I was raised in a rural area. We had one school, and it was pretty good. Not great, but good. With our small population, I don’t know how we would have had more than one school to choose from.
Now, I live in New York City, and we have more than 400 high schools to choose from. Some are very good, some are middling, and some are very bad. Choosing a school is a major undertaking for parents. My wife spent hours researching and visiting schools. Fortunately for us, she is a stay-at-home mom and had the time. Those who have the time and the educational wherewithal search long and hard and get their children into a good school. Most working class families with two working class parents don’t have the time and energy to undertake this, and often, their children end up attending poor schools. For single parents, they are basically at the mercy of the system.
This is what Betsy DeVos wants for everybody. A chance to spend hours upon hours looking for a decent school. This is one situation where choice is false. It’s rather like the roads and bridges. You don’t really want a choice, you just want the one that you are traveling on to be safe. It’s like tapwater; you don’t chose company A or company B, you just want the municipal water supply to be safe, clean and dependable. It’s like the fire department: You don’t pick which fire department will be summoned if your house catches on fire, you just want the firefighters to get there fast and put out the blaze.
To me, Betsy DeVos is the scariest of Trump’s picks. She is a billionaire who never had to send her kids to public schools. I mean, with her money, she could hire a team of Ph.D.s to tutor her kids at home. The idea that rest of us can get what she had simply through the vehicle of “choice” is ludicrous.
I was raised in a rural area. We had one school, and it was pretty good. Not great, but good. With our small population, I don’t know how we would have had more than one school to choose from.
Now, I live in New York City, and we have more than 400 high schools to choose from. Some are very good, some are middling, and some are very bad. Choosing a school is a major undertaking for parents. My wife spent hours researching and visiting schools. Fortunately for us, she is a stay-at-home mom and had the time. Those who have the time and the educational wherewithal search long and hard and get their children into a good school. Most working class families with two working class parents don’t have the time and energy to undertake this, and often, their children end up attending poor schools. For single parents, they are basically at the mercy of the system.
This is what Betsy DeVos wants for everybody. A chance to spend hours upon hours looking for a decent school. This is one situation where choice is false. It’s rather like the roads and bridges. You don’t really want a choice, you just want the one that you are traveling on to be safe. It’s like tapwater; you don’t chose company A or company B, you just want the municipal water supply to be safe, clean and dependable. It’s like the fire department: You don’t pick which fire department will be summoned if your house catches on fire, you just want the firefighters to get there fast and put out the blaze.
To me, Betsy DeVos is the scariest of Trump’s picks. She is a billionaire who never had to send her kids to public schools. I mean, with her money, she could hire a team of Ph.D.s to tutor her kids at home. The idea that rest of us can get what she had simply through the vehicle of “choice” is ludicrous.