EDUCATION SECRETARY BETSY DeVOS IS ON THE RIGHT TRACK: I am so pleased that the U.S. Department of Education has withdrawn the Obama Administration’s controversial Dear Colleague Letter applying disparate impact analysis to school discipline. It is worth pointing out that I am not the only one who is pleased. As I detail in my article, there were a lot of teachers, across the country, upset over the Obama Administration’s policy. And then there is this polling data:

In 2015, Education Next-Program on Education Policy and Governance conducted a survey of teachers. The question on school discipline asked: “Do you support or oppose federal policies that prevent schools from expelling or suspending black and Hispanic students at higher rates than other students?”

A healthy majority of teachers—59%–reported that they opposed the policy. Only 23% supported it (with 18% answering that they neither support nor oppose). Interestingly, most of the teachers who opposed the policy were not the least wishy-washy in their opposition. Of the 59% who opposed the policy, 34% said that “completely oppose the policy” while only 25% “somewhat oppose.” Supporters on the other hand were more lukewarm. Of the 23%, 16% said they “somewhat support” the policy, while only 7% “completely support the policy.”

Members of the general public responded similarly. A majority (51%) opposed the policy, while only 21% supported (with the 29% answering that they neither support nor oppose). The same pattern of strong opposition and weak support emerged.

But even though rank and file teachers as well as local union leaders opposed the Obama Administration’s policy, the national teachers unions sided with the Obama Administration.   It is one more example of the huge distance between union members and their national leaders.