Susan Goetz Zwirn, Ed. D.:  director and professor of fine arts Teaching Learning and Technology The role of public education in America has been one of our country’s most enduring legacies. It has not only enabled our children to have equal opportunities for their individual futures but it has also provided opportunities for our country to develop citizens who can contribute to its overall growth and development.

With regard to the funding of education, it is imperative that we make sure that the public schools in this country continue to receive the kind of unbiased economic support that nurtures children regardless of their family’s social, political or religious affiliations. By failing to support the division between church and state, the new secretary, with her preferences for private schools, either charter or religious, puts our public education institutions at risk. With limited resources for funding public schools and programs, already impacted negatively by the property value differences among the states and local governments, the stage is set for greater inequality among our citizens. This is incredibly dangerous at a time when we need to support an increasingly diverse population. Instead of funneling tax dollars to private charter and religious schools and fracturing our citizenry, we need work even harder to foster a common identity and support the talents of all children.

Betsy DeVos is absolutely the wrong person for the important job of secretary of education. She not only has no experience or understanding of the public school system, she opposes its basic mission. Her ignorance of those current and significant issues impacting public education is quite dangerous, and her appointment sends such a cynical message to our young people: qualifications don’t matter; money does.

As wealthy investors have hopped on the “for-profit” wagon, attempting get rich off our children, we have witnessed many failed educational experiments. The data show that outcomes for private and charter schools in no way demonstrate any significant gains in educational progress.

What does this appointment mean for our children? Who will be left in a gutted educational system? Public education is and has always been a challenging work in progress. Now more than ever, teachers will be called on to continue the fine work of their predecessors and make a difference in their students’ lives. I strongly believe in teaching as a profession and urge my own students – the future teachers of America – to embrace a career that that offers personal satisfaction and an opportunity to invest in the future of our country. We need them more than ever.

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