HEY BETSY DeVOS….by Jessica Kerner Scruggs Because our grandchildren are involved and deserve the best in the PUBLIC EDUCATION SYSTEM. A Facebook post by Jessica Kerner Scruggs and shared by Robyn Smith Peterson. Hey Betsy DeVos, I heard you say you’ve never visited an underperforming school. I have a few more questions for you... Have you ever spent the entire day sweating, with general malaise and stuffiness all around you while expected to be on your best behavior, work well with others and absorb challenging concepts and information? Well, our students have. They go to school in buildings without working air conditioners. You said you think we should invest in individual students and not in school buildings. Yet when you invest in school building conditions you DO invest in individual students. Is the building you work in air conditioned? Does the heat work? Is it comfortable? Have you ever had to go to school hungry because your busy, working parent left your breakfast home or because you simply don’t come from a home that feeds you enough? Have you ever tried to do your best on an empty stomach? Thousands of students go through this everyday and they each individually can not do their best, yet you said you don’t believe in “free lunch.” Here comes part two of that question, have you ever had a child come up to you and ask if you had any food because they were so hungry they couldn’t stand up? I have. Most teachers have. If you wouldn’t reach into your pocket and pull out a few dollars or a granola bar you have no soul. Investing in school lunch programs IS investing in students! Have you ever actually had to plan and devise a well crafted seven page lesson plan and then
successfully carry it out in front of your administrators and close to 40 students right at the end of the day? Do you go to bed every night reflecting on how to reach that one quiet child or the child who is disruptive or who doesn’t have the same learning style as most? I imagine you have never even fostered a relationship with an individual student that is not your own child, that is meaningful enough to actually have you up in the middle of the night trying to figure out how to get through to them. Have you ever taught a class that has four different assignments going on at the same time to accommodate different learning profiles? I saw your post about how you think modern education is made up of lectures and kids sitting in rows. If you ever had to do modern professional development or study current education trends, you would know that our public education system is the exact opposite of what you posted. Have you ever sat in a building without heat or with too much heat due to broken radiators? Have you ever had to focus and learn in a class of 37 students all needing individual attention? Have you ever had to learn from an outdated source of material because you couldn’t afford a new textbook or a cell phone, tablet, computer or data plan to research at school or at home? Have you ever not had a quiet and comfortable place to get things done? Have you ever worked or learned in a place where none of the teachers look like you, reflect your ethnicity or your culture and don’t understand your individuality? Have you ever eaten a school lunch before or drank a school juice from a plastic bag? Have you ever had to tell a cafeteria
worker that your family didn’t have the money for your lunch? Have you ever not wanted to eat even though you were hungry because if you got up to get your free cheese sandwich the other students would know you don’t have money? Oh wait, you’ve never even visited a school where these things happen. Have you ever had to live off and support children with $38,000 a year before taxes and insurance, etc? Have you ever been told that the $4,000 raise you waited four years just to be eligible to possibly earn was actually NOT going to be rewarded to you? Have you ever been coerced into working 12-15 hour days for free just because you care? Ever needed a second or third job? Ever felt like you just can’t possibly give your all to your students because you’re so tired from working two jobs and being a single mom? Have you ever had to wonder, “would I take bullets and die for other people’s children and leave my own child parentless?”, when was this not ever something you should have been asked to do? Have you ever had to be a mental health counselor, tutor, referee, nurse, police officer, babysitter, etc. all in the same moment to over 100 kids? (Teaching is constant educational triage, tending to the most important thing at the moment.) Have you ever not been able to afford comfortable and professional clothing? Have you ever not been able to afford car payments to make it into work? Have you ever not been able to buy your own children a gift that they so desperately want? You say you want to invest in students, well when you invest in TEACHERS, then teachers can truly invest in STUDENTS. But when
teachers are burnt out, stressed, underpaid, disrespected, undervalued by policy makers, harassed by parents, and unable to live quality lives they can not possibly invest their energy into students the way they could if they were paid well, valued and respected. Have you ever dedicated your life to public service so you can’t afford to pay all of your loans so, you rely on government loan forgiveness programs in order to serve your country? No, because you are so independently wealthy that you would never even be able to imagine what this is like. Last but not least, have you ever had a brilliant student who is an all around incredible person who just doesn’t test well, and so their confidence is shot down so much by the constant testing that it starts to bleed into their everyday lives and well-being? Have you seen them fall slowly into depression despite their beauty and talent? Have you ever been the person to try to help them combat that? Do you even know the struggles that our most needy children and most dedicated teachers face? No, you’ve never even visited them. Betsy DeVos, you are a disgrace to our country, our education system, and our children. May God have mercy on you and on us all. Moreover, may all the citizens of the USA vote you and your out of touch colleagues out of office as soon as possible.
Click Below To Watch Betsy DeVos Was A Disgrace On “60 Minutes” But It Doesn’t Matter Sec. of Education Betsy DeVos struggles to answer fairly basic questions on school performance on 60 Minutes
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