I’m a senior in college now, aiming for a degree in education. I want to teach. That being said I know that if Betsy DeVos becomes the Secretary of Education, I’m definitely going to regret the time I spent to become a teacher. She’s just not, in any way, qualified for the job! The one thing that one could argue that qualifies her for the position, in the eyes of Trump, is that she is capable of lining pockets, to the tune of $200 million. While there rarely is a Secretary of Education that is qualified for the job, DeVos made it very clear at her confirmation hearing that she is the least qualified person for the job.

To start out, she has absolutely no experience in the field of education. She has never worked in or around a school. She never even attended a public school. She never had to worry about taking out federal loans to further her own education nor that of her children. She has never had experience allocating such funds.

But if she gets this position, that’s exactly what she’s going to do. She’ll have a say in who will be getting funds for college and how much they will receive. Not only that, but she could not swear that she would not work to defund public schools! Now, nobody is saying that the public school system is perfect, but reducing the amount of money they receive is not the answer to bettering them! Public schools provide the education to 90% of the students in the United States. Defunding them reduces what these public schools are able to do for students and, with such a high percentage of students receiving public education, anyone with half a brain would realize that the funds for public schools should be increased.

DeVos believes that the “one size fits all” model of education is no longer working for our students. I find an issue with this statement because DeVos is also a firm believer in Common Core. While, in some states, teachers still have the freedom to differentiate their lessons, many schools have their teachers follow the Common Core lesson modules like a script. It is absolutely hypocritical to support Common Core and state that “one size fits all” is not working for students. I can agree to holding every schools accountable to teach their students the same material, but nobody knows the individual students better than the teachers. If DeVos wanted to solve this issue, public schools would have more funding and teachers would have more freedom in what they teach.

To further prove that DeVos has no business deciding how schools function or how they get funding, she has absolutely zero knowledge about the field of education. Outside of no experience in education, this airhead knew absolutely nothing about a crucial debate in the field of education that has been raging for years: proficiency vs growth. When Senator Alan Franken asked DeVos about the debate, DeVos attempted to answer without even knowing the terms.

"I think if I'm understanding your question correctly around proficiency," DeVos said,
"I would also correlate it to competency and mastery so that each student is measured according to the advancement that they're making in each subject area."

"Well, that's growth," Franken said. "That's not proficiency."

She then tried to pretend that she was not trying to answer the question by saying that she was trying to clarify the terms. However, regardless of whether or not she was trying to answer the question or clarify the terms, the person to take over the position of the Secretary of Education ought to know a well-known debate in the field of education.

She didn’t even have knowledge of the Federal Civil Rights Law of IDEA. IDEA stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This act, in the briefest terms possible, is in place to protect the educational rights of students with disabilities in schools. When asked about her thoughts about educating students with disabilities, DeVos merely stated "I think that is a matter that's best left to the states." After learning, obviously for the first time, that IDEA is a Federal Law, DeVos changed her tune to state “Federal Law must be followed where Federal dollars are in play.” When it was brought to everyone’s attention that DeVos was completely unaware that IDEA was a Federal Law, DeVos could only say “I may have confused it.”

Let’s get that straight for a moment. “I may have confused it.” How does someone confuse that an act put into place to protect the rights of students with disabilities is “a matter that’s best left to the states?” Why would some states be free to turn students with disabilities away or educate them poorly?

Even more evidence points to DeVos lacking a single bit of knowledge about the education system; she believes teachers are overpaid. More than 1 in 10 teachers require a second job just to make ends meet! You would think that the professional that makes all other professions would be paid like a professional, but they aren’t even treated as such! But if DeVos had any experience in the field of education, she would know that teachers are more than just glorified babysitters (which, if you convert the average salary of a teacher to an hourly rate, teachers are paid less than the average babysitter!)

DeVos, if teachers are overpaid, then why aren’t people jumping to join the field of education? Why do so many people ignore their passion to find better paying careers? The answer? Because the pay sucks and the work is hard. Only the best of the best can teach, which would explain why Betsy DeVos would never last three minutes in the position of an educator.

Speaking of, DeVos simply would not give an appropriate answer in terms of accountability of schools. She was asked a simple yes or no question of whether or not schools receiving federal funding should be held to the same accountability standards regardless of what type of school it is. She was so stupid that she could not answer simply with “yes” or “no,” but rather “I believe in accountability.” She avoided saying that all schools would have the same accountability regardless of what kind of schools were in question.

Finally, her stance on guns in schools is laughable at best. Personally, I can stand behind the idea of highly trained resource officers or, in less funded schools, highly trained teachers having a gun or two in the school to protect students, but DeVos didn’t even make that argument in her hearing. She stated: "I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies." THINK for a moment. How many grizzly bear attacks have you heard about happening in schools? I can’t think of a single moment. Seriously, DeVos? Do you even have a brain settled in that skull of yours?

So, as a future teacher, I’m not pleased with Trump’s first pick at Secretary of Education. For now, we can only hope that she is refused the position and someone more qualified is able to step up to the challenge.