This is an open letter to the vague, deplorable, hilariously unqualified nominee for education secretary known as Mrs. Betsy DeVos.
On behalf of students and teachers both in the k-12 system and in colleges/universities, I am respectfully asking you to take a step back and sit down. Not in the chair that belongs to the secretary of education of course (since you do not even come close to deserving that honor), but in one of your comfy chairs back home where you are safely away from such a powerful position. You are not an educator. You have never been a teacher, principal, school administrator, or even receptionist in a school's main office. All the people that fill the positions that I just mentioned are much more qualified to be secretary of education. How could you possibly believe that you could run such an important department when you lack the proper experience to do so? I was an education major for a year. I got to observe a classroom filled with bright students that will help shape our country's future and I even got to teach them a lesson. Even though I only taught one lesson, I am more qualified for the position of education secretary. Unlike yourself, at least I have been inside a classroom.
Besides that, you have an unnerving trait that makes you unqualified to be education secretary and that is you seem to have this innate vagueness. You do not seem to be able to answer a question directly which is very alarming. If you are to run any department, especially the whole department of education, you need to be able to show people that you can make firm decisions. Do you know what you sound like when you cannot answer a question with a solid answer? You sound like you have something to hide. Crooks and swindlers answer questions about as clearly as you do.
Truly, you are a despicable, vacuous, leech. You latch onto any business deal that will render a "good profit" even if that means shutting down public schools. However, what you do not seem to think about is how many children attend public school and your voucher plan is only going to hinder their education. Mrs. DeVos, how can you have the audacity to state that you believe teachers are overpaid? How dare you! Teachers are the only reason that anyone has a job! They teach necessary life skills like problem-solving, teamwork, and communication and yet you have the gall to say that they should get paid less for what they do? Are you even aware of how much trouble teachers have to put up with nowadays because parents do not discipline their children anymore? So not only are teachers academic instructors, but they also have to discipline unruly children. If anything, teachers deserve to be paid more than what they are making, not less.
Another thing that you apparently do not seem to realize, is that we live in a very diverse country. We are made up of many different races, religions, and cultures. Trying to take away funding from public schools in order to try and get children to attend private Christian schools, whether or not the religion is part of their beliefs, is not fair. Families that struggle financially will not be able to send their children to these private institutions. Of course, privatized education is just what you want, though, right?
Do you know what year it was when the first private Christian school was founded in America? 1636. The puritans that lived in Massachusetts founded a college that only a select few could attend. The select few were rich, white, puritan men. Mrs. DeVos, we do not live in 1636 anymore. Welcome to the present year of 2017. We are running a school system in which everyone can attend. Not just the children of rich Christian families. If you take away funding for public schools, you are taking away a vital piece of our country's foundation. Just in case it slipped your memory Mrs. DeVos, but there is this part in the U.S. Constitution (which is what our country is founded on) that clearly states that people are free to practice any religion that they would like. Forcing children to attend Christian schools because you don't support "religion free" public schools, is not only despicable but unconstitutional.
Do you know what the most valuable skill we learn in school is? How to be aware. Our teachers give us the tools we need in order to assess the world around us and how to solve the problems that we face in it. In the public schools that you want to shut down, people learn about the importance of diversity and appreciation for other cultures. Because of this, people learn about tolerance and how to love others that are different from them. You wouldn't understand that though would you? You obviously never learned those skills, otherwise, you wouldn't be trying to turn schools into profits and encouraging discrimination by making schools only available to the formerly mentioned select few.
Until you learn to see how valuable our schools and teachers are, you need to stay back. You do not deserve the honor that is in the title and position of education secretary. You were not any good in Detroit, so why would you be good for the whole of our country?
Mrs. DeVos, you are a horrible choice for education secretary and if, by some miracle, you are confirmed, you will be bad for America's schools.
