Senator John Cornyn
517 Hart Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
Senator Cornyn,
I am disappointed in your
vote in favor of confirming Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. Aside from
being a billionaire and a large donor to the Republican party, what
qualifications does she have? She has limited life experience with public education,
she lacks the basic knowledge of some of the most complex issues regarding the
ESSA and IDEA. She doesn’t understand the basic accountability systems
(progress and proficiency) currently in place because she has never experienced
the various levels and complexities of such accountability systems.
Secretary DeVos favors school
vouchers which take vital public funds away from public schools and place those
public funds into private schools, home schools, or other private (for profit)
endeavors which have no public accountability. Private schools can accept or
reject students based on performance, IQ, admission tests or ability to pay
tuition, but public schools do not have that luxury. We take whoever comes to
us and care for them as if they were our own. We take them, however they come
and send them back transformed. We work very hard to accomplish near impossible
tasks and jump near impossible and ever-changing hurdles to reach our goals.
As a public school teacher
and parent of a public school student, I find her confirmation as Secretary of
Education to be an insult to the men and women, Republicans, Democrats, and
Independents (like myself) who contacted
your office to express concern and to ask you to vote “no”.
We are not “just angry” because President Trump won the election. In fact, many of my colleagues who called your office are staunch Republicans who voted for him.
We are angry that you didn’t
listen and chose instead to vote along party lines and write us off as
agitators who can’t get over the election. It seems to me that the love of
money and acquisition of power is what is driving your decisions as of late. I
was hoping for better. You have lost my vote and my confidence.
Sincerely,
Paul Cherry
Rowlett, TX 75088
No comments:
Post a Comment