Argument incomplete
The letter arguing against the approval of Betsy DeVos’s as Secretary of education has as its main argument the premise that only a person with an advanced degree in Education Administration would be able to succeed in improving the American K through 12 system, especially in our major metropolitan areas. The argument does not take into account several important facts.
School districts in our area are governed by a majority of people with education in disciplines other than education. Our school boards locally are made up of people from business, law, manufacturing, parents, and working people, not people with an advanced degree in education.
My impression is that our local schools do a good job of providing the opportunities for all to obtain a good education preparing them for college and beyond.
The opportunities presented locally for every child is only limited by their effort and ability. In fact, most Pennsylvania school systems in areas like ours do not require any federal involvement, which is often heavy handed and expensive, and would be better off with no federal involvement.
The failing of public schools is for the most part in our metropolitan and urban areas due to many reasons, not the least is that the city wide school boards are made up of career politicians, teacher’s union leaders, and people who have the resources to send their children to private schools.
I would suggest that more than a few have as their main interest something other than the education of the public school students. Our society spends many more dollars per pupil on public urban schools then rural and suburban, yet the results are abysmal and we have for decades continued to use the same formula for failure.
DeVos may be exactly what we need. Someone with a degree in Business Administration concerned about the quality of the end product, not just oiling the squeaky cogs of the factory production line.
Better yet, when confirmed, her first action would be to eliminate the Federal Department of Education.
Glenn Crossley
Montgomery
Submitted by Virtual Newsroom
COMMENTS