District blasts Trump pick for Secretary of Education

Board President Dan Gustafson said the board felt compelled to take a stand against an unqualified nominee.|

The Sonoma Valley Unified School District board took a rare step this week by inserting itself in a national issue.

The board, in a unanimous decision, on Wednesday approved a resolution opposing the confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the nation’s new Secretary of Education. DeVos was nominated by President Trump to the nation’s highest education post.

Board President Dan Gustafson said the board felt compelled to take a stand.

“While the school board doesn’t usually address national issues, we felt that the nomination of Ms. DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education has such potential for a profoundly negative impact on the future and quality of public education that a recognition of opposition was in order,” he said.

“The fact that she has no standing as an educator nor any experience, even as a student or mother, with public education, that she exhibits a lack of knowledge of the rights of students with disabilities, that she opposes funding for public schools and advocates school voucher programs, and a host of other reasons, led us to oppose her confirmation,” he continued.

The resolution will be sent to both of California’s senators, Sen. Kamala Harris (D) and Sen. Diane Feinstein (D), Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena) and members of the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions.

School Superintendent Louann Carlomagno reiterated Gustafson’s comment.

“It is unusual for our district to comment on national matters, but in meeting with a number of staff members as well as speaking to educators throughout the county, I feel we need to be proactive in stating our opposition to this nomination.

Carlomagno thought Sonoma Valley was the first district in the county to pass a resolution against DeVos’s confirmation, although it was on the Santa Rosa School board agenda Wednesday night.

The resolution points out DeVos’s advocacy for school voucher programs and using public money to fund for-profit schools.

“Whereas, President Trump has called for the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education of the United States of America, a candidate without any credentials of practice as an educator or in the administration and management of public schools, whose children did not attend public educational institutions, who has demonstrated a lack of knowledge regarding the rights of students with disabilities under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and who has exhibited a predisposition against funding public schools, including a well-documented advocacy for school voucher programs, which by their very nature eviscerate free and appropriate public education for specific economic, social and racial groups,” the resolution reads.

The resolution also invited the president, DeVos or other representatives of the president’s education team to meet with them to conduct a meaningful discussion about the future of public education.

With little discussion, the resolution passed 5-0.

Email Bill at bill.hoban@sonomanews.com.

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