Spunky,
After reading this post I do not feel confident that the DeVosses will really give parents control over their children's education.
The fact that they are known as big education reformers but either didn't know the answers to or deflected your questions underwhelms my confidence in them championing parental control in education.
I can only hope that your conversation with Mrs. DeVos helped to make her more aware of what is REALLY going on/coming down the pike in the area of education. This is just my opinion, but I think politicians tend to *think* they know what's going on in a certain arena, but they don't. Education is one of those arenas.
Thanks for speaking out on our behalf, Spunky. 
If Betsy DeVos cares about schools so much, I wonder if she worries much about her husband's ideas to devalue the public school science curriculum with "intelligent design." At a time when our students are already falling behind other countries in crucial areas such as math and science, why would we want to make it worse?
I am disappointed with her answers to your important questions. Did she take your name and email address and offer to get back to you after discussing these matters with her husband, the candidate? If she did that, then I would feel much better about your conversation.
I do think more politicians than we realize put their money where their heart is, and I am glad to hear the DeVoses do that. I think we do not hear about it more often because someone would find some way to use it against them in a campaign. I do not think campaigning is for the faint at heart and am very glad my husband is not interested in an elected office.
I live in Georgia, and while Newt Gingrich is not my favorite person, I will say he donates money to many causes, including the Atlanta Zoo. I have found him sitting outside the elephant exhibit on a few occasions during an election year. I don't know if it is product placement or if it is just because the elephants are on the major entrance/exit walkway.
TGG,
You highlight the fundamental flaw of public education. It relies on a common and accepted value system. Teaching one set of ideas, violates the values of another. No matter how hard the state tries to pretend otherwise, education is not neutral.
Didn't know or didn't want to be pinned down to an answer? Politicians often don't speak clearly...or with so much rhetoric and metaphor that what they actually say is essentially meaningless. It is hard to please everybody and still take a stand on anything. I WISH more people were willing to take the time to see through that.
And public education is neutral, Spunky. At least the EU seems to think so, agreeing with Germany that public education in no way hinders a parent's right to educate a child according to their values due to its inherent secular nature.
I guess I'm an idealist Dana.
It was troubling when I spoke to the aide to Dick DeVos over the phone about his education policy. She said he was in campaign mode and would worry about policy once he was elected. Equally sad, Betsy DeVos said that the government needs a "business approach" and should consider us the "customer". Ugh. We are not consumers of government services. We are the boss and THEY are the employee. I don't buy things FROM them, I employ them.
But I think I'm in the minority in my thinking. People expect the government to do everything for them.
Not an idealist...just expecting government to work properly.
She said he was in campaign mode and would worry about policy once he was elected.
I think that more than anything would concern me. To me, that says they want the power. There is no vision...they don't even have a policy? What on earth do they expect people to vote for them on? Their campaigning?
At least Bush was clear and there was no doubt about what he was going to do. There is a lot about this administration I do not like, but anyone who is surprised about what he has done in education wasn't paying attention during the campaign and didn't take the time to look at what he did in TX. He did exactly what he said he would.
And if Spellings defends NCLB one more time by asking which child I want left behind, I'm going to scream. Have you read her op-eds?
The minority is a good place to be Spunky! I'll gladly join you there on this issue!
The one thing you said though is she seemed willing to listen and learn. In a lot of ways, that may be better. It's always easier to share the truth with someone who is uninformed but willing to learn then with someone who has their mind completely made up the other direction.
Perhaps that's a door God could open "for such a time as this" and she would seek you out again for more information. Or, didn't you mention someone from their "camp" had found your blog? You never know what God can do with someone who's teachable!
oh yeah...us as the customer of government "services." Hardly, but the thought is pervasive. We get exactly what we deserve, I'm afraid, and as long as people view themselves as "customers" of the state, we will see what any good business provides...increased services while at the same time trying to drive out the competition.
A young man responded to my post on Spellings by saying "if this gets much worse, my generation isn't going to stand for it" (or something like that). But every generation has sat back while things have gotten steadily worse. And now? How likely is it that any state will stand up to NCLB or any federal program when they risk losing every cent of federal funding? The only chance we even have is now, but I have my doubts as to how many states are willing to lose that much money on a matter of principle.
Yes, I have a post just about finished regarding her op/ed. But my computer has crashed. I am using my husband's when he is gone. I have an article due this weekend I have to get done as well.
Does anyone have a spare lap top? We could use one around here.
Jodi, I have sent the DeVos campaign a few emails. I have also left comments on the "blog" but they don't seem to post comments with questions in them. The post was about education. The aide did say she saw my blog. It could have been from an email I sent to them. Betsy did not ask for any more information from me, but I did hand her a copy of an article I wrote on education. My hope is that this might spur some thought.
Why was it surprising that she didn't grasp the problems or issues? She backs issues that have no future. She tacitly admits it by sending her child to a school that will probably not be affected in any material way by anything the state does.
Their type of education reform is to do whatever Michael Miliken and William Bennett want them to do to bolster sales of their product line. It is old fashioned in the worst way. Coercive, and destructive. You guys know about Bennett refusing to back putting Internet into schools don't you? And his response to the chairman of the FCC when asked to do so?
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