Drone footage captures foliage over fall break. Jack Cote | Collegian
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Vol. 146 Issue 8 - October 20, 2022 Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos meets a student after her lecture in Christ Chapel. Courtesy | External Affairs
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K-12 Program expands to include 23 schools By Lauren Scott Assistant Editor
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos champions school choice in Drummond Lecture By Josh Newhook Digital Editor The American education system has put a generation at risk, Betsy DeVos said in the Drummond Lecture last week. DeVos, the 11th Secretary of Education who served under President Donald Trump from 2017 to 2021, made her third visit to campus in three years, this time to address school choice. She argued that a pluralistic approach to education is the path forward for the United States. “This dynamic gives us better restaurants and better businesses. An open market will give more empowered education options," she said. DeVos said coming to campus is always like coming home. “Hillsdale is a sane oasis in a world that feels not so sane,” DeVos said. In her lecture, she said that today’s public education is fighting against what G.K. Chesterton called the “triangle of truisms”: the natural family built around father, mother, and child. Even though the current culture is at war with it, DeVos said it cannot be destroyed. "It can only destroy those civilizations which disregard it," she said, quoting Chesterton She cited how Gov. Glenn Youngkin of Virginia won his election last year.
Parents revolted against critical race theory, fueling his victory. DeVos said the people found out the “emperor” does not always have their best interest in mind. During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, she said she heard constant echoes of parents worried about their kids. “Their children were suffering,” she said. “It was one of the biggest health failures of our lifetime.” Through Zoom meetings at kitchen tables across the country, parents witnessed the curriculum schools were teaching their children. DeVos said this revealed the longtime failures of the education system. She gave examples of identity politics, such as “math-ethnic” studies in Seattle’s public schools, which claims that “mathematical theory and application is rooted in the ancient histories of people and empires of color.” In addition, she said that elementary school students learned about the fundamental difference between gender and sex and how to choose an identity. “I could keep us here all evening reciting them,” she said. “It is force-fed identity politics.” DeVos cited worsening test scores as an example of failed education. In a ranking of all nations, the United States dropped a rank in math scores for the
first time. “A generation is at risk,” she said, alluding to the 1983 report by the United States National Commission on Excellence in Education, titled "A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform." To fix the education system, DeVos suggested education should be conducted in a pluralistic manner. DeVos challenged the government's use of taxpayer money to fund only public schools instead of also supporting independent charter schools. She said this is like allowing citizens to shop only at places that accept “Medicare for All” and food stamps. While there is a need for public schools to educate many, it does not mean that all education comes from there, DeVos said. “There are many reasons you want to choose a different grocer or doctor,” she said. “I would argue that any school that provides education to the public is a public school.” She gave a hypothetical example of a high school student who is an apprentice at John Deere, plays community football, and takes self-paced online classes instead of attending a traditional public school. She argued that the choice to participate in this type of non-traditional education should belong to the family and to the student.
“Imagine if we gave each student a standard amount,” she said. “That’s what it should look like: everyone getting educated by the best of the best.” Associate Vice President for Curriculum David Whalen said DeVos’ comments on education were wonderful and timely. “Her experience and principles both shed real light on what has become a crisis,” Whalen said. Assistant Professor of Education David Diener said DeVos’ argument revealed how American education will be stronger if parents have the choice of where to educate their children. "In a time when education is increasingly being controlled by centralized government bureaucracies, the essential role that parents should play in their children's education needs to be highlighted,” Diener said. Master’s student in classical education Brendan LaVoie said DeVos' discussion of the political implications of education is particularly compelling. “Having done both undergraduate and master's work in politics, much of her talk of the institutional failures of our education system aligned with my academic experience, especially the progressives' emphasis on 'expertise,’” he said.
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There are now 23 Hillsdale-affiliated schools after the K-12 education office accepted three new schools to the program. The new member schools are located in Fargo, North Dakota; Jacksonville, Florida; and Cincinnati, Ohio. Capstone Classical Academy, located in Fargo, is the first private school to be Hillsdale-affiliated aside from Hillsdale Academy, said Jordan Adams, director of curriculum at K-12. “All three of these schools serve different communities but they are all serving the same mission and teaching the same academic program,” said Becky Lincoln, director of teacher support at K-12. According to Kathleen O’Toole, assistant provost for K-12 education, the K-12 office takes on three to five new member schools each year. The K-12 office works closely with them for a full year before the affiliation becomes official. “The curriculum is really important in a K-12 school, but also having the right people in the classroom is equally important,” O’Toole
said. “We take some of the things we teach in the education department here and we provide lessons for schools across the country.” Most of the member schools start out no bigger than kindergarten through 6th grade, but a grade is added every year until they become a K-12 school, Adams said. “The goal is for them to start small, so you can build a culture and foundational knowledge over time,” Adams said. The member schools use the K-12 Program Guide, a 700-page sequence for every grade and every subject K-12, according to O’Toole. The K-12 office also sends teachers to member schools to provide pedagogical training. “Our team is traveling across the country visiting our schools to do teacher training and observations,” O’Toole said. “We're consistently working with the principals and headmasters by helping them think through things and giving them guidance and advice.”
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The Alpha Tau Omega house's annex was vandalized during fall break. Jack Cote| Cote| Collegian
ATO property vandalized By Linnea Shively Circulation Manager Several incidents of vandalism and theft occurred during fall break at student residences, according to senior and ATO president Bennett Nichols. Over the weekend, unknown individuals vandalized the annex of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house. They spray-painted offensive and explicit messages on the inner wall and inside the women’s bathroom door, Nichols said.
Nichols said he saw the vandalism when he returned to campus Sunday “I get that it’s a small college campus, and we want to have fun, but at the same time, please respect people’s property,” Nichols said. “We respect other people’s property, so we expect them to do the same to us.” According to Nichols, ATO members quickly painted over the messages.
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Meijer plans to open a Hillsdale location in spring 2024 By Aubrey Gulick Senior Reporter After purchasing 50 acres in Fayette Township in 2017, Meijer will finally come to Hillsdale, potentially as early as the spring of 2024, City of Hillsdale Zoning Administrator Alan Beeker said. The company plans to begin construction in the spring of 2023 on a site between Beck Road and
Frank Beck Chevrolet, according to Beeker. “We’re always excited to welcome new development that supports the needs of the City of Hillsdale and surrounding areas,” City Manager David Mackie said. “The addition of Meijer represents a sizable investment in commercial property and job creation.” The new grocery store will create as many as 300 jobs and draw shoppers to Hillsdale, Beeker said.
“It will bring people into the community that would normally not have come here, and they may see other businesses that intrigue them,” Beeker said. “That will drive some economic development.” Meijer purchased 50 acres in Fayette Township, adjacent to Bullhead Lake, in 2017 to build a new location. The township and city signed an agreement that made the property a part of the City of Hills-
dale and extended city services. The agreement gave Meijer 10 years to begin construction on the new building, and in 2018, the city approved a plan to fund a new water line to service the building. Meijer must now seek city building and construction permits, along with permits from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy, the Department
of Transportation, and Department of Natural Resources by the end of the year, according to Mackie. “It is Meijer’s intent to have all their permits in place by the end of this calendar year and to start construction in the spring once the ground thaws,” Beeker said. The arrival of the new store may also encourage the city to build its first roundabout. If constructed, it would be at the
entrance of the store’s parking lot on M-99. “It makes sense for several reasons. Roundabouts don’t stop traffic, they slow traffic down,” Beeker said. “There have been several accidents because of speeding, especially during inclement weather. A roundabout would slow the traffic down, but it wouldn’t stop traffic, so you would never have traffic backups.”