Guest Column: Dr. Peg Mathis- 'Ms. DeVos, Come To Newaygo Public School District'

​Guest Column: Dr. Peg Mathis- 'Ms. DeVos, Come To Newaygo 

I need to preface this by saying this is not intended to be political. I have views and respect both sides of the aisle. Many would say I lean right. These, however, are my thoughts on a particular issue and are not official statements from NPS.

I just kept hoping that Ms. DeVos would not be confirmed. Perhaps it was the optimist in me thinking that good will prevail. Now it looks to be certain that she will  be the new Education Secretary. So many emotions right now and I have...

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...stayed relatively silent. I can’t do that any longer.  So here are some random thoughts.

I have given my life to this thing we call “public education.”
I believe in public education.
I know it works.
I have an enormous amount of evidence that it works.
It is the foundation of our democracy.
It is the baseline for the American Dream.

While Ms. DeVos might be a nice person (I don’t know her personally), I do not believe for one second that she is qualified to be in charge of anything to do with public education.

I invite Ms. DeVos to come to the Newaygo Public School District.

See our students who have hopes and dreams for their future.

See our staff working day and night so they can share their passion with students.

See our families working to support their students while laboring hard and long hours to make ends meet.

Middle America has been a steady place to raise families and send children to public schools.

Education is not meant for corporate America to make money off taxpayer dollars.
I worry about the future of education.

I want our teachers and staff to have adequate resources to continue to do the great things that they do for our kids.

I want our staff to know that what they do really matters, despite what the reformers and profiteers might say.

I have given my life to this thing we call “public education.”  I cannot and will not give up. I ask every citizen who believes in public education to not give up. We can’t.
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Our children deserve better.

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