Although being one of the most controversial and inexperienced nominees for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos still managed to acquire the position. Since the appointment, she has been criticized for her comments talking about guns in schools to not knowing basics about school teaching systems.
This interview - with sociologist and recently appointed dean of UC Irvine’s School of Education, John Richard Arum - was completed on March 6, 2017 at the School of Education in UC Irvine. The interview, conducted by Brandon Chang, goes through a set questions concerning Betsy DeVos, the history and future of education in the United States.
What is the role of the federal government in education and specifically what kind of duties does the secretary of Education have?
What people often misunderstand about the U.S. is that most of schooling is organized and financed at the local and state level. The federal government has much less of a role in education that many people assume. About 10% of funding for K-12 education comes through the Department of Education and through that 10% they often try to insist on a whole range rather activities that the local schools enact. [As secretary of Education] they are charged with ensuring that federal guidelines in terms of student rights are adhered to in local schools.
Who would you say was a successful secretary in the past and why?
I think Arne Duncan was a good one… he was there I think the first six years [of the the Obama administration] and he had been before the superintendent of the Chicago public schools and so he had a deep knowledge of public education and the challenges. He actually continued a lot of the earlier programs that George Bush had put in place earlier, but then tried to focus them more sharply on ways that potentially publics schools could improve.
Why is Betsy DeVos such a controversial secretary?
So, I think a lot has to do with her background and her ideologies. Her background is such that she’s had very little experience with public schools in this country and in the U.S. 90% of K-12 education is public. Most of her focus hasn’t been on that, other than some of these charter schools in Michigan, really no experience in traditional public schools and so I think that set people off. Also she’s been a long time advocate for things like giving kids vouchers to go to religious schools. A lot of people in the U.S. find public money for religious schools very problematic even though in many countries in the world people do that, most of western Europe.
Why exactly would public money for religious schools be problematic in the U.S.?
People object to it for a number of reasons. One is the separation of church and state, which is codified here in a way where some of the western European countries it’s not because the countries were founded with religion interconnected with them [schools]. The second thing is the public education system here was started so early it was [one of] the first mass public education system in the world, there’s a longer connection to it and people take a pride in that. It was also community organized, it wasn’t something from the federal government. [Local] people were on the school boards, some had a real connection to the public school system. Lastly, the teachers union is very powerful in the U.S. It’s one of the few remaining unions in this country with significant memberships and political power and sports the Democratic Party largely. People also see a lot of these things in political terms, between Democratic and Republican politics.
What are some of the concrete policy changes that DeVos might oversee and how might those changes affect the lives of students in public schools, public colleges and universities?
I think not really very much in the state of California. California is local, most of the schools are local and state run. I think it is very unlikely that Congress passes [a policy] and she [DeVos] is able to administer a program to privatize public education and give money for kids to go to private schools and religious schools. I don’t think that’s possible. What is possible is that she might give money to the states to let the states figure out what to do. If you’re in a conservative state like Texas, it could have a big impact in changing what schools are existing.
What happened in Detroit when DeVos tried to reform education?
In a lot of the big cities people have been trying to move from these traditional public schools being a monopoly to having alternatives, like charter schools. It’s my understanding that it was a mixed record in Michigan. Nationally, charter schools have a mixed record, some are exceptional, but there’s also ones that are really not good. Her record in Michigan was very mixed and that’s a sympathetic read.
How would schools be manipulated for something other than learning and what should be focused on?
Schools in many countries - including the U.S. - schools become a vehicle for the larger political divisions of the country to play themselves out. People fight over the culture wars, should there be sex ed or not. They’ll fight over U.S. history, how should it portray Europeans over Native Americans. If you’re an educator or dean of an education school, that’s not what you’re interested in; you’re interested in education, effective instruction, well-designed curriculum.
Is public education vital for America’s future?
Yeah. I would say [public] education is vital. You need public support for education and public funding of education. [Public education] is the most important thing for our future. If we don’t have an educated citizenry, we can’t have a democracy. If people aren’t educated to know the difference between real news and fake news, people can’t make political decisions. If people aren’t educated in 21st century knowledge, concepts and competencies, they’re not going to be able to make a contribution to the workforce.
Annotated Bibliography
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"Education Secretary DeVos Pledges Support for Magnet Schools." The New York Times. The New York Times, 15 Feb. 2017. Web. 12 Mar. 2017.
The purpose of this article is to show some of the wariness public schools, like magnet schools, still have with having Betsy DeVos as secretary to the Department of Education. In reading the article, one of the arguments that can be made is that even though DeVos “pledges support for magnet schools,” the response they were hoping for was not ensuring enough for what she may want to do. The article has a real world example in the trouble that public school systems could face as “magnet schools currently receive one-third of the public funding that is available to charter schools,” raising concern when DeVos said “I don't think we should focus necessarily on funding school buildings.” The audience here is very likely someone who is going to have to deal with a public school system change, like Todd Mann who is the executive director of the Magnet Schools of America group.
This article serves its purpose at taking a look at an issue that concerns school systems, going in depth with what the issue is and taking a look at the response from DeVos is. The argument that can be found in this article is the debate over what should be focused on more, the “proficiency” approach, evaluating kids on whether they reached a certain goal or not, or growth, evaluating an individual and seeing how much they progressed from once starting. It is critical that DeVos knows the difference between the two since she is now secretary of education, but she answered a question wrong which showed “she knows little about what the department she hopes to lead actually does.” The audience here would be someone like a school administrator or Democratic Senator Al Franken, of Minnesota.
The purpose of this article was to show what it is like to have charter schools implemented into a community, the ultimate goal for which DeVos deeply advocated for. The argument that can be made here is that if the focus of education moves solely to only paying attention to charter schools that “are run by for-profit management companies,” it will leave a divide between the public school system and private schools. Evidence for this can be found where charter schools “are not required to make the financial disclosures” which is leading to a “lack of transparency,” causing concern because “people are making a boatload of money, and the kids aren’t getting educated.” Audience here would be someone like a student who is attending a public school and how DeVos’ choice of advocating for charter schools could affect their own situation.
The purpose of this article is to give a brief history of vouchers, as well as explain results from studies of vouchers, those who utilized them and those who did not. The argument that is made is that vouchers do not necessarily mean an individual will be more advanced than those in public schools. Evidence for this is supported throughout the article explaining that “vouchers hurt student learning” and to further support this, when students in public schools who started “at the 50th percentile in math” transferred to a private school on a voucher, they went down to “the 26th percentile in a single year.” The intended audience here would most likely be people looking at school choices for their children.
This article’s purpose is to show how DeVos was able to manipulate Detroit to her favor of charter schools. The argument that can be found here is that there was a lack of attention to those in inner cities, where schools could potentially be on the way out. Evidence found here is that “shutting down mostly traditional public schools, which in Detroit serve the neediest students” will ultimately “further desert students in neighborhoods where charters have largely declined to go.” For the audience, it could be someone like Tonya Allen who is president of the Skillman Foundation, a nonprofit that works with children in Detroit.
This article serves the purpose of informing others that the system DeVos is trying to implement into the education system for the entire nation does not look promising as there is evidence that argues against it. The argument in this article is despite little success in helping students learn, DeVos is still following through with wanting to advocate for what seems like “private-sector competition.” Evidence to support the claims made throughout the article are that studies conducted found “vouchers hurt student learning” rather than increase the likelihood of a better education. The audience here would be someone like a parent who is debating whether or not to enroll their child, or children, in a traditional public school, charter school or go through a voucher program.
In this article, the purpose is to show the aftermath of DeVos’ plan of having “school choice.” The argument made in the article is that Detroit was supposed to get help from the state for schools, but instead they have just shut down and forgotten about the schools that were closed and communities. Throughout the article we can find evidence as gutted public schools in Detroit were “the result of an experiment...when education reformers including Betsy DeVos” had gotten Michigan to go towards charter schools and school choice. Audiences could include parents like Aliya Moore, mother of two, who had grown up in a neighborhood now filled with empty schools.
The purpose of the article is to help write up an interview and shows that there is two different ways to approach this type of genre. It explains that there is new story style and Q&A style, which is the one that I am going to try to imitate. This source explains that the “interview itself should start with a short introduction” that tells the reader “who is being interviewed, when and where the interview is taking place (to provide context), and what the main topic(s) of the interview will be.” The audience that is targeted here is someone like myself who is conducting an interview.
This article serves the purpose of conducting an interview with DeVos on what she wanted to say and this is an article that I am attempting to imitate for my rhetoric in practice project. The article has a photo at the top of the interview and below, right before the actual interview, there is a few paragraphs giving some context about what has happened and what is going to be discussed in the interview. In the actual interview, there is bullet points on what is being asked followed by the response from DeVos. Near the end of the interview, there is a large pull quote, which is something I will utilize in my project.
This interview conducted by The New York Times, is similar to the way that I will be having my own interview with the dean of the school of education. I will imitate this type of interview, but only in the way where I will present the question that is asked and then followed by the answer from the dean. I will most likely not include everything that is said like a transcript, but I will be including what is most relevant to make the message as clear as possible.
icons at the top right corner of the subsection.