Recently, it was reported in the NY Times that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was temporarily blocked by protestors from entering a Washington DC middle school.
One protestor, quoted in the NY Times article, stated the following: “We will unleash our activists in a way that I don’t think any secretary of education has ever experienced,” said Heidi Hess, a campaign manager for Credo, a mobile phone company with a liberal activist arm. “If she holds field hearings, we will make sure we pack them with activists. If she travels for meetings or if she visits schools, we will confront her with protesters and have people lined up to ask her questions.” And this is going to accomplish what? How is it going to benefit the kids stuck in Washington DC public schools?
What bothers 2setsofrules is the apparent disregard by the protestors for the actual results of the school system they are trying to keep Mrs. DeVos from visiting. According to the 2015 NAEP report card, the percentage of 8th grade students in Washington DC scoring at or above proficient in mathematics was only 17% !!! For reading, only 19% of Washington DC students scored at or above proficient. The national average reading score is 33%. So what exactly are the protestors protesting? Maybe Mrs. DeVos could actually effect positive change – whatever they have been doing up to this point is certainly not working.
Interestingly, the writer of the NY Times article describes Mrs. DeVos as “a wealthy Republican donor with almost no experience in public education”. What really irritates 2setsofrules is that apparently, all of the experience of the entire education machine – just what does the Education Department accomplish? – has produced the abysmal results of only 17% and 19% of Washington DC students being proficient in math and reading. 2setsofrules suggests that whatever experience the education machine has, doesn’t count for much.
It would seem to 2setsofrules the protestors should be spending their time protesting the outcomes of the current public education system and the people responsible. But then, we all know that the protestors aren’t really about benefiting the kids; the protests are about charter schools and unions. Unfortunately politicians in Washington DC have 2setsofrules. One for their kids (Sidwell), and one for everyone else.