I'd be
shocked by the latest stupidity from Betsy Devos, but I suppose we shouldn't
expect any better from an administration that appoints Jeff Sessions, who finds
the Voting Rights Act "intrusive" and cheered its gutting in Shelby
County vs. Holder, as a guardian of civil rights.
The Devos nomination was even worse in its way;
Sessions is at least qualified on paper to hold his job. All Devos has done is
run a charter school company that has done nothing to improve test scores in
Detroit. But that's how it works...faith in the markets says that competition
is good for schools and you KNOW how the school choice crowd feels
about faith. I mean, let's face it, the magical market is their one true
god, curing all ills, lifting all boats, and so on. And in the magical market
everything is made better with choice.* Hey, those schools Devos' company ran
in Detroit may suck, but at least parents could choose to send their kids to
them. Who could have seen that an education company run by someone with no
interest or experience in education might have been a catastrophe?
Given this I should have been prepared for the statement
the Department of Education issued after Devos met with presidents of
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). Instead of some anodyne
statement about cooperation and progress, Devos (or whoever wrote the statement
for her) used the opportunity to beat the drum of "choice." After
evincing a desire to help communities that are undeserved, Devos speaks of the
need for making "tangible, structural reforms that will allow students to
reach their full potential," continuing,
Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have done this since their founding. They
started from the fact that there were too many students in America who did not
have access to education. They saw that the system wasn't working, that there
was an absence of opportunity, so they took it on themselves to provide the
solution.
HBCUs
are real pioneers when it comes to school choice. They are living proof that when more options are provided
to students, they are afforded greater success and greater quality. Their success has shown that more options help students flourish.
(emphasis added)
Look, I'm a teacher by trade. I teach history, and have
taught it at some small colleges locally and now I am a full-time faculty
member at an HBCU. I feel privileged to teach my students, and they certainly
come here because they choose to come
to an HBCU, a choice they make for as many reasons as they are students. And
it's great that they have that choice.
But Devos is showing her ignorance here, or perhaps how
captive she is to her idée fixe. Choice,
remember, is the ultimate good.* Therefore any choice, no matter what
circumstances, is good, irrespective of the historical circumstances that
necessitated it and, given her company's track record, how good the outcome is.
Again, we can relate this to those who see the market as the solution to
everything, ignoring the weight individual participants bring and how that
skews market forces.
Shaw University, where I teach, was founded in 1865. Think
about that for a minute. It was founded in the immediate aftermath of the Civil
War, its first students people who had only recently been enslaved and who
wanted to make a better life for themselves, their families, and their
communities. Yes, they chose to come here, but what other choices did they have
if they wanted to attend college? St. Augustine's College opened on the other
side of downtown in 1867. Fayetteville State College opened that same year, and
other North Carolina HBCUs opened their doors in 1891, 1892. and 1909.
Which is great, right? Lots of choices for African American
students! Except they couldn't attend the state's
flagship institution, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, until
1951. Or other, white schools. The choice extended to African
American students, then, was limited. And it wasn't limited by market forces,
or the inability of African American students to achieve, or by an inability to
afford the cost, but by racism pure and simple. It was limited by an
unwillingness on the part of the white power structure to treat African
Americans as equal citizens and human beings. It was limited by Jim Crow, and
Redemption, and the Ku Klux Klan. This is what Devos, perhaps inadvertently
since she seems ignorant on so many things, is celebrating.
Again, though, that shouldn't be surprising. As we ponder
the possible outcomes of a Jeff Sessions as attorney general and see the
outbreak of antisemitic and Islamophobic violence perpetrated by the racist fringe
emboldened by the current political environment, why should we expect any
better of Devos?
Except we should be able to and that we can't is a real
tragedy.
*Unless you're a woman who wants control over her own
reproduction.
