If you value public education in America , please pass on this 4 minute and 30 second video. In case you’re unaware, Betsy DeVos is slated to become Donald Trump’s new Secretary of Education.
The video concerns a project that Betsy and Dick DeVos funded continuously from 1993 to 2010, that aims to raise up a crop of “thousands of Rick Santorums in the next generation.”
Near the start of the video you will see a speaker describe the underlying idea behind the creationist, Christian nationalist teen “biblical worldview” politics camp (called the “Student Statesmanship Institute”) that Betsy and Dick DeVos funded and supported for nearly two decades. That speaker, former Michigan Lt. Governor Richard Posthumus, declares,
“Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Vladimir Lenin, they knew one thing — that to change a culture, to change a nation, you’ve got to reach the children.”
The founder of the summer camp posted video with that footage in 2014. Betsy DeVos was listed on the SSI advisory board into 2015.
Towards the end of the video, you’ll see SSI founder and head James Muffett outlining his vision to raise up “thousands of Rick Santorums in the next generation.” Muffett said that in 2010, at a fundraiser for SSI, at which Rick Santorum was the keynote speaker.
At the very start of the video you’ll see two op-eds, written by SSI students as part of an official SSI student competition, that were published in 2012 in Michigan media. One quotes the Bible, that homosexuals can’t get into heaven. The other op-ed accuses President Barack Obama of “lies and trickery” and says Obama is “shoving America down the wastebasket”.
I've covered this story several times here on dKos, because I think it’s important.
For example, see Betsy's “Jesus Camp” — DeVos’ Fundamentalist Boot Camp For The Future "Army of God” , Devos Funded Summer Camp Looks To Hitler Youth, Hopes To Raise Up “Thousands Of Rick Santorums”, and the related story “DeVos Privatization Brings Racist “New Jim Crow” Education To Detroit Schools
But the video, above, encapsulates, in less than 5 minutes, the core of what people really need to know about Betsy DeVos — she’s not being honest about her agenda.
Can you lend a hand, in spreading the news ? I don’t have any magic formula, just the usual suggestions — whatever social media you use would help. Thanks.