Betsy, Queen Of Grift by Dr. Michael Flanagan and Pamela Michaels
Original art by Pamela Michaels
Betsy DeVos is the queen of grift. I am not saying that because she is a billionaire who bought a position of power that she is woefully unqualified for. That is irrefutable. In the midst of this pandemic--and its devastating impact on public schools—she is still “reigning” money on her charter schools and faith based private schools. While the rest of our children will be returning to schools gutted by budget cuts at the federal and state levels, her fiefdoms thrive. Private schools get grift, public schools get grit.
Instead of enacting some kind of leadership for the more than 50.8 million public school students suffering during this economic collapse, she is enriching her pet projects. Public education is facing draconian budget cuts and the eventual reopening of schools racked by the Coronavirus. The children are confused and scared about what will happen next year. But her billionaire white privilege absolves her from care, in fact she is embracing the DeVos-tation.
Instead of helping to plan for a safe transition back to real school Queen B, like Trump, supports a fast reopening. Funding astroturf protests to reopen schools knowing children, their teachers and families will die because of it. The economy is more important to them than the lives of us peasants. She is not just a failed leader—that is a given—she is actively making the situation worse.
DeVos is not out front fighting for our children during this crisis. She is not concerned with the students who are struggling—both mentally and physically—to weather this storm. She is sailing her yacht while it navigates the remnants of their educational futures. Tossing the few remaining life preservers to the kids already on land, while the rest of America’s children flounder in the wake of the Covid-19 tsunami.
If you tried to pick the utmost worst person to be in a particular position at a specific point in history it would be her. That is why she is one of the longest lasting Trump appointees. She is as criminally complicit in the destruction of this country as he is himself. They are both greedy, cruel and profoundly stupid.
Her brother Erik Prince—a mercenary—kills people for profit, but she is more insidious. She perpetuates the segregation of our public schools to enrich charters and private religious schools. This is done by opening charters in communities of color, to take resources from the already underfunded public schools. She is the privileged kind of racist who doesn't burn the cross on a family’s lawn herself, but sells the wood and gasoline then buys the property when they are driven out. She is systemic racism.
The hubris and the offense of her aloofness is dumbfounding. Will the U.S. education system ever recover from the derangement of this billionaire deformer? DeVos is like the villain from an Austin Powers film, except not funny at all. She is callously disregarding the lives of millions at a time when our rudderless ship is clamoring for a captain and a compass.