The ‘chaotic landscape’ that DeVos built

My great-grandpa started working at a coal mine before he turned 10. Only one of my grandparents finished high school. My dad worked in a coal mine; my mom taught second grade. They both went to public schools and a state college. My brother and I did the same. I work for a top university. My brother works for a theater company in New York City.

We have the careers that our family members all broke their backs for.

I don’t tell this story because it’s exceptional but because it’s unexceptional. For white guys our age, there is a meritocracy in America. Whether you want to live down the street or around the world from where you grew up, you can do that and you can thrive. Only because of public schools.

Betsy DeVos is an insult to all of that, even as her nomination as Secretary of Education wobbles.

Forget her positions on charter schools and vouchers. They’re dangerous, but they’re complicated and debatable. Forget her failures, though by all accounts they helped run Detroit’s public schools into the ground. Many national players have either shunned the city or pulled out in the face of disappointing results. They cite a “chaotic landscape with little quality control.”

All we need to know is that she was completely out of her depth at her confirmation hearing. She was unaware that there is a federal law requiring public schools to meet the needs of disabled students and unclear on basic concepts of school accountability and student assessment, to give a couple of examples.

She was only there because of her donations and her activism on the conservative hobby horse of school choice.

There have always been political hacks who find themselves in positions of influence based on their connections and their less-than-altruistic generosity. As the Trump administration tries to crash the government through a combination authoritarianism and incompetence, these hacks have never been more dangerous. Even a guy who went to public school knows that.