Kentucky’s 2019 teacher of the year shuns White House visit in protest of Trump – By Mandy McLaren (Louisville Courier Journal) / April 30 2019
Kentucky’s 2019 teacher of the year skipped a formal ceremony at the White House on Monday — a snub Jessica Dueñas said was in protest of the Trump administration’s embrace of school-choice policies.
“I feel like the current administration is clearly attacking public education,” Dueñas told the Courier Journal. “Why come to D.C. and smile and get an award and not stand up for my students?”
Dueñas, a teacher for Jefferson County Public Schools, joined Minnesota’s teacher of the year, Kelly Holstine, in sitting out the ceremony, held Monday at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Dueñas and Holstine, who teaches at an alternative high school, said the boycott was about standing up for marginalized students, including LGBTQ youth and students of color.
“It’s not enough to tell our kids, ‘It gets better,'” Holstine said Tuesday. “We need to make it better for them now.”
U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a supporter of charter schools and private school vouchers, was present at the event. DeVos recognized Rodney Robinson, of Virginia, as the national teacher of the year.
Dueñas and Holstine weren’t the only ones to miss the ceremony.
President Trump also skipped out.
His decision to avoid the event came a year after the 2018 national winner, Mandy Manning, of Washington, wore several pins to silently protest the Trump administration’s LGBTQ and immigration policies. After the event, Manning also gave Trump a bundle of letters from immigrant and refugee students.
Dueñas said Tuesday she wanted to call attention to the administration’s “privatization agenda” and the need to first fully fund the country’s public schools.
She criticized DeVos’ recent visit to the Bluegrass State, during which the secretary held a roundtable discussion on a private school scholarship tax credit program. No representatives from Kentucky public school districts were included in the conversation.
Dueñas, a native New Yorker, said she also didn’t feel comfortable being on the White House grounds for personal reasons.
Her mother came to the U.S. from Costa Rica in the 1970s as an undocumented immigrant. She is now a citizen, Dueñas said.
President Trump’s remarks about “shithole countries” and his administration’s role in separating families at the U.S. and Mexico border left Dueñas feeling like she couldn’t attend the ceremony in good faith, she said.
Dueñas earned the title of Kentucky’s top teacher for her work as a special educator in Oldham County. She chose to forgo a one-year sabbatical in order to become a founding teacher at JCPS’ newest school, W.E.B. DuBois Academy.
Dueñas said Tuesday her experiences in the two districts have highlighted the need for equitable education funding.
As an Oldham County teacher, Dueñas spent time writing grants in order to get new technology for her students; at DuBois, her students have benefited from robust funding from JCPS and community supporters. Rather than diverting resources from public schools through school-choice polices, she said, states like Kentucky should focus on getting schools in rural communities the resources they need.
Dueñas, who ran a failed bid this year for president of the Kentucky Education Association, has been an outspoken critic of state Education Commissioner Wayne Lewis.
She was also active in this year’s teacher sickouts. She did not support the deal reached between JCPS and its union to keep schools open. She instead had pushed for her colleagues to follow through with the sickouts, which closed the district six times over a two-week period.
Dueñas said her activism is influenced by leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, who, at the time, were viewed as agitators.
“They were arrested,” she said. “But if they hadn’t been those change agents, where would we be today?”
Dueñas will remain in Washington for the rest of the week with teachers of the year from across the country. She will continue calling attention to the issues facing Kentucky, she said.
“I have power to be a voice for our state,” she said. “I have the power to be a voice for our students.”
And when she returns to her classroom next week, Dueñas said she’ll avoid talking politics but remind her students how important their voices can be.
“I will let them know this is something I believe in,” she said. “And when they grow up, I want them to follow their beliefs.
