How did The Bard phrase it? "Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
Macbeth was lamenting life as a meaningless tale told by an idiot, but he could have been referring to the opposition of Betsy DeVos as secretary of Education.
In announcing her dissent, Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she believed DeVos has much to learn about public education. Quoth the senior Alaskan member of the world's greatest deliberative body: "I have serious concerns about a nominee to be secretary of education who has been so involved on one side of the equation, so immersed in the push for vouchers that she may be unaware of what actually is successful within the public schools and also what is broken and how to fix them."
The italics are mine, but let's drill down on this awareness issue Murkowski raised briefly.
It's natural to assume that the senator is aware that Alaska leads the nation in public school expenditures, with a median spending level of more than $26,000 per student. In the per-pupil spending category, Alaska spends twice what its nearest state neighbor Washington spends, and 40 percent more than the national average.
Murkowski would also be aware that the National Center for Education Statistics keeps up with student achievement level data in all 50 states. Alaska is nowhere near the top perch. Indeed, on fourth- and eighth-grade proficiency percentages, Alaska is well below the national average. Washington state, conversely, is well above it.
Alaska is also 10 percentage points below the national graduation rate, and five points below Washington state's. Yet Alaska pays its teachers $12,000 per year more than Washington state does.
Education Week has handed out "Quality Counts" report cards to all states since 1997. On its last report card, which graded six categories, Alaska got two Ds, three Cs and a B-, scoring below the national average in every category but one: school finance.
Is Murkowski unaware of her home state's education statistics?
Alaska throws the most money at public schools but can't even turn out average test scores or graduation rates, and gets a D- on its report card for "the teaching profession" where it outspends many other states that get better grades.
Murkowski tossed her lot in with Democrats who tried to torpedo DeVos' nomination in true Shakespearean fashion. Lots of sound, lots of fury.
In the midst of it, Vice President Mike Pence kept his calm, predicting that it would be his "high honor to cast the deciding tie-breaking vote." Which it was.
For all their strutting and fretting on the Capitol stage, Democrats' hyped-up opposition was but a walking shadow. Shakespeare put it this way: "Out, out brief candle!"
Worse than the hype, however, was the elitist hypocrisy. Senator after senator who had never attended a public school or sent their children to one condemned DeVos for doing the same thing.
Personally, many critical senators reportedly fund prestigious private schools with tuitions their average constituents couldn't dream of affording.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse is a product of St. Paul's School in New Hampshire ($56k annual tuition). His daughter attended the Wheeler School in Providence, R.I. ($35k).
Sen. Michael Bennet hails from St. Albans in Washington, D.C. ($50k), and his daughter attended the Logan School for Creative Learning in Denver ($18k).
Sen. Maggie Hassan, who said DeVos "would work to gut our public school system," avoided that same system by sending her daughter to Phillips Exeter Academy ($47k).
If abandoning public schools for yourself or your children should be a disqualifier for service in the government that oversees public education, then a whole lot of senators and representatives would need to resign.
In line with true advocates of education reform everywhere, DeVos supports the many, many public schools that perform well in terms of teaching our kids.
But no one should support the status quo for schools that aren't performing well or are failing altogether. None of DeVos' critics would dare send their own children to such schools; instead they choose the best schools they can for their kids. And yet they oppose vouchers, charters and other initiatives that would give poor families who cannot afford to relocate or pay tuition the same kind of choice.
This much is obvious: it's not OK to turn a blind eye to disadvantaged kids trapped in dysfunctional schools that don't work.
Back in 1992, the internal catchphrase of the Democratic campaign was "It's the economy, stupid," to remind everyone to stay focused and on task as they successfully unseated an incumbent president.
The new version might be something like, "It's the elitism, stupid."
Average Americans are tired of the political elite seeking only to protect their dominant perch, whether the subject is education or crime or immigration or jobs.
From Measure for Measure, more Shakespeare applies: "But man, proud man, dressed in a little brief authority; most ignorant of what he's most assured."
The clamor and furor now passed, time will tell whether Secretary DeVos lives up to her stated passion about empowering local communities, teachers and parents to improve education.
It's in all our best interests if she succeeds.
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Dana D. Kelley is a freelance writer from Jonesboro.
Editorial on 02/10/2017