Teachers Want Higher Wages Not Guns

FEATURING KEVIN KUMASHIRO – Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is under fire once more – this time for her interview on 60 Minutes. The charter-school proponent was unable to articulate clear answers to host Leslie Stahl’s questions about underperforming schools particularly in her home state of Michigan.

DeVos’s interview came days after her embarrassing visit to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High school in Parkland, Florida, where the most recent high-profile mass shooting took place claiming 17 lives. DeVos met with only 3 students and stopped to pet a dog on camera. Survivors of the shooting were deeply disappointed by her.

Meanwhile Donald Trump has backed off from his earlier assertions about wanting to raise the gun purchasing age and has dug his heels in about his NRA talking point to arm teachers. His about-face comes as Florida passes a bill that includes arming some teaching staff. But, as teachers in West Virginia, and now possibly Oklahoma and Arizona have shown, what they want and need are better working conditions and wages, rather than guns.

Kevin Kumashiro, former dean of the School of Education at the University of San Francisco, a leading expert on educational policy, school reform, teacher preparation, and educational equity and social justice and the education correspondent for Rising Up With Sonali.