Teach union boss bashes Trump pick
THE HEAD of the nation’s largest teachers union ripped President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the U.S. Education Department, saying the selection could harm public schools.
The Senate has scheduled a Wednesday confirmation hearing for Betsy DeVos, a philanthropist, businesswoman and education activist. She’s been a longtime advocate for charter schools and vouchers — and an opponent of teachers unions.
That puts DeVos firmly at odds with Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers.
“She is really out of the mainstream,” Weingarten said of DeVos. “And the things that she promotes have been tried over the last 20 years and they haven’t worked.”
Weingarten will deliver Monday what her union is calling a major education speech, where she will provide a detailed argument for how DeVos’ pro-school-choice agenda could harm public school kids.
On the campaign trail, Trump promised to execute a $20 billion voucher plan, a program that would give families money to pay for private schools if they choose to opt out of public ones.
DeVos, a longtime booster of voucher programs and publicly funded, privately run charter schools, has been active in supporting similar causes in her home state of Michigan and beyond.
Weingarten said the voucher program would shift taxpayer dollars to private and religious schools and harm traditional, district-run public schools. “It’s almost as if the President-elect wants to dismantle and undermine the institution of public education — the only institution in America that requires all kids to have a chance at the education that they deserve,” Weingarten told the Daily News.
DeVos did not respond to a request for comment. Her website says that she won’t discuss positions on specific education policies until the Senate confirmation hearing.
But a spokeswoman for the Trump transition team said union leaders criticized previous nominees for the nation’s top education job, including Democrats Arne Duncan and John King, both of whom went on to assume the post in the Obama administration. “Betsy DeVos will continue to do what she has always done: Be a strong and steady voice for parents who simply want their children to be in a learning environment that best meets their individual needs,” a Trump transition spokeswoman said.
Nationwide, federal money accounts for roughly 10% of funding for most local public school districts. And the AFT commands a membership of nearly 1.6 million members in more than 3,000 local affiliates nationwide.
Experts believe Weingarten’s speech and DeVos’ confirmation hearing will give a preview of a long, brutal struggle over the future of American education. “The federal government is poised to undercut district schools in favor of charter schools, religious schools and for-profit schools,” said Brooklyn College education Prof. David Bloomfield. “The impact is on 50 million districteducated children throughout the United States. The question is: Will their education be undermined in an effort to move them to a voucherized education system?”