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YSU chants, “No to DeVos!”
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown State University students, staff and community members rallied for “no” votes to President Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos for secretary of education.
The cold last day of the month did not stop the heat coming from McKay Auditorium in Beeghly Hall as more than 150 attendees chanted, “No to DeVos,” in protest of her potential appointment.
“This is where the rubber meets the road,” said HaSheen Wilson, YSU network administrator.
Wilson said the rally was an effort to communicate a firm “no” decision from the education community to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
“Call Sen. Portman,” he said. “Tell him, ‘No to DeVos!’ Flood him with calls, emails, pictures and videos. The vote is out of the committee and onto the Senate, so the senator needs to know now.”
DeVos was confirmed by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and awaits approval by the senate floor.
A call to Portman went to voice mail, which was full Tuesday afternoon and could not accept any more messages.
Mary Janek, former teacher at Campbell Memorial High School for 30 years, said DeVos is “dangerously unqualified to be U.S. secretary of education.”
“This is Trump’s administration: incompetent, ignorant and in pursuit of agendas that will harm the majority of America,” she said. “DeVos wants to take your tax dollars and give that money to for-profit corporations to educate our children.”
The for-profit corporations Janek referred to are charter schools, which she said receive millions of tax dollars in the Youngstown area.
Graduate student Chris Anderson agreed with Janek and said DeVos “is a level of unqualified never seen before” because of her lack of public-school education knowledge and ignorance to the notion of financial aid.
“If it weren’t for financial aid, I would’ve never been able to see the inside of a college classroom,” Anderson said. “Nominee DeVos admitted she nor her children ever filled out the federal application for financial aid. ... At a time when more than 80 percent of all students need some form of aid, isn’t it important to have a secretary of education who at least knows what a FAFSA [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] form looks like?”
Anderson concluded by saying, “If [DeVos] wasn’t a multibillionaire and hadn’t paid hundreds and thousands of dollars in contributions to the Republican party, is there honestly anyone in this room who thinks she would’ve ever seen the inside of the confirmation hearing? The students and faculty of Youngstown State University deserve much better than this.”