Over the past few weeks the internet has been flooded with news about Trump’s administration and Executive Orders, and while all of the things being discussed are extremely important, something that affects high school students more than anything is the appointment of Betsy DeVos as the Secretary of Education. DeVos is a millionaire with no experience working in education, and allowing her to be in charge of something this important is dangerous for the future of education in America.

DeVos’s appointment was a very close call and nearly failed; the Senate was split 50/50 on the vote and the tie was broken by Vice President Mike Pence, who voted in favor of appointing her as the Education Secretary. This was the narrowest cabinet appointment in history, which goes to show how controversial she actually is.

DeVos’s policies will be devastating for public schools all across the nation. She is openly opposes public schooling and supports the idea of private school vouchers, meaning that government funds are used to pay private school tuition. At first glance this doesn’t seem problematic, but these private schools are, for the most part extremely religious, and using government funds to pay for a religious education completely crosses the much-needed border between church and state. Encouraging the voucher program would result in an increase of government money being funneled into religious institutions and a decrease in the already low funds going toward public schools. Instead of using government money to send children to for-profit private schools to keep them out of the public school system, we need to fix the public school system.

One of her more infamous comments was about how she feels about teachers having guns in schools. She said that she would support school administrators and teachers having guns to “protect kids from potential grizzlies”, which is a completely bizzare stance considering the problem with gun violence in schools in America.

As students at a public high school, we should all be concerned about the future of public education under the direction of Betsy DeVos. Statistics show that ninety percent of American children attend public schools, and DeVos has never attended nor been employed at a public school. Having somebody so out of touch with the experience of ninety percent of American children in charge of the future of education is a scary thought, and it’s important that we remain critical of the people who are being given such important positions of power with very little experience.