Nebraska State Education Association President Nancy Fulton is concerned with the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Fulton says, “I think the word to be used is more extremely disappointed in the confirmation from yesterday.”
Fulton has a number of concerns that basically stem from DeVos’ lack of experience with public education.
Fulton says, “She is just not qualified to be the leader of a very, very large institution as Secretary of Education. She doesn’t have the background in it. She is not a proponent of public schools. She basically works against what Nebraskans really like and that is good public schools.”
DeVos is a proponent of the voucher system that lets parents to transfer their children from public to private or religious schools. Fulton says, “That is going to take money away from the public schools and that money could be used to improve or to provide programs in the public schools that could meet the needs of these students. Not every school or every little community in Nebraska is going to be able to have alternative schools.”
Fulton says they are going to be on a very close watch on what DeVos’ decisions are and what her platform is as she moves forward.