While school systems in the country face the countless challenges of reopening amid the pressure of a rebellious coronavirus pandemic, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has reported herself in her sprawling estate in Michigan.
At the same time, public attitudes about resurgence have been fueled as schools experiment with personal learning reports of near-immediate outbreaks of COVID-19. In a recent Politico / Morning Consult poll, nearly 60% of Americans refused to learn anything in person. That figure went up from 53% in July, when DeVos compared the risk of going back to schools with a rocket ship in space riding in a phone call with drivers.
Because DeVos has apparently distanced itself from population centers while the effects of the pandemic are affecting new parts of the country, it has at the same time urged the nation’s public schools to provide full-time teachers and students in the classroom. set. DeVos’ hardline lawyer, who is calling for both public health warnings and increasingly robust medical data, drew fierce criticism from Democrats before she apparently disappeared into her summer home.
Recently, a mobile billboard with three LED screens with slogans shaking DeVos – “stop hiding in your home” and “start protecting our children” – made its way into cities across Michigan.
A spokesman for the Department of Education denied the reports of the isolation of DeVos.
“That’s just not true,” the Salon spokesman said via email. Secretary DeVos has held 9 roundtables, 4 briefings, 30 talks with administrators, 62 talks with state supervisors, 28 interviews and 13 conference talks on this pandemic. She provided 7 key flexibility, took 5 steps to protect students’ rights, and made $ 30 B for schools in 30 days. “
But NBC News reported Tuesday that it could not find records of a significant number of public events held by DeVos with public school officials. Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director for advocacy at the School Superintendents Association, told the outlet that the group had not heard from DeVos at all this year.
Dubbed the ‘McMansion from hell’ by BuzzFeed, the 22,000-square-foot estate on the shores of Lake Macatawa includes a 24-hour security detail for payment by payer courtesy of the U.S. Marshals Service when present.
DeVos, who is the only cabinet member protected by the agency, received the unusual arrangement funded by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in February 2017 after meeting with Protestants at a high school in Washington area. The taxpayer’s total bill could run up to $ 26 million, or about 0.1% of DeVos’ net worth of $ 2 billion, if it will serve Trump’s full term.
DeVos told the Washington Examiner in June that she would work most of her estate in Michigan as the school year approached, and the Detroit Free Press reported that she had done well on the promise in July.
At the time, DeVos’ public schedule was almost completely empty, according to NBC News. A Washington event was added this Wednesday after the outlet reported another blank slate for the week: the “Kids FIRST: Getting America’s Children Safely Back to School” forum, with educators, teachers and parents, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
DeVos was actually present at the event, sitting on the stage without a mask along with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and Counselor for President Kellyanne Conway. The Secretary of Education spoke one minute and fifteen seconds at the top of the 40-minute session before sitting still for the duration.
DeVos faced backlog earlier this summer for participating in events in the publicly unlisted Federalist Society, where she and top staff held virtual meetings with chapters of society in Alabama, Arizona and Ohio to discuss their recently released Rule IX. it renews how schools and colleges treat allegations of sexual misconduct. The rule goes into effect August 14th.
DeVos, which reportedly participated in recent events related to advocacy for school vouchers and private schools, has admitted that it has used the pandemic as a way to increase its agenda for private schools. The secretary of education has handed over millions of dollars in coronavirus relief to private schools, resulting in a lawsuit. A Salon survey found that card schools that received federal funding would have doubled as much as $ 1 billion in small business loans.
Amid a vacuum of public consensus on science, plans to open schools have become almost political. A recent data analysis by colleague Jon Valant of Senior Brookings Institution found that “there is no relationship – visually or statistically – between the decision to reopen schools and the new COVID-19 cases of the province per head of the province. “
“In contrast, there is a strong relationship – visually and statistically – between decisions of the reopening of districts and the support at the provincial level for Trump in the 2016 elections,” Valant added.
In late July, DeVos and attorney Pence for school choices visited Thence Thales Academy – a network of private non-sectarian schools in North Carolina – to applaud the school’s reopening model. After the visit, several fourth-grade students had to quarantine after a classmate tested positive for COVID-19.
“Thales is a great example that more schools could emulate,” DeVos had said during the visit. “You did not wait for guidance from the Department of Education. You did not ask for permission.”
