Get past all the noise, and the opposition to Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick for the Education Department, is all about the teachers unions — which consider it their right to have a friendly face running federal policy even in Republican administrations.
Yes, two Senate Republicans have come out against DeVos — the only two who routinely get A’s on the National Education Association’s “report card” because they vote the union line. Efforts to find another GOP vote against her will almost surely fail, because the other 50 Republicans aren’t in unions’ pocket, and Vice President Mike Pence can deliver a 51st vote if needed.
We wish DeVos were an existential threat to the unions, but the feds don’t really run US schools; that’s a state and local power. And the unions are too entrenched in those corridors of power, especially in states like New York.
At best, she’ll manage to reduce the sway of the NEA and the American Federation of Teachers — by giving more power to the nation’s parents, and to school innovators who refuse to toe the union line.
DeVos is an ardent supporter of school choice — public charter schools; voucher programs to help families choose qualified private or parochial schools when they think that’s best for their kids, and so on. Critics call this “radical,” and pretend it could mean educational Armageddon. In fact, school choice is near-universal in Canada, and the kids learn just fine.
But choice does threaten union power, which rests on most families having no choice beyond the public schools, where unions can call the shots.
By picking DeVos, Trump showed that he’s eager to “fight the power” — for the good of America’s kids. That battle begins as soon as she’s confirmed.
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