DeVos exit means glimmers of hope in public education

Very soon Betsy DeVos will slip away from her stint in government and escape back into the philanthropic networks that spawned her.

President-elect Joe Biden is making good on his promise as a candidate, vowing to replace DeVos with someone with experience teaching; someone who knows what it’s like to manage the expectations of parents, to stand before a room of children day-after-day, and accept the responsibility that what happens in the classroom can chart the course of those lives.

Connecticut’s Miguel A. Cardona is Biden’s Secretary of Education nominee. News coverage has synthesized him into snippets; Puerto Rican parents, a childhood in public housing, a former fourth grade teacher and a principal in the same public school system he attended.

Cardona, a state education commissioner, launched a meme in his first statements: “I, being bilingual and bicultural, am as American as apple pie and rice and beans.”

The quote signifies how Cardona’s lived experiences align with a reality of public education today and into the future.

The demographics are indisputable. A majority of public school-aged children, K-12, are not white. Many are lower income and of immigrant parents. And like Cardona did, many begin school with proficiency in a language other than English.

The fact that the nation’s top education official will be able to relate is no small matter. Far too often, society tends to cherry pick and sanctify the relative few who manage to move beyond the social class they were born, while looking with dismay at the masses who don’t.

As Cardona stresses, the zip code where a child is born and their skin color too often becomes the predictor of opportunities.

While empathy for less privileged children is necessary, having it doesn’t necessarily mean that a person will be a good administrator of a government system as vast as the Department of Education.

The bureaucracy of the department became one of DeVos’ top complaints.

Some of that might be due to her own entitlement. Billionaires are used to having their wishes fulfilled in ways that don’t occur to people who navigate life without deep pockets and social capital.

Undoing some of the handiwork of DeVos is also on the Cardona to-do list.

She failed in the government’s role in addressing for-profit schools that defrauded thousands of students, leaving them with massive debt but no marketable skill.

It’s not that DeVos didn’t believe in doing right by children and young adults. Her problem was that she often saw her way as the only way.

In recent weeks, DeVos has testified to her continued disdain of “government-assigned schools,” while speaking glowingly of “education freedom.”

She means the neighborhood schools that many parents desire. Her version of freedom is to come through increased use of charters and vouchers.

Cardona is not opposed to school choice. It’s clear that such options should have a role. Some charter schools are stellar, but some are not. The last thing children need are failed schools replaced by failed schools.

DeVos’ greatest achievement is that she’s unscarred by the vitriol President Donald Trump has launched on most of his cabinet. She knew how to stay out of Trump’s egomaniac path and do it gracefully. DeVos will be just fine after her time as a government worker.

It’s America’s children; no matter where and to whom they are born who deserve the spotlight and our best efforts now.