Name: "Stop hiding": Betsy DeVos accused of holing up in her mansion as she pushes for schools to reopen
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"Stop hiding": Betsy DeVos accused of holing up in her mansion as she pushes for schools to reopen

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U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the U.S. Department of Education July 8, 2020 in Washington, DC. Vice President Pence and the task force members discussed the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of nation's schools in the Fall.--As school systems across the country reckon with the&nbsp; amid the pressures of a ,&nbsp; has within her&nbsp;.At the same time, public attitudes about reopening have soured as schools experimenting with in-person learning report&nbsp;. In a&nbsp;recent , almost 60% of Americans rejected fully in-person learning. That figure rose&nbsp;from 53% in July, when&nbsp;DeVos &nbsp;in a phone call with governors.As DeVos has apparently distanced herself from population centers while&nbsp;the pandemic's effects&nbsp;impact&nbsp;new parts of the country, she has simultaneously pushed for the nation's public schools to put teachers and students back in the classroom full-time. DeVos'&nbsp;hardline advocacy, which&nbsp;flouts both the warnings from public health officials and , drew&nbsp; from Democrats before she supposedly&nbsp;disappeared into her summer home.Recently, a&nbsp; featuring&nbsp;three LED screens with slogans&nbsp;blasting DeVos&nbsp;— "stop hiding in your mansion" and "start protecting our kids" —&nbsp;has been making its way across cities throughout Michigan.A&nbsp;spokesperson for the Department of Education rejected the reports of DeVos' isolation.&nbsp;"That's simply not true," the spokesperson told Salon via email. "Secretary DeVos has held 9 roundtables, 4 briefings, 30 calls with governors, 62 calls with state superintendents, 28 interviews and 13 conference calls about this pandemic. She provided 7 major flexibilities, took 5 steps to protect students' rights, and made $30B for schools available in&nbsp;30 days."But NBC News that it could not find any records of&nbsp;a significant number of&nbsp;public events held by DeVos with public school officials.&nbsp;Noelle Ellerson Ng, the associate executive director for advocacy at&nbsp;the School Superintendents Association, told the outlet that the group had not heard from DeVos at all this year.Dubbed the "McMansion from hell" by , the education secretary's&nbsp;22,000-square-foot estate on the shore of&nbsp;Lake Macatawa&nbsp;commands a 24-hour, taxpayer-funded&nbsp;security detail courtesy of the U.S. Marshals Service when she is present.DeVos, who&nbsp;is the only Cabinet member protected by the agency, was afforded the unusual arrangement&nbsp;in February 2017&nbsp;by then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions after her encounter with protesters at a Washington-area middle school. The total taxpayer bill , or about 0.1% of DeVos&nbsp;$2 billion net worth, should she serve through Trump's full term.DeVos&nbsp;&nbsp;that she would&nbsp;work&nbsp;mostly from her Michigan estate as the school year approached, and the Detroit Free Press that she had made good on the promise in July.During that time,&nbsp;DeVos'&nbsp;&nbsp;has been almost entirely empty, according to NBC&nbsp;News.&nbsp;A Washington&nbsp;event was added this Wednesday after the outlet&nbsp; another&nbsp;blank slate for the week:&nbsp;the&nbsp;"Kids FIRST: Getting America's Children Safely Back to School" forum, featuring education officials, teachers and parents, at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.DeVos was, in fact, present at the event, seated onstage without a mask along with President Donald Trump, Vice President Mike Pence and counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. The education secretary&nbsp;spoke for one&nbsp;minute and fifteen seconds at the top of the 40-minute session before sitting silently for the duration.DeVos faced&nbsp;backlash earlier this summer for participating in&nbsp;, where she and top staff&nbsp;held virtual meetings with society&nbsp;chapters in Alabama, Arizona and Ohio to discuss&nbsp;her&nbsp;&nbsp;which overhauls how&nbsp;schools and colleges handle accusations of sexual misconduct.&nbsp;The rule goes into effect Aug. 14.DeVos, who reportedly participated in recent&nbsp;events related to school&nbsp;voucher advocacy and private schools, has&nbsp;&nbsp;to using the pandemic as a way to further her private school agenda.&nbsp;The education secretary has diverted&nbsp;, resulting in .&nbsp;A&nbsp;Salon investigation found that&nbsp;charter schools which&nbsp;received federal funds might have double-dipped&nbsp;.&nbsp;Amid a vacuum of public consensus on science, school&nbsp;reopening plans&nbsp;have become almost wholly political. by Senior Brookings Institution fellow Jon Valant found that "there is no relationship — visually or statistically — between school districts' reopening decisions and their county's new COVID-19 cases per capita.""In contrast, there is a strong relationship — visually and statistically — between districts' reopening decisions and the county-level support for Trump in the 2016 election," Valant added.&nbsp;In late July,&nbsp;DeVos&nbsp;and fellow school-choice advocate Pence&nbsp;visited Thales Academy — a network of private nonsectarian&nbsp;schools in North Carolina — to applaud the school's reopening model.&nbsp;Following the visit,&nbsp;&nbsp;had&nbsp;to quarantine after a classmate tested positive for COVID-19."Thales is a great example more schools could emulate,"&nbsp;. "You didn't wait for guidance from the Department of Education. You didn't ask for permission."Roger Sollenberger was a staff writer at Salon (2020-21). Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;.MORE FROM

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos listens during a White House Coronavirus Task Force press briefing at the U.S. Department of Education July 8, 2020 in Washington, DC. Vice President Pence and the task force members discussed the latest on the COVID-19 pandemic and the reopening of nation's schools in the Fall.--As school systems across the country reckon with the&nbsp; amid the pressures of a ,&nbsp; has within her&nbsp;.At the same time, public attitudes about reopening have soured as schools experimenting with in-person learning report&nbsp;. In a&nbsp;recent , almost 60% of...

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"Stop hiding": Betsy DeVos accused of holing up in her mansion as she pushes for schools to reopen

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