All across the board, Puerto Rico faces a long, slow recovery in the months and years after Hurricane Maria. While much of the media focus (when there has been any at all) is on contracting and government corruption, there has been little attention paid to the state of schooling on the island in the last few months. To date, hundreds of schools remain without power or internet, with many students attending half-day classes in the dark. But that hasn’t stopped politicians from moving forward with a plan to privatize and bring charter schools to the island. This is being aided, in part, by Donald Trump’s incompetent Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
It’s worth noting, again and again, that DeVos has zero qualifications to teach or run a school, much less the entire Department of Education. She has a degree in business economics and she has never taught at nor attended a public school. Neither have her children. But who cares about important details like that, right? She’s been given license by the administration to do all kinds of harmful things and is doggedly pursuing her agenda of reforming American education, which consists of stripping public schools of funding only to reroute that money to Christian, military, and private schools.
One would think that the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria would offer an opportunity to do things differently and better with regard to schools in Puerto Rico; that politicians and educators could turn their attention to improving the physical condition of school buildings and eventually look into innovations in student learning and teacher performance. But, then again, one would have to think critically in order to do that. And it seems as if no one is thinking about anything other than lining the pockets of the rich.
[In February, Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced a plan for educational reforms, including charters, vouchers for private schools and pay increases for teachers]. Rosselló’s big announcement came on the heels of a separate plan he outlined in January, to close 305 of Puerto Rico’s 1,100 public schools. Rosselló said these closures would lead to an estimated $300 million in savings by 2022 – and by extension help the island recover from Maria and its long-term debt crisis. Puerto Rican citizens have long worried the government’s interest in shuttering schools would be a first step on the road to privatization.
While Rosselló’s televised address garnered a lot of national attention, little has been paid to the 136-page bill that was introduced several days later, and the vocal debate it has sparked within the territory.
Who helped craft the bill is not entirely clear.
Aida Díaz, president of the teacher’s union in Puerto Rico, says that neither she nor any of the union’s 40,000 members were involved in any dialogue with the governor about the proposed education reform on the island. All of these plans seem to be developing in secret. So, if actual teachers weren’t a part of this conversation and weren’t giving their input, who was?
Take one good guess.
DeVos and her federal education department have certainly been involved. DeVos’s Deputy Assistant Secretary Jason Botel has been in “close communication” with Puerto Rico’s Education Secretary Julia Keleher for months since the storm, and in a blogpost published in January, Botel wrote, “We look forward to supporting students, educators and community members as they not only rebuild what’s been lost, but also improve, rethink and renew.”
In an interview with The Intercept, Keleher, Puerto Rico’s education secretary, said that a local law firm helped them craft the bill, two law firms from the mainland that had experience working with charter schools, and a team from the federal department of education.
And it gets even worse. Even though a good number of folks in Puerto Rico are still without power and water, these “school choice” activists are advocating not just for charter schools but online ones, as well. Yes, you read that right. In a place where clean water, power, and internet access are limited, they are seriously proposing online classrooms as an educational alternative.
The proposed legislation would also allow for the creation of virtual charters in Puerto Rico – a particularly contentious type of online school, even among school choice supporters. (DeVos is a big proponent of virtual charters, and a former investor in them herself.)
Keleher acknowledged the concerns around virtual charters, but says she remains optimistic about their potential. “I’ve taught in online classrooms,” she said. “It requires discipline and fidelity, and it may not be right for everyone.” She emphasized the importance of providing “options,” which she said could help bring new infusions of funds to the island.
Since this is being touted as a way to innovate schools, alleviate Puerto Rico’s debt, and also bring new funding to the island, let’s ask a necessary and critical question: Who exactly will reap the benefits of all this?
Don’t bother answering, folks. We already know the answer.
Shame on all of them. We know exactly who this is for. And it isn’t at all for the students of Puerto Rico. As Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, recently said:
“Puerto Rico’s governor should be ashamed of himself. “He pretends that he’s a Democratic governor, but his playbook on schools is right out of Trump and DeVos,” she told The Intercept. “He won’t even tell the people of Puerto Rico what he’s doing as he secretly travels to [Philadelphia to visit an ASPIRA charter] for a tour.” Weingarten says his behavior is “just baffling” and “one wonders who he is listening to.”
Unfortunately, Randi, its quite obvious who he’s listening to. And it isn’t the students or parents on the island. This isn’t going to turn out well for them at all.