The Education Vortex
My friend and colleague Joel Hummel encouraged me to watch the movie Idiocracy during the 2012 Presidential primary season. I have never been so torn between laughing uproariously and crying bitterly in my entire life. Until now. The selection of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education in the next administration is an insult to every child and every public school teacher in America. Mrs. DeVos is an avowed Creationist. She supports the use of public (read: tax) money to pay for private education, including in religious schools, through the use of vouchers. I don’t think I’m going out on a limb to say that her religious belief probably trumps any support she should have for excellent science education, regardless of public or private school environment. The progress we have started to make in STEM/STEAM fields over the past few years with the introduction of high standards of achievement (Common Core, which though the name is reviled makes a lot of sense as a concept and