Document Type

Opinion

Publication Date

2-20-2017

Department 1

Education

Abstract

By now you have probably heard about Betsy DeVos' big day out recently. She tried to visit a middle school in Washington but found the front door blocked when she showed up. This led, of course, to the publication of an already-infamous cartoon suggesting that DeVos is actually a modern-day Civil Rights warrior, and to the suggestion that protesters blocking DeVos at the schoolhouse door was the functional (if not moral) equivalent of preventing black children from attending segregated schools in the 1950s and '60s. It's an argument that is morally wrong, historically stupid, and patently offensive. [excerpt]

Comments

This piece appeared on Education Week as part of Dr. Powell's opinion blog, "The K-12 Contrarian." The original version is available online here.

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