Bellevue Betsy DeVos Protest: Demonstrators Fear The End Of Public Education

BELLEVUE, WA - A large demonstration greeted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Friday evening in downtown Bellevue, where she scheduled to speak at a private dinner. Many in the crowd were public school employees, and their biggest concern is that DeVos will dismantle the public education system through school choice vouchers.

The protest happened outside the Hyatt Regency along Bellevue Way in the heart of the city's shopping district. DeVos was scheduled to speak inside the Hyatt at the Washington Policy Center's annual dinner.

Former Renton school board member and state representative Marcie Maxwell said DeVos' policies are anti-union, and will result in further segregation of students. DeVos as an advocate of school choice vouchers, public money parents can spend to send their kids to private school or to subsidize home schooling.

"[DeVos'] objective is to take money from public schools and give it to private schools," Maxwell said.

The demonstrators held signs denouncing DeVos and others in the Trump administration. There was a giant inflatable fat cat outside hotel's main entrance, and the Trump Chicken was there, too. Some speakers included Seattle City Council candidate Teresa Mosqueda, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and King County Executive Dow Constantine.

Constantine said DeVos is "taking a sledgehammer to equal opportunity."

"We say with one voice: Betsy, you're dismissed ... and Donald, you're fired!" Constantine said the end of his speech.

Some demonstrators were focused on DeVos' intention to repeal Title IX regulations around campus sexual assault. Under the Obama administration, colleges that accept federal money were given stricter guidance on how to handle sexual assault. DeVos has said the guidance was unfair to people accused of rape.

Other demonstrators showed up as a protest against the Trump administration as a whole. Jack Alhadeff, of Mercer Island, sees DeVos as part of a larger destructive force.

"Betsy DeVos' destruction of our education system is just a small part of what's going on," he said in reference to the broader Trump agenda. "But there are no 'small parts.'"

There was also a counter protest to the DeVos protest. About a 1/2 mile from the Hyatt outside the Bellevue Public Library, a group of about half a dozen Republicans and Libertarians gathered with signs like, "Food stamps are vouchers, why not schools?" State GOP Chair Susan Hutchison sent out an email on Thursday asking Republicans to head to Bellevue to protest the protesters.

DeVos supporter Oleg Nagaytsev has a problem with how public money is spent. He believes public schools spend about $14,000 per student. That's enough to pay for good private school tuition, he said. (Washington only spends about $10,000 per pupil, according to the Washington Education Association.)

Michell Darnell, a Libertarian candidate running for the state House in the 48th Legislative District, said she's not a fan of DeVos, and she didn't vote for Trump - but the new education secretary is "pushing the envelope."

"I like the idea of choice in education - public, private, charter," she said.

Darnell and the other pro-DeVos demonstrators eventually walked to the anti-DeVos protest and held up signs in favor of vouchers. But, they were just a few people in a crowd estimated by Bellevue police to be approximately 1,000.

Chris Petzold, founder of the 8th District Indivisible group, said that Friday's protest was about a larger grassroots movement against the Trump agenda. Several Indivisible groups joined together with local teachers unions to organize Friday's demonstration.

"We're going to fight Trump every day and on every issue," she said.

Images via Neal McNamara/Patch