Sen. Murkowski should keep an unqualified man from a lifelong judgeship

Sen. Lisa Murkowski has spent her time in office standing up for Alaskans. Our senator is a thoughtful legislator and her decisions have shown her courage to do what is right for Alaska. No vote better illustrates this than Sen. Murkowski’s heroic vote to oppose Betsy DeVos’ nomination to be Secretary of Education. As a teacher who has worked for 40 years in Alaska’s rural and urban schools, I appreciated how our senator saw that DeVos’ ideas and attitudes would not benefit the young people of our state.

Now, DeVos’ right-hand man Steven Menashi, the adviser who crafted and implemented her agenda, is being rewarded with a nomination to a lifetime judgeship on a powerful federal appeals court. Menashi, in his own words, was “responsible for providing legal advice on all aspects of the department’s operations, including litigation, rulemaking, regulation, and enforcement.” Indeed, The New York Times reported just this week that internal department memos show that Menashi was the architect of the plan to violate federal laws to deny debt relief to defrauded students. Menashi’s legal advice has been harmful to our nation’s students, and federal courts have frequently found his actions and advice to be illegal.

Sen. Murkowski described these kinds of actions well when she announced her opposition to DeVos’ confirmation. Noting that Alaska has “urban schools,” in Anchorage, “that have rich diversity,” while at the same time, Alaska has “very rural, very remote, extremely remote schools that face challenges when it comes to how we deliver education,” Murkowski was concerned whether DeVos “truly understands the children of Alaska and across America — both urban and rural.” She doubted that DeVos would “uphold federal civil rights laws in schools that receive federal funds.” She “question(ed) (DeVos’) commitment to students with disabilities rights under IDEA.” And she was “concerned that Mrs. DeVos will force vouchers on Alaska.”

Sen. Murkowski’s concerns were prescient. DeVos has stripped our students — including our youngest students — from vital protections against racial discrimination, sexual harassment and even sexual assault. She has sided with for-profit colleges that have defrauded students, and a federal court ruled that she illegally denied student loan debt relief to thousands of students cheated by for-profit colleges. Yet DeVos defied the court’s orders, leading the court to hold her in contempt. Meanwhile, DeVos has repeatedly tried to funnel federal funds designated for our poorest schools to voucher programs, programs that Sen. Murkowski recognized failed to serve Alaskans.

And it was Menashi who was right there with her, helping with these unlawful actions at the Department of Education. If that wasn’t bad enough, Menashi’s outrageous writings should disqualify him. Menashi has said that “ethnic diversity weakens social solidarity,” that public education itself is bad because it promotes “egalitarianism.” As a retired teacher with experience in both urban and rural schools in our state, I find his statement repulsive. Our society and schools should celebrate our cultural heritages. Our social solidarity is enriched by our friends and neighbors sharing who they are with each other. Children who know the beauty of their cultural heritage and who feel that they are a respected part of their country will thrive in our schools. In our diverse Alaskan schools, Menashi’s views are not appropriate. Alaska families and schools are not served well with his kind of vision for education and society. Politicians like him do not understand the complexities of our state and our diverse strengths.

Menashi also wrote that student financial aid “punishes” affluent families. And while advocating for school vouchers, he claimed that they restore “property rights” to rich families even though such programs harm rural students. Our state has a lot to lose. The voucher system is not meaningful for our village schools especially the smaller ones. I am tired of bureaucrats who do not know about our state’s diverse needs making policies that can harm our kids and schools. In our vast state, rich with so many indigenous cultures and multicultural families, we need to work together to build great community schools.

Should Menashi be confirmed, his rulings could affect Alaskans (and all Americans) for decades to come. I urge Sen. Murkowski to once again put Alaskans first and oppose his nomination. Oppose Menashi, DeVos, and their terrible ideas. Alaska’s kids are counting on it.

Christine Pearsall Villano lives in Fairbanks and has been a teacher in Alaska since 1974. She taught in St. Mary’s and in Fairbanks, and she currently presents Citizen Science workshops for students and teachers around the state.

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