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Detroit families attend Betsy DeVos hearing

Before Betsy DeVos’ official confirmation earlier this month, 120 concerned students and parents from Chicago and Detroit drove to Washington D.C. to attend the billionaire Secretary of Education’s January hearing.

After a ten-hour drive, the group arrived at the end of a 40-person line inside the Capitol building.

“I had no idea why those men were there – they looked very poor and confused themselves,” said Cornerstone senior Dannah Wilson.

Wilson and others stood seven hours after arriving only to learn that the men who had been in line were reserving spots for $35 per hour.

At 4:30PM, thirty minutes before DeVos’ hearing, white men and women in suits took places of the black men reserving spots.

“Seeing those men switch out was… the ultimate betrayal,” said Chandler Park Academy senior Virgil Mason.

Mason wasn’t upset at the spot-holders working for quick cash, but he was upset at the men and women who bought what he had hoped would be his place in line.

Only 1 of the 120 who had traveled from the Midwest to the capitol was allowed into the hearing.

Dannah and her mother, Dawn Wilson, met one of the men who had paid a spot-holder to stand over eight hours for him.

The Wilson children have together attended 22 schools throughout Detroit, due to the state of the school district. School closings, principal turnover, and a general poor quality of education are part of Dannah’s story.

“You could tell he felt bad,” says young Wilson. “He realized what DeVos had done to my city.”

After hearing Dannah’s story, the man who paid for a spot gave his to Dannah.

“Words can’t explain how emotional I was. I cried all the way until Betsy DeVos was about to enter,” said the Cornerstone senior.

It’s unclear whether the attendees who had paid for spots were attending in support of DeVos or to protest.

Inside the hearing, Dannah was “ready to look past all of the news stories” to hear what the then nominee had to say. But Dannah was unimpressed.

In response to whether guns should be allowed in schools, DeVos said of a Wyoming elementary school, "I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”

The then nominee had little to say on the educational debate around growth and proficiency (that is, whether students’ success should be measured on their own personal growth or their grade-level performance).

"I look forward, if confirmed, to working with you to talk about how we address the needs of all parents and all students,” was DeVo’s catchphrase for many questions.

The hearing led Dannah to believe that DeVos is an “inexperienced billionaire who just signs checks” to lobbyists.

In summer 2016, DeVos spent $1.5 MILLION paying Republicans to vote no on Senate Bills 710 and 711, which would have allowed Detroit community members and parents oversight of charter schools.

Arlyssa Heard, a Detroit charter school parent who traveled to the hearing, believes “charters have become functionally dysfunctional. They have the appearance of effectiveness, simply because they’re still running.”

Virgil Mason, Chandler Park Academy Senior, believes that DeVos has derailed public education in Detroit.

“Betsy DeVos pays a lot of people to make a lot of decisions that we [students and parents] don’t agree with,” said Mason.

DeVos backed bills that now allow uncertified teachers into classrooms, and the annual closing of Detroit’s bottom lowest performing schools. (Schools in similar situations outside of Detroit have options for revitalizing and saving their schools.)

Molly Sweeney, another Detroiter who made the trip, believes DeVos’ educational record “has created mass dislocation of Detroit students.”

Betsy DeVos has a bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Business Administration. She has no teaching or school administration experience.

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