Statement from CEA President Sheila Cohen on Devos’s Attack on East Hartford Public Schools
Betsy DeVos’s attack on East Hartford Public Schools is alarming, demoralizing, and unwarranted—but not unexpected from a woman who is totally unqualified and unfit to serve as U.S. Secretary of Education, representing the nation’s public education system.
In an attempt to undermine public education in our country and push her privatization policies, she continues to insult the millions of professional educators who dedicate their lives to teaching and empowering students.
We know that East Hartford teachers are passionate professionals who have dedicated their lives to helping their students succeed, and we will not stand for baseless attacks against them or any other educators providing students with the support, attention, and instruction they need to succeed.
Statement from East Hartford Teacher and East Hartford Education Association President Annie Irvine
My colleagues are some of the most dedicated and hardest-working teachers you will ever meet. It is demoralizing for our teachers and our community to be subjected to this undeserved attack—especially by someone with no experience in public education who wants to privatize our schools and strip $10.6 billion in funding from public education, taking precious resources from students who need them most.
Rather than criticize what she doesn’t know, DeVos should focus her attention on providing our schools with the education funding so desperately needed to ensure our teachers have the resources they need to help our students succeed. DeVos represents the opposite of what we know leads to student success: well-resourced public schools and community support services, such as health care and after-school programs, that address the needs of the whole child.
We invite DeVos to visit an East Hartford classroom so she can witness for herself the exceptional work of our teachers and students.
The Connecticut Education Association represents 43,000 teachers in Connecticut.
