We Have A New Education Secretary

For those of you who might have been living in a cave for the months since November, the Senate has confirmed controversial Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos. So concerned were we here at ROPE - along with THOUSANDS of grassroots mom and dad education activists who have been fighting Common Core across the nation - that we wrote a letter to the President in November. You can read it here to follow our concerns. Though there was much hand-wringing regarding the final Senate vote - which turned out to be right on the money as Vice-President Pence had to cast a tie-breaking vote - Mrs. DeVos was sworn in on Tuesday and gave her first speech to the Department. In a piece of irony so hysterical as to completely defy the frustrations we've had with this appointment, liberals are now saying that - since DeVos represents the end of the public education world as they know it - they will now begin to HOMESCHOOL. Sorry if I can't stop slapping my knee over this, but I guess I'll laugh while I can. Who knows at this point in what direction Mrs. DeVos' administration will take the Department, but Kentucky Senator Thomas Massey has dropped a bill to shutter the DOE! I think we all could join in a chorus of, "Whip That Bill!" Wouldn't it be grand to stop arguing about how to make the states kowtow to the feds and actually just close the Department and give the power back to the states? Sadly, as I've said, and as Joy Pullmann describes here, education policy is truly the same thing on the Left as it is on the Right. The Right wants control through "school choice" (whatever that means) and the Left wants control through public schools at all cost. It's really no different - it's mostly all about control and not about kids or education. We'll need to keep a close watch on these and other developments as we move throughout this first tumultuous year - and pray - a lot!