A group of union leaders, teachers, parents and students tried to deliver a report card to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos now that she’s been on the job for a year … but they were locked out. American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia were at the head of a group of about 100 protesters bearing 80,000 failing report cards from people across the country, but though they’d requested an appointment, they were literally locked out of the Department of Education for not having an appointment.
In the report cards, parents and educators leveled criticisms like “education is not and should not be treated as a business,” and “Ms. DeVos should think about the children whose lives she is making infinitely harder with her actions.” […]
“This is a remarkable moment,” Ms. Weingarten told the crowd, adding of the department: “They knew that teachers and parents and students from all over the country have actually taken their time to say what is going on in their schools. And here on Betsy DeVos’s anniversary, this is the first time that I have ever been to this building where we were not let in — where the educators, where the students, where the parents of America were locked out of the federal Department of Education.”
Eskelsen Garcia said, outside the locked doors, that “she is showing us who she is and we have always believed exactly who she is.” Perhaps DeVos’s staff were trying to protect her delicate fee-fees, as she has recently said that:
“It’s hurtful to me when I’m criticized for not upholding the rights of students, the civil rights of students,” DeVos told a small group of media outlets, as reported by Politico.
“Nothing could be further from the truth,” she added. “I have to turn it back around and say why do I keep getting criticized for that? I mean, nothing that I’ve done would suggest otherwise.”