Educating the children of Willmar is a team sport.
Parents know dedicated teachers work year after year to unlock the potential of every student, but what's not so clear to parents is the importance of all the supportive people behind those educators.
From our local principals and superintendent, to community and state leaders, all the way out to the U.S. Department of Education, it takes a chain of caring and qualified people to instill the love of learning in students from Willmar.
That's why I'm so concerned about the nomination of Betsy DeVos for U.S. Secretary of Education. She has never attended a public school, didn't send her children to a public school and has never held a job in public education or government.
However, what she lacks in experience she makes up for in money. She's a billionaire mega-donor who has contributed to the campaigns of 17 of the U.S. senators who will vote to confirm her for the job.
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She has also spent millions of dollars promoting education policies that damaged the public schools in her home state of Michigan and now she wants to bring those failures to Washington.
The confirmation hearings for Ms. DeVos start Jan. 11. I'm urging Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken to vote against her.
The students of Willmar deserve a unified team of dedicated and qualified people behind them. That won't happen if we have Ms. DeVos, with no experience and no love of public schools, as education secretary in Washington.
Tammy Knapper
Willmar
