Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Slammed For Criticizing Washington Public School Teachers

Teachers at Jefferson Academy, the public school where Betsy DeVos was blocked entrance by protesters, slammed the Education Secretary after critical comments about them. The incident happened last Feb. 1. BuzzFeed News reported that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was met by a group of protesters and was forced to go back to her car. She was able to go inside the school through another entrance.

After the incident, DeVos stated that she respects peaceful protest and that she will not stop in doing the mission of the Department of Education. Less than a week later, though, she criticized Jefferson Academy teachers for being in "receive mode."

In an interview with Townhall, she described the teachers as being sincere, wonderful and genuine. However, Betsy DeVos claimed that the attitude that she saw from them was more of being in a "receive mode" and that they are just waiting to be told what to do.

She added that this type of attitude will not bring success to their students. DeVos believes that teachers should be empowered to facilitate great teaching.

Last Friday, Jefferson Academy teachers took to Twitter to slam DeVos for her comments. They proved the real meaning of "receive mode" when they get students at a second-grade level and help them move to an eighth-grade level.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the tweetstorm featured teachers such as Jessica Harris who was able to build the school's band program from zero as well as Ashley Shepherd and Britany Locher, who are able to teach students with first- to eighth-grade reading levels. There has been no comment from the Department of Education yet.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos did send a tweet directed to the Jefferson Academy's official Twitter account that their teachers are awesome. She added that the teachers deserve more freedom to help students and innovate.

Meanwhile, The Washington Post noted that the U.S. Marshals have confirmed that it will provide security for DeVos. This has been deemed unusual since the Department of Education usually has a team of civil servants who guard the secretary.