Twitter Roasts Betsy DeVos After Disastrous '60 Minutes' Interview
Betsy DeVos just demonstrated on TV how little she knows about schools
If you missed last night’s 60 Minutes interview with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, you’re going to want to take 15 minutes and watch it. Oh boy, is it a trainwreck. But in case you aren’t able to play the video in its entirety now, here are the highlights:
DeVos knows next to nothing about actual school performance statistics, even in her home state of Michigan. She also hasn’t visited struggling schools and doesn’t really seem terribly concerned about it.
When asked if Michigan’s public schools have gotten better since having funding diverted to private, charter and paroquial schools, DeVos responded, “I don’t know. Overall, I– I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better.”
When pressed by Leslie Stahl, who pointed out that diverting funds certainly hasn’t made Michigan’s schools better, DeVos answered, “I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”
She truly doesn’t know anything about how schools are doing, even in her own home state where her policies have had, arguably, the most tangible impact.
DeVos still thinks putting guns in classrooms is a valid solution to school shootings.
“That should be an option for states and communities to consider,” she said. “And I hesitate to think of, like, my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Zorhoff, I couldn’t ever imagine her having a gun and being trained in that way. But for those who are– who are capable, this is one solution that can and should be considered. But no one size fits all. Every state and every community is going to address this issue in a different way.”
She also implied that she believes black students misbehave more than white students, so it’s OK for teachers to call the police as a form of discipline for students of color.
And she thinks students are falsely accused of rape often enough to warrant protection equal to that given to victims.
Needless to say, this interview is eye-opening. We knew DeVos was grossly unqualified for the position she’s been given. But now we know she doesn’t know even the basics about school performance or the problems students face. She knows nothing, and Twitter is having a field day with this. The internet responded with a pretty equal mix of jokes about how embarrassingly ignorant DeVos appears to be, and genuine criticism of the education secretary’s harmful policies.
While many of Donald Trump’s cabinet members are unqualified for their positions, DeVos may be the most clueless. And since children will ultimately be the ones who pay the price for her ignorance, that is totally unacceptable.
