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Betsy DeVos has been the Secretary of Education for three years, making her one of President Trump’s longest-serving Cabinet members. Can you believe it? Actually, it probably feels like it's been longer than three years. 


Here are four ways DeVos has been bad for public education in America.


#4 DeVos is trying to cut the Department of Education to the bone. 

  • She's pushed to cut the Department of Education's budget by $9 billion.

  • She's proposed cuts to funding for civil rights investigations, after-school and school lunch programs, and even the Special Olympics.

  • She's recommended eliminating the 21st Century Community Learning Centers initiative, which provides high-quality after-school programs to students nationwide.


#3 DeVos has rolled back rules to protect women, LGBTQ students, and students of color.

  • She's made it harder for victims of sexual assault to seek justice by changing campus sexual assault policies.

  • Under her watch, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has become less likely to stop discrimination.


#2 DeVos has made the student debt crisis worse.

  • She's made it easier for companies to engage in deceptive collection practices.

  • She's made it easier for for-profit colleges to defraud students by repealing the gainful employment rule.

  • She didn’t honor our commitment to 99% of the students who were enrolled in the loan forgiveness program.


#1 DeVos has diverted public funds to private schools instead of strengthening public schools.

  • She's routinely proposed expanding voucher and charter programs that steal money from public schools with little track record of student success. 

  • She’s proposed giving tax dollars to private schools that have discriminatory practices against LGBTQ+ students and students with special needs.


In case you forgot, Vice President Mike Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote to confirm DeVos after she got more “no” votes than any education secretary nominee in U.S. history.

MOFE ACTION FUND POLL

A brand new poll of American voters has found broad opposition to the privatization of public education. According to the poll, which was conducted by the National School Boards Association and released February 3rd:


  • 64% of voters think funding for public schools should be increased.

  • 26% think funding should be kept the same, and only 6% thinking funding should be decreased.

  • 73% of voters agree with the statement "we should NOT take away public funds from our public schools to fund private, religious, and home school education."

BUT we already knew that the majority of people are against privatizing education. The problem is that some elected officials could care less. With your help, we'll make sure they hear our message to keep public funds for public schools.


Join the fight to #KeepEdPublic



  • In Vice President Mike Pence's back yard of Indiana, students who transferred from a public to a private school using vouchers experienced lower levels of academic achievement.

  • Don't be fooled. “School choice” is a catch-all phrase that covers a variety of efforts to privatize public education.

  • The "school choice" movement has been around for decades, trying to expand its reach school district state by state.

  • Decades of studies have demonstrated that vouchers do not improve educational outcomes.

  • Private voucher schools do not have the same obligations as public schools under federal law to protect students from harassment and discrimination.

  • Accountability is virtually non-existent in many private charter school programs.


Read more: What Donald Trump, Mike Pence, and Betsy DeVos Won't Tell You About 'School Choice'


 

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