Opinion: Open letter to Betsy DeVos

Jessica Kukura

Dear Betsy DeVos,

Can you ever understand the needs of our students from a low socioeconomic background, when you grew up as a billionaire? Can you ensure the safety of our Muslim-American students, who have been suggested for enlistment in an unconstitutional registry?

How are you – while working under a regime that disparages women as nothing more than “pussies to be grabbed” – going to work towards the empowerment of our girls? 

What are you going to say to our Latino students when they ask why they’re being called “criminals” and “rapists?” Do you promise to protect every student in the classroom, to ensure that “separate is not equal” as concluded by Brown vs. Board of Education?

Please, I want your word that you’ll look out for our African-American students when the Ku Klux Klan marches to endorse Trump and that you’ll protect our LGBT students from the current administration.

DeVos should know that teachers spend an average $500 a year on their classrooms and around 12 to 16 hours a day working, even though the school day is only eight. In accordance to others with their same education level, teachers make 14 percent less.

Betsy DeVos, you owe the State of Ohio $5.3 million dollars.

You’ve been accused of plagiarism.

You’ve refused to advocate for children with special needs in U.S. Senate hearings.

You come from a family that has donated $200 million to the Republican Party.

Dear Betsy DeVos, are you really what’s best for the future of American education?

Jessica Kukura is a member of the College Democrats, contact her at [email protected].