Cameron: ‘I owe public educators my life’

Betsy DeVos was confirmed in a vote of 51-50 as the new Secretary of Education on Tuesday. As DeVos was confirmed, I felt the need to share my story in the public education system in hopes that DeVos, a supporter of charter schools, will realize how much public education means to children across America.

My original interest in public service and government began in middle school when I was part of a club called “Coalition” that raised money and awareness for worldly issues such as getting clean water to those who don’t have access to it and stopping the Lord’s Resistance Army through Invisible Children. I was introduced to this group by the club’s sponsor, who kept Coalition going at the high school he now teaches at.

I was blessed to have many other wonderful teachers in high school.

There was my Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History teacher my junior year who constantly pushed me to think “outside the textbook” and made me realize that history wasn’t as bad as I thought.

This then lead me to AP Government, where I was taught by one of the best educators in our school that helped me realize that after years of searching what I wanted to do in college, political science was where my heart truly was.

While I was taking both AP U.S. History and AP Government, there was another teacher who I may actually owe my life to, my journalism teacher. While taking her classes, I wrote for the school paper and the yearbook, while also acting as an editor on both. On the paper, I wrote mainly about state government and politics and their impact on public schools (such as in 2015 when a Senate bill was introduced to ban copyrighted materials, i.e. Common Core, from classrooms). This, along with taking AP Government, made me even more politically involved by writing to and interviewing state senators and representatives. This is the same teacher who pushed me to go to this university.

Being a student at Wichita State University, which may I remind everyone is a public university, brought it all together. This fall, I took a seminar about the 2016 Election where a good chunk of our grade required volunteering hours with a political campaign or interest group. I chose to work as an intern with the Kansas Democrats to help organize field operations for state Senate and House campaigns in Sedgwick County. My professor took interest in this and pulled me aside after class one day to talk to me about a program through the political science department that sends students to D.C. or Topeka for internships. After this discussion, I decided to go for it and apply to the program and am now currently in Washington D.C. as a press intern on Capitol Hill.

Without the constant push and the potential my teachers and professors, past and current, saw in me, I wouldn’t possibly be where I am today and I hope the policies that might be enacted under Betsy DeVos won’t scare away future educators who will also leave a huge impact on other children’s lives or take away resources that allow others to have the same opportunities I’ve had. I truly do owe these public educators my life and I hope that DeVos can see past school choice and see the value that public education has on the lives of many children across America.