WASHINGTON, January 19, 2016 — Betsy DeVos has been a tireless campaigner for educational freedom for all disadvantaged children in urban America, especially in the city of Detroit.
DeVos, both as a Republican party leader and as an active proponent for educational charters and vouchers for black students, was called to action as a Christian, a mother, and a fierce proponent for unleashing American-dream opportunities that were shackled in many urban schools.
As many looked away from the growing tragedy of children disappearing into the urban, educational warehouse of despair and dysfunction, DeVos and then-Governor John Engler (R-Michigan), championed solutions to break the downward educational spiral devastating black students in cities like Detroit, Flint and Kalamazoo, Michigan.
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The tragedy of educational imprisonment is personal for her. That was clear in her reactions to conversations with black parents and students trapped in crippled and failing schools. Their pain was as real for her as it was for the black mothers and fathers who weren’t wealthy enough to escape.
A course correction is needed and DeVos has accepted the challenge.
Betsy DeVos walked into the world of Michigan education in the early 1990s, armed with the power of her faith, powerful connections, and the determination to stop a growing human tragedy. Is was not easy for her. Her many liberal and Democratic detractors view her as a billionaire interloper who sought to destroy the public education system.
Some Republicans tried to dissuade DeVos and her allies. On several occasions, disenchanted Republican lawmakers suggested, “Let the Democrats solve the problems that they created. The parents and those kids deserve what they get.”
For champions of educational freedom like DeVos, children and their parents deserve opportunities for true educational achievement. She’s always wanted to build bridges to the educationally isolated island in the stream. She proceeded with the attitude that they deserve more than liberal pablum , which is simplistic, condescending and overtly racist.
In election after election, educational leaders in Detroit and other urban areas in Michigan directed millions of dollars of education funds away from classrooms and into their pockets, or into projects that enriched them. The political wolves were in charge of the chickens, and in order to continue stealing the future of black students they needed to maintain as Rev. martin Luther King Jr. said, “Business as usual.”
To thwart the political plantation that depended upon educational ignorance in order to retain democrat education leaders’ psychological hold on black parents, something had to dramatically change. DeVos and others joined with urban ministers and urban conservatives who were willing to go into direct battle with the liberal pundits as well as generations of parents who had been intentionally brainwashed by liberal media as well as public officials. The open warfare had begun.
The open warfare had begun.
DeVos was able to create a platform that began to overcome the educational slavery which had unknowingly become an accepted condition for these parents. Charter schools helped their kids smile, laugh and relax again in an educational setting that did not base success in staying alive based upon surviving school or neighborhood violence. Learning, and challenging school work which created opportunities for freedom from the chains of inadequacy failing school systems fostered were eagerly embraced. The soon to be Secretary of Education has seen, fought against and now is willing to unleash an educational freedom that all kids, and especially urban America’s students can succeed with. DeVos’ leadership will break the chains and end the death-grip of the failing urban education systems.
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DeVos’ leadership will break the chains and end the death-grip of the failing urban education systems.
In the Trump administration, 2017 will become a historic turning point where black and minority students will be able to successfully migrate to a college or even to graduate from high school instead of moving from a smaller jail cell to a larger jail cell.
The education revolution is more than a four-year or eight-year commitment the incoming Secretary of Education can bring about in urban American schools. When one black, minority or under-educated child succeeds with a voucher, charter school option one hundred percent of that child’s future is guaranteed. DeVos understands that without access to the American Dream the unfortunate and alternative is a continuation of the un-American nightmare these kids now exist in.
DeVos, unlike her liberal and anti-education antagonists, is unwilling to continue to witness or permit the undoing of these children’s right to true educational freedom. Silence is betrayal and for over twenty years she has been unwilling to remain silent. Betsy is going to be vigorously vocal and will never betray their trust or that of their parents. She has been called and she will answer.
She has been called and she will answer.
