Tomorrow, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden and U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona will visit Michigan to highlight how Democrats’ American Rescue Plan has helped children who fell behind during the pandemic. In Detroit, they’ll showcase how—thanks to the Biden-Harris administration, Governor Whitmer, and Michigan Democrats—Michigan schools got the resources they need to help get kids back in the classroom.
Meanwhile, Michigan Republicans like Betsy DeVos continue to push an out-of-touch agenda that would decimate public education funding—backing a ballot initiative that would privatize education and siphon up to $500 million annually from public schools.
The contrast could not be more clear—and you don’t have to take our word for it. Here’s a look at DeVos’ disastrous record when it comes to education:
DeVos and every Michigan Republican in Congress opposed the American Rescue Plan that President Biden and Democrats passed to help reopen schools, combat learning loss, and address student mental health:
- CNN: “The emergency assistance package secured about $128 billion for K-12 schools to help them facilitate remote learning or reopen and operate safely while combating learning losses. Money was also targeted to help students with disabilities and youth experiencing homelessness.”
- Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona: “Ninety-nine percent of schools are safely open for in-person learning and that is a testament to the hard work and partnership of school communities – particularly parents, educators, district leaders and school staff.”
The DeVos family has endorsed and bank-rolled extreme, far-right Republican candidates across the state like Tudor Dixon, who has been one of the most vocal gubernatorial candidates pledging to decimate public education funding by any means necessary.
Under the Trump-Pence administration’s disastrous policies, K-12 schools were repeatedly left behind, even as a global pandemic left students, parents, and educators. DeVos repeatedly threatened to defund public schools, attacked teachers and educators, and said she would be okay with the Department of Education not existing:
- U.S. News and World Report: “DeVos: I’d Be Fine Ditching the Education Department”
- The Detroit News: “Earlier this year, when the state was considering a bailout for the debt-laden Detroit Public Schools, Betsy wrote a Feb. 22 commentary in The Detroit News that favored shutting down the district.”
- The Detroit News: “DeVos has made it clear that she will challenge education unions. At a July school choice forum at the Republican National Convention, she accused teachers unions of holding back innovation in education and called them ‘a formidable foe’ at both the state and national levels.”
- NBC News: “DeVos refused to promise that she would not privatize or strip funding from the public schools she would oversee if confirmed.”
- NPR: “[DeVos] said she hasn’t visited struggling schools because she is afraid she wouldn’t be welcome.”
- Associated Press: “DeVos compares school choice to switching phone carriers”
- Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “After school trip, Betsy DeVos insults teachers for their ‘receive mode’”
