school will harm his or her child.
Keeping DeVos from entering a public school will not enlighten her. Instead, we should educate her, thoroughly.
