Betsy DeVos, Executive Orders, and Playgrounds

Here are some links and references mentioned during this week’s show:

• Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to be Secretary of Education has prompted strong opposition in large part because of her advocacy of privatizing public education. Natalia and Jonathan Kozol spoke about the privatization push and other trends in education at the Tucson Festival of Books last year. You can watch their talk here. Natalia has written about education controversies in her book Classroom Wars. Neil recommended Seth Dowland’s Family Values for understanding how conservative parents embraces “school choice” in the 1970s and 80s.
• Donald Trump began his presidency with a host of executive orders on his first day in the White House. We discussed the history of executive orders. Niki recommended Graham Dodds’ Take Up Your Pen for a history of unilateral presidential directives.
• We discussed the CityLab article that asks, “Can We Bring Back Riskier Playgrounds?”

In our regular closing feature, What’s Making History:

• Natalia commented on Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor’s article, “Don’t Shame the First Steps of a Resistance.”
• Neil discussed the March for Life.