Political Quotes

“I appreciate your point and the belief that the son or daughter of a millwright, a mill worker as I was, should have the same opportunity as the son or daughter of a CEO in a big company. That is embedded in the notion of quality public schools. What I was really struck by was that DeVos wants to divert all these public funds from our schools to for-profit schools, and if it is for- profit, you squeeze down the services in the school to maximize the profit, and that is just exactly the type of attack on our children that we can't tolerate, but I was also struck about how she imposes the accountability for these alternative schools. The columnist Stephen Henderson of the Detroit Free Press said: Largely as a result of DeVos's lobby, Michigan tolerates more low-performing charter schools than just about any other State. It lacks any effective mechanism for shutting down or even improving failing charters. He goes on to say: We are a laughingstock in national education circles and a pariah among reputable charter school operators who have not opened schools in Detroit because of the wild west nature of the educational landscape here. Do you share the concern about the complete lack of accountability of these for-profit schools that are pulling the funds out of our public schools in Michigan?”