I wish I could find more satisfaction in something I’ve hoped would happen for 4 years.
But as usual, Ms. DeVos did the absolute least she could do (resign), well past the time when it could have made a difference (with 13 days left in her lamest of all duck terms), and is probably only doing it to avoid doing something she doesn’t want to do (invoke the 25th Amendment).
DeVos resigned, allegedly, because her boss’ insurrection attempt was an “inflection point” she simply couldn’t ignore.
- Not gutting regulations intended to protect students, many of whom are veterans, minorities, and first-generation college attendees, from being defrauded by predatory schools and colleges, and putting the interests of these for-profit colleges—some of which she has personal financial interests in—ahead of students. She ignored that.
- Not dismissing civil rights complaints and ripping up guidance that urged public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms that conform to their gender identity. She ignored that.
- Not rolling back sexual assault policies on college campuses, establishing a higher bar for victims reporting complaints, and forcing survivors to be cross-examined by their attackers in court—this one is especially egregious in that DeVos is from Michigan, where Larry Nassar sexually assaulted 332 young girls and women at MSU over 25 years. She ignored that.
- Not calling public schools “a dead end”, then advocating for a national private school voucher program by requesting $20 billion in the federal budget, even though all previous attempts in Michigan were humiliating failures, voted down by nearly 75% of the citizens of our state. She ignored that.
- Not proposing to eliminate the federal Department of Education…and then suggesting a cut to the Department’s funding of $9 billion — about 13 percent. DeVos’ budget eliminated money for after-school programs for disadvantaged youth and axed a grant program that helps low-income students go to college in favor of increased spending on school-choice initiatives and private school voucher programs. Her proposal also included cuts to the Office for Civil Rights. She ignored that.
- Not kids in cages–she ignored that.
I’d wish you well, Ms. DeVos–but we all know I don’t mean it.
Here’s what I do wish:
- I hope you never get another moment’s peace in public
- I hope that the jeers and insults from school teachers and parents who care about their children’s education ring in your ears like the pealing of a thousand church bells
- I hope that you feel the shame of your ignorant, arrogant malfeasance in a million “Worst Ever Cabinet Secretaries” articles for the next 100 years
- And I hope that are shunned by polite society for the remainder of your days.
Back to a life of opulent unemployment for you, Bets.
Better late than never…
