We’ve heard the demands from President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that schools must reopen this fall for in-person instruction. And, we know that Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from any school systems that did not open with students physically in their seats in the classrooms.
Most pundits and analysts assume that this is part of the larger push by the Trump administration to “reopen the country” in hopes of saving the economy, and thus saving Trump’s re-election prospects. And the push from DeVos may be part of that strategy.
But there is another, darker possibility for the DeVos demand that public schools open with in-person instruction: the realization of her long-held goal of privatizing education and destroying the control of education funding by public schools.
It is a fairly straightforward scenario:
- DeVos demands that public schools open with in-person instruction in the fall, no matter what is happening with COVID-19 in their community.
- She also threatens to take away federal funding from any school system that does not open with children physically present.
- Alarmed parents consider taking their children out of the public schools, worried about the safety of the classrooms.
- Private “COVID-safe” schools open around the country, funded by entrepreneurs, hedge fund, and various school-choice organizations, promising extra measures to keep children safer than they would be in the public schools.
- Parents with means send their children to these schools. Parents without means either decide to try home-schooling, or insist that schools provide an alternative.
- Schools systems lose the per-pupil funding they normally receive, as their enrollment drops and drops. But, they still have staff to pay and buildings to maintain.
- School systems also suffer significant budget cuts in their state funding, as states deal with budget shortfalls due to the economic recession caused by the ongoing pandemic.
- Desperate, the public school systems abandon in-person schooling in favor of non-traditional instruction, in hopes that the students who have left come back. But, parents have lost faith that the public school system can keep their children safe.
- Meanwhile, DeVos follows through on her promise to take funding from schools that don’t use in-person instruction, and converts that funding to vouchers families can use to attend those private schools.
- State governments, forced to balance their budgets, decide to stop funding K-12 education in order to save the rest of the state’s programs.
- Stripped of students, funding, and parents’ trust, public education systems all over the country shut down, leaving only private schools to educate our children.
It’s possible that her plan isn’t this well thought out. It’s possible that all of this is just a continuation of her antipathy to public schools.
And, I am sure that many, many people will find this scenario just too unbelievable, too conspiracy-theory-based to be given even the smallest amount of credence. I certainly hope they are right.
But even as we focus on the issues right in front of us, including the pandemic, the election, the economy, and our democracy, let us not forget that DeVos has long had the goal of moving to a privatized, competitive market education system. The current crisis may give her the leverage to make that happen.
As Trump tweets and rants about schools re-opening and as everyone assumes it is about his chances of winning in November, DeVos may be perfectly happy to hide in his shadow, watching the above scenario play out, and helping it along behind the scenes.
Let’s watch and see, and if it happens, be ready to call it out for what it is: an attack on public education.
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