DeVos tells Congress She Will Support Funding for Charter Schools that Discriminate

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DeVos tells Congress She Will Support Funding for Charter Schools that Discriminate

May 25th, 2017

Awake Goy

DeVos tells Congress She Will Support Funding for Charter Schools that Discriminate

Susanne Posel ,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | Host of Hardline Radio Show

During a speech at the American Federation for Children’s annual National Policy Summit, Betsy DeVos told the audience that “the time has expired for ‘reform’” of public schools and those who are against school choice are no better than “flat-earthers”.

DeVos called for “transformation” of America’s “antiquated education system”. She went on to say: “Defenders of our current system have been regularly resistant to any meaningful change. In resisting, these ‘flat-earthers’ have chilled creativity and stopped American kids from competing at the highest levels.”

The irony of DeVos statement is no lost on those who have followed her career. In Michigan, DeVos donated large sums of money to private schools that strictly adhered to a Christian-centered approach to science – teaching creationism alongside evolution in science classes.

And in line with her beliefs, the Department of Education under DeVos will see a $9.2 billion dollar cut which will negatively affect public school students in K through 12.

The Trump administration’s newly proposed budget calls for funding cuts to public schools while at the same time increasing monies going toward charter schools. For example, $167 million will be set aside for a charter school federal program with an additional $250 million to place low-income students in those charters to give the appearance of inclusiveness.

But in reality, charter schools are notorious for enrolling minority, low-income and disabled children only to expel them once their fiscal funding is secured. This is known as cherry-picking students .

For instance, Bay State charters purposefully neglected to enroll students with “disabilities” and children who do not speak English as their first language.

And while refusing to enroll certain types of children is a tactic used by charters, others exclude kids through suspensions via racially motivated adherence to rules created by the individual charter.

The University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) found that when “compared to white students, black students were four times as likely to be suspended; compared to students who aren’t disabled, students with disabilities were two to three times as likely to be suspended.”

To break this down, African American students are 3 times more likely to be suspended or expelled from a charter; in part because how the teach interprets the child’s behavior weighs heavily on that educator’s perspective of minorities.

Because of this profiling bias , “25 percent of black students with disabilities received at least one suspension in the 2009–2010 school year.”

Charter school discrimination becomes even more dangerous as DeVos seeks to defund public schools; leaving minority, low-income and disables children with nowhere to get an education.

DeVos was challenged on this point by Congresswoman Katherine Clark during a recent hearing on Trump’s proposed budget.

Clark asked DeVos about her theory that school choice is a state’s rights issue. The congresswoman mentioned the Lighthouse Christian Academy (LCA) in Bloomington, Indiana because this particular charter school “currently receives over $665,000 in state vouchers for students to attend their school.”

LCA “explicitly denies access to students with LGBT parents in its literature.”

Because of their blatant discrimination, Clark asked DeVos a hypothetical. The congresswoman asked if DeVos would “in this case, say ‘we are going to overrule and you cannot discriminate, whether it be on sexual orientation, race, special needs, in our voucher programs.’ Will that be a guarantee from you for our students?”

DeVos responded by invoking state’s rights, but Clark cut her off and asked a more pointed question: “What if (a school) said we are not accepting African-American students, but that was OK with the state… Do you see any situation where you would step in?”

After another diatribe from DeVos on state’s rights, Clark tried one more time, asking: “[Is] there is no situation of discrimination or exclusion that if a state approved it for its voucher program that you would step in and say that’s not how we’re going to use federal dollars. … Is that your testimony?”

DeVos began her reply by referring to very real LCA as a “hypothetical” school and added: “The bottom line is that we believe that parents are the best equipped to make choices for their children’s school and education decisions, and too many children today are trapped in schools that don’t work for them. We have to do something different.”

Clark retorted: “I am shocked that you cannot come up with one example of discrimination that you would stand up for students.”