Perhaps Betsy could be forgiven her narrow minded anti-public bigotry; given her early life; isolated and steeped in a strong ethnic background skeptical of the validity of science and the rest of the religious world-but that was then; her early schooling and her matriculation from hypercalvinist Calvin College - Grand Rapids - and now forgiveness is not an option.
Betsy's religious tradition struggled long, hard, and tragically in holding on to its connections to South Africa's racial Apartheid. At an early-less mature time of muted, yet dangerous ideological commitment; Betsy and her husband, Dick Jr., stunningly defeated in his personally financed $34 million bid for Michigan's governorship - were supporting individual "scholarships" for children of color.
With immense deep pockets they could finance hundreds of children lifted by them out poverty and deprivation to attend Cranbrook or wherever they could find elite schools of their personal choice to accept their minority "scholars." Who would object if Dick & Betsy want to help or promote the academic achievement of needy students via their own or organized scholarship charity? But, no, that was not enough!
Betsy took on Michigan's historic institution of public education in a mean-spirited and aggressive manner - An enduring hissy fit.
Betsy's goal: secure taxpayer provided voucher monies for her own Dutch Reformed Christian Schools and parochiaid for any and all religions. Moving through a number of morphed organizations and political efforts with names such as the American Federation for Children she has run a rough and rude campaign to grind to dust any or all opposition - Care not they be Republican or Democrat!
Violations of the campaign finance laws and multimillion dollar fines thereto have not slowed her efforts. Joining with other aggressive elites with agendas intended to rob the public of its public school monies and support, Betsy presses ahead. She has great support from the anti-community/local business prosperity Waltons of Wal-Mart, and the mega-billions Cato creators and A.L.E.C. corporate bullies: Charles and David Koch.
Betsy's The Mega Rich Poster Girl for the Antithesis of CSR
Corporate Social Responsibility (or CSR) defined on Wikipedia as:
"CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY is a form of corporate self-regulation integrated into a business model. CSR policy functions as a built-in, self-regulating mechanism whereby business monitors and ensures its active compliance with the spirit of the law, ethical standards, and international norms.
"The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere. Furthermore, CSR-focused businesses would proactively promote the public interest by encouraging community growth and development, and voluntarily eliminating practices that harm the public sphere, regardless of legality. CSR is the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: people, planet, profit."
Note: "CSR" also called corporate conscience, citizenship, social performance, or sustainable responsible business.
The upshot of Betsy's vicious war on the public schools is the denigration and destruction of Michigan's once premiere Public Education Program run and fostered by its premiere/world class public universities. What happened in the Michigan TeaPublican 2011 Legislative session, that insulted, undercut, (Michigan's public schools were legislatively swindled of $1.2 billion due them) and soiled the profession of teaching(dishonest, partisan/ideological attacks on tenure), could NEVER have happened had Betsy disapproved. The blame is Betsy's to bear.
Keen observer and new political straight-shooter, reporter Chris Savage details the situation in Michigan under the dominance and dictates of Betsy DeVos:
"In Benton Harbor, the teachers union, the MEA, delivered a truckload of schools supplies to teachers who didn't even have pencils and paper for their students. School systems across the state face bankruptcy and the prospect of an Emergency Manager. This is blamed on corrupt administrators, greedy, parasitic teachers and budget-breaking unionized workers. It is never blamed on the fact that we are increasingly starving our public schools of the resources they need to exist and flourish.
"When someone tries to tell you that charter schools are the answer to our educational system's problems and that outsourcing the education of our children is going to help bring our most poverty-stricken public schools to the same level as the school systems in wealthy districts, ask them this. Ask them how they expect public school systems to compete after they took one billion dollars away from them during an economic recession."
"Ask them that."
Source: Chris Savage (aka Eclectablog) in "The Republican hypocrisy in Michigan’s charter school debate" posted December 15, 2011 and also found on BloggingforMichigan.
Original.
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