I need your help, and I’m not asking for me because I don’t deserve it. I’m asking for Kevin and all the children in this country like him.
I have heard a rousing chorus of late: “For God sakes give the man a chance he hasn’t even taken office yet!” My answer to that is this: “You’re right.” However, that being said, before he took office President Trump nominated a woman named Betsy DeVos to be his Secretary of Education. I don’t care that she knows nothing about public education because neither she nor her children ever attended a public school. I don’t care that she’s a billionaire with no real sense of how the majority of us have to live and provide for our families. I don’t even care she doesn’t understand the difference between proficiency and growth. I don’t presume that an outsider is incapable of repairing the public school system. In fact, I think that might just be what we need. But not her.
I am an educator and therefore cognizant that our current system is failing some of you. It is deeply flawed and requires extensive repairs. I know a lot of you support what she’s proposing and I understand why. Not that you can say it out loud, you’d be crucified, so I will say it for you.
“I support Betsy DeVos because she’s proposing freedom of choice in education and I want that. I want my child to attend the school operated by my church, to be educated in faith, but I can’t afford it. If Betsy Devos is confirmed religious education will become more affordable and readily available.”
“My child is being bullied and the school has done nothing to help us. He’s scared to death to get on the bus in the morning and his grades have plummeted. It’s a little hard to concentrate while the other boys are whispering “faggot” in your ear all day long. If Betsy DeVos is confirmed more charter schools will open in my area and I can finally free him from this abusive environment. Charter schools have the power to expel students for that kind of behavior, so if anyone starts that shit with him again, I can demand they be removed and it will happen. My son will be safe.”
“The common core is idiotic. It makes little sense to me and zero sense to my daughter. She’s intelligent and talented with failing grades because she doesn’t fit in “the box.” Soon I’ll have the freedom to enroll her in a charter school with an independent curriculum focused on project based learning and freedom of thought and she will thrive.”
I get it. I sympathize with your situation but I’m asking you to consider something: Kevin and I deserve the same choices, but under Betsy DeVos, we won’t have them because Kevin is disabled and doesn’t count.
Many of you voted for Donald Trump because he is a successful businessman and feel this country should be run more like a business and believe it or not, I don’t disagree with you. I took one business course in college. I was hung over for most of it but one lecture I remember quite clearly. The instructor said, “In all successful business models there must include the outcome of collateral damage. It is inevitable. Collateral damage is something that must be anticipated and balanced against the ultimate success of the plan. It is a PART of the plan, not an unintended result of it.” Translation: In the best business plans someone has to get fucked for it to be successful. Prepare for it in advance and make sure the people getting fucked either deserve it or will not deter from the overall success of the plan. It’s just sound business, people.
Not following me? Imagine a carpenter sliding a 2 by 4 through a sander so it can become a beautiful piece of crown molding. That’s the plan. In order for the plan to work a small section of the wood must be shaved off. You wouldn’t argue that was wasteful now would you? It’s a necessary retraction from the original piece of wood for it to become what was envisioned. That ugly 2 by 4 went into the sander and now it’s a beautiful piece of crown molding because what needed to be retracted was. Everything went according to plan. What was removed, the collateral damage, is now dust and nobody’s gonna cry over a pile of dust are they.
Because he is a businessman Donald Trump has chosen for his Secretary of Education a businesswoman and she has a plan, which includes collateral damage, in the form of special needs children. She understands this and makes no apologies for it because according to her plan, for education to improve in this country, somebody has to be shaved off. It’s the only way.
The cold hard truth is this: Millions of dollars are spent on special education services every year to support a population many of whom will never be contributing members of society. People who will in fact grow to become a drain on society, and somebody’s gotta get fucked for the plan to be successful. She may be a cold hearted bitch but she’s smart and let’s face it, if you want to be a successful businesswoman in this country a cold hearted bitch is exactly what you must be. Gotta hand it to her, at least she’s honest.
If she is confirmed, millions of dollars will be siphoned from the public education system to fund charter schools and provide parents with vouchers to attend private schools none of which will be under any obligation to provide special education services. In short, only the parents of “perfect” children will be offered school choice. The rest of us? We’re the collateral damage. In a few short years, if she has her way, our public schools will become a dumping ground for
1. The children of parents who don’t give a shit
2. The children who were expelled from their private/charter school
3. The special needs children
Children who require ANYTHING beyond regular education services like speech or physical therapy.
Children who require ANYTHING beyond regular education services like speech or physical therapy.
You can support him without supporting this. You can support him without supporting her. That is what I am asking, fuck it, begging you to do.
You’re angry. I understand. People like me have spent the last 8 years in our ivory tower sipping soy lattes, eating kale, and looking down on all of you.
“Look at them they’re like ants!”
“Heading off to church the brainwashed morons!”
“You know they’re all still eating MEAT!”
“Oh that’s disgusting.”
“Hunting again well isn’t that colonial of them.”
“We should really reach out to them dearest they obviously need to be enlightened.”
“You’re going down there to converse with a gaggle of racist, stupid, misogynist pigs?! Please I’d rather talk to the police.”
“Ha, look at that they’ve lost their own party and now Trump’s the nominee. Oh, this is rich turn up the volume.”
“First woman president! Look how progressive we are… someone pass the gluten free vodka so we can toast ourselves!”
“He won? What do you mean he won?! How could this have happened? Why didn’t they listen to us???!!!!! OK we weren’t talking to them but we’re the educational elite and they should have listened to what we were saying regardless. Those stupid, racist, misogynistic pigs how could they let this happen???”
Here’s what people like me don’t understand. When Trump won the election you weren’t celebrating because his victory. You were celebrating because people like me finally lost.
Here’s the other thing people like me don’t understand: you’re good people. You are kind, thoughtful, hard-working, patriotic, spiritual people who love your country and your fellow Americans. Even the ones like me who don’t deserve it. What I’m asking I ask not for myself but for Kevin, because I know you love him. You love that your children have him in class because you believe the exposure to him and all his classmates have made your children kinder, gentler, more understanding and accepting people.
In my soul, I know, more than you want school choice for yourself, you want an education system that INCLUDES. You do not subscribe to the business model which accepts special needs children as collateral damage.
Betsy DeVos would like you to focus on the beautifully crafted piece of crown molding. I’m asking you to take a look at that pile of dust on the floor before she sweeps it away.
Donald Trump isn’t going to listen to me or anyone like me but he’ll listen to you. He needs you. He needs your good opinion. He is nothing without it. There is a petition at the bottom of this article. Please sign it. Please share it. The reduction of special needs children to second class citizens isn’t really your problem… only it is, because I know this isn’t the America you envisioned. The vote on her confirmation has been postponed. There’s still time. If more Republicans start signing it President Trump will get the message and the message is this:
I voted for you. I stand with you but I do not stand with this decision. If you’re going to make school choice an option, make it an option for every American or I’m not interested. There can be no collateral damage in this part of your business plan Mr. President. It’s not a pile of dust on the floor. It’s millions of helpless Americans and I will not stand by and watch you sweep them away. You said in your speech, “Today is the day we give the country back to the people.” Well you have to mean everyone because if you don’t, you don’t have my vote anymore.
Donald Trump is powerless without you. Betsy DeVos will never be confirmed without you. Please use that power as a force for good. Tell the man you voted for that the woman he nominated for Secretary of Education and her business plan, complete with collateral damage, is unacceptable.
We stand together in this – you've said this perfectly!
Here, here! I shared this and signed. Thank you for speaking into the hearts of those who don't walk in our shoes. There is no need to preach to the choir.