Public Education in the Age of Trump

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Jacobin

Socialism, History, News, Left, Jacobin, Alternative, Socialist, Politics

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 14 February 2017

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

Betsy DeVos is now Secretary of Education. A far-right billionaire heiress to a pyramid scheme — sorry, alleged pyramid scheme — who has never spent a day teaching but has devoted much of her career to dismantling public education, her tenure will likely prove disastrous for schools. But DeVos's nomination also drew unprecedented pushback, forcing a tie on her confirmation vote that Vice President Mike Pence had to break in her favor. Activists actually turned her away from a public school in Washington, DC, last week by blocking an entrance. While things look bleak for public education, there is also an opportunity for teachers and parents to fight back, as Megan Erickson, a public school teacher in Brooklyn, explains in this conversation. Erickson is a member of Jacobin's editorial board and the author of Class War: The Privatization of Childhood. You can read her articles for Jacobin here: https://www.jacobinmag.com/author/megan-erickson/ And buy her book here: https://www.versobooks.com/books/1954-class-warThanks to Tanner Howard for producing this segment.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Michael Eutrich, Associate Editor at Jackerman.
0:02.0	Donald Trump's pick for education secretary, Betsy Devoss, has been confirmed.
0:16.7	That means that a far-right billionaire heiress to a pyramid scheme, or I guess maybe I should
0:21.8	say what some people have called a pyramid scheme, or I guess maybe I should say what some people have called a pyramid scheme, who has also made a career out of trying to dismantle public education in the United States, is now in charge of public education in the United States.
0:32.0	And the party supposedly tasked with fighting back. in the United States.
0:33.0	And the party supposedly tasked with fighting back, the Democrats, has a long history of
0:37.2	capitulation to the right on free market education reform.
0:41.1	To discuss this admittedly bleak state of affairs, I talked to public school teacher,
0:45.2	Jack of an editorial board member, and author of Class War, the Privatization of Childhood, Megan Erikson. So how do you feel overall about what's what's coming down the pike under a
1:08.1	Betsy Devoss administration? I think it's terrifying like pretty
1:15.0	pretty unmitigated horror and it's been very difficult on teachers
1:21.7	on school children.
1:22.8	It's kind of hard to talk about her without talking about the Trump administration in general.
1:30.0	And so I think a lot of what we know right now is mostly inferences we can make based on things that Trump has said and based on things that we know about her career in the past.
1:40.0	But it'll remain to be seen how things play out. I'm pretty sure it's going to be
1:47.2	awful. I mean this is someone who uniquely in American education history has no amount of education.
1:57.9	The only education experience she has is in essentially trying to dismantle the
2:01.8	sphere of public education.
2:03.6	Yeah, yeah, going along with a trend of Trump's nominees to positions,
2:11.0	people in power who have really mostly spent their careers
2:14.8	dismantling whatever programs they'd be in charge of overseeing it.
2:18.4	And I think she's part of that but she's also it's also a representative of a broader trend that's been part of education policy
	...

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