One of President Trump's most dangerous appointees to the United States Cabinet is Secretary of Education Elisabeth Dee DeVos. Not only a strong supporter for school choice, school voucher programs, and charter schools, DeVos has been making sweeping budget cuts -all regressive values and actions that are ripping apart the fabric of what the public school system represents. Every child in America should have an equal opportunity to be educated and any other stance is unconstitutional.

In early April a birdy informed me that Ms Betsy DeVos would be traveling to NYC. After some investigation, it turned out that she would be receiving an award by the Manhattan Institute on the first of May at 42nd Street's Cipriani, a fancy restaurant that doesn't serve food on school lunch trays. Being a lifelong New Yorker and a NYC special education teacher, I felt it was very important to give Ole Betts a big Bronx cheer! 

In the days leading up to "May Day," the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) helped me form a coalition of groups that included my brothers and sisters from the UFT, Rise and Resist, Revolting Lesbians, Raging Grannies, several other grassroots organizations and even our CRDC Executive VP Brian Mangan. I was excited as my "Report Card Sign" was good to go and my stomping-pavement-boots were ready to pound.

The rally turn out was amazing, and the majority of our group was on the 42nd St side of Cipriani. A faction from Rise and Resist decided to go around back in case Ms Betsy wasn’t brave enough to face all of us all in the front. For over two hours we picketed around the front of Cipriani, continually chanting, loud and proud with all of our hearts: "Hey hey, ho ho, Betsy has got to go!" and "Betsy Betsy, you can't hide, we are marching right outside!" 

As expected, Ms Betsy tried to sneak around the back. Key word “tried.” That faction that headed around the corner was successful in giving her that Bronx Cheer that she so deserved.