Harming public education
It is ironic and unsettling that president-elect Donald Trump’s choice for secretary of education is millionaire Betsy DeVos, since she and her husband, Richard, have been working for decades to defund and eventually completely do away with public education (“State school choice supporters cheer DeVos,” Nov. 26).
Under the guise of “school choice,” the voucher system, which had its origins in the South as a reaction to courtordered school desegregation, is intended to drain funding from the public school system until it dies.
Existing voucher programs, including Milwaukee’s, have performed no better, and arguably worse, than the public education system.
Despite the evidence, conservatives such as DeVos continue to fund the election of those who push for more voucher programs. Getting pro-voucher politicians elected is their method of getting around the wider public’s rejection of school choice.
The long-term result will be the continued reduction of the ability of American students to compete with those of other nations.
This result only will be accelerated by religious indoctrination replacing science in curriculums, leaving the United States’ currently infirm greatness broken and discarded in the dustbin of history.
It is imperative that we work to prevent local, state and national political offices from being packed with those who, however well-intended, would drag our collective minds back into the 16th century.
David Taffet Mequon