Letter to the Editor: Just say no to Betsy Devos

Like most people in Clay I support our President, but I don’t support his choice for Education Secretary.

What makes Devos scary is she wants to use government power to force the school choice agenda. While there is plenty of room in public education to offer students a variety of options and there are many good people involved with private and charter schools the school choice agenda is driven by money and power.

They push the false narrative that our schools are “failure factories” though there are few failing schools or failing students. They preach that privatization is the key to raising education levels though all of the nations that surpass America in education have public school systems. They are simply carving up different elements of the public education system to distribute benefits to the politically connected. It even seems likely the latest charter school approved in Clay was just political payback, a taxpayer funded school given to old friends by a Superintendent who had been voted out of office but had not yet left office.

While Devos is problematic she is no more troubling that the education governance we already have in Florida. Our students are grossly over tested, which hurts them but makes a ton of money for the testing companies. No one likes Common Core but politicians keep it while campaigning against it. Charter School advocates pour buckets of cash into local elections so they can get the School Boards that are the most profitable for them. Schools are micromanaged by the State but all problems are blamed on teachers.

Protest Devos if you want to, but we have many state legislators and a State Board of Education that is equally worthy of protest. The best line of defense against the Federal government is the State government, but right now I am more scared of them than anything Devos can do.

Travis Christensen

Lake Asbury