February 7, 2017

LULAC Statement on the Confirmation of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, by a vote of 51 to 50, the U.

S. Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education. As the Senate was divided over the controversial nomination, Vice President Mike Pence cast the historic 51st vote to break the tie. DeVos’s nomination was strongly opposed by teachers’ unions, disability advocates, civil rights organizations, and parent groups who criticized DeVos for being unfamiliar with the public school system and the laws designed to protect students with disabilities.

In response, LULAC National President Roger C. Rocha, Jr. issued the following statement:

“Today’s confirmation of Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education is a setback for the future of public schools in our country. Children of color now represent the majority of students in our public school system, and they need a champion in the Department of Education who will work to ensure that their needs are met. LULAC will continue to focus its energy on ensuring that the Department of Education continues its work on behalf of minority students. Our students deserve a level playing field, and the Department of Education plays a critical role in ensuring that all students have the opportunity to achieve a successful future.”

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The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.lulac.org.

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Unfortunately, there is an easy answer to the question:

“Why did Republicans confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education despite her having absolutely zero relevant experience or credentials?”

A: Because ‘we’ gave them unfettered permission to do it.

We did not vote in record numbers in the mid-terms of 2010 or 2014, and that subsequently handed Congress over to the Republican “tea” Party and left the door wide open for one travesty after another. We left racist “Citizens United” and ALEC intact, then refused to take action on the LOCAL LEVELS.

Others tore it up as much as they could, but we should have been on point to finish them off and were not.

They got their racist Tea Partiers installed in Congress, and now we have to live with it for 8 years and even past and beyond that — unless we come to our resolute corporate senses in 2018 and kick them ALL out at one time.

Congress does not get the benefit of an Electoral College, therefore, unless we find our own to run for office and UNELECT them with a quickness, this will not only continue into 2020, but they will get elected again and run through 2024 turning this country topsy-turvy and assbackward, upending more than 500 years worth of hard-earned progress.

Our children will have us to thank for it, too. You betcha.

It will take a RE-ELECTION OF BARACK OBAMA to undo it, and that may not be a bad idea, all things considered. I doubt he’d run again, but he’s going to be needed.

The real problem is that we will go through educational hell for 8 years paying for the critical mistake of not voting in the mid-term elections, or voting for Republicans when we do.

Those school vouchers they’ve toted all over the place were not meant to benefit Black children, but to force Black and all other taxpayers of other races to pay for the children of rich whites to go to private schools. Period.

May as well say what no one else wants to. It is the truth.

2018 is coming, whether we are prepared for it or not.

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We Black folk don’t have a united agenda, an organized front or stand to take against DeVos and her racist politics; and it is highly like that there are a lot of us who don’t get it, and who don’t see the problem with it. #situationalblindness #ByDesign #functionalingratitude

Leave it to LULAC , a strong Latino organization that keeps their internal infighting issues to themselves, to at least speak out on it and open a door to a much-needed war with DeVos.

At least from this angle, we see that they (LULAC) won’t just ‘roll over and accept it’.

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