"When the senate confirmed Betsy Devos as our new Secretary of Education, my world as a woman, a Democrat, and a public school teacher filled with anxiety and shock.
I have the privilege to teach in a predominantly Latino community in the central valley of California. After Trump’s election, our class discussions have ranged from deportation, family members not 'having the correct papers', to 'the wall', to Trump’s hate. I’ve even had students ask me if they'll be allowed to come back to class [because of our] new president. But with the news of the approval of our new Secretary of Education, we have new anxieties and new worries.
Due to our geography, many of my students' parents are farm workers. Some actually migrate twice a year from Washington state to California, uprooting their entire family to follow the crops. With this lifestyle and the income earned as a farm worker, our students are severely economically disadvantaged, with 94.4 percent living under the poverty line. The challenges my students face daily make them the most resilient and hardworking students that I'm so incredibly lucky to teach and love, which is why I'm even more protective after Devos's confirmation — these kids deserve so much more.
How can a woman who has never attended public school run our country's public school system? How can a charter school survive in our community with 94.4 percent of the students living under the poverty line? How will parents know to fight for charter school funding when over half of my students' parents speak only Spanish? How can a multi-billionaire understand the worries and needs of our economically disadvantaged students?
While I don't have the answers to these questions, I do have the inspirational words spoken by our previous first lady, Michelle Obama: 'When they go low, we go high.' I remind my students of these words every day, in hopes that eventually kindness will prevail."
