CONCORD, NH – September 18, 2020 – Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is in New Hampshire today. We are certain she is not here to advocate for additional support and resources for our public schools because she has never done so before.
“Her visit to celebrate the reopening success of some of our schools is disingenuous at best as both she and our own Governor and Education Commissioner have succeeded in diverting funds meant to help public schools reopen safely to private schools,” said Megan Tuttle, NEA-New Hampshire President.
Even with Secretary DeVos in town today, lawmakers once again wisely rejected her $46 million check to allow Sununu and Edelblut to double the number of charter schools in New Hampshire.
As President Donald Trump’s secretary of education, Betsy DeVos has made it her mission to dismantle public education. She promotes the privatization of public schools through vouchers, continually calls for deep cuts to federal funding, rolls back protections for vulnerable children, and completely disregards their safety and the safety of educators during a global pandemic.
Here in New Hampshire, with Governor Sununu’s full support, Commissioner of Education Frank Edelblut has adopted the DeVos agenda, promoting voucher schemes to fund private and charter schools, rolling back local control of graduation requirements, and diverting COVID relief funds. When the largest increase in funding to public education in state history was passed, both the Governor and Commissioner opposed the plan, opting instead to seek federal funding for charter schools.
“The Trump and Sununu administrations have both been disasters for public education. Having Betsy DeVos in town certainly amplifies the link between them and their efforts to undermine public education,” said Tuttle.