To the Editor:

Sen. Pat Toomey’s constituents have spoken.

We’ve spoken so voluminously and so loudly that we’ve been unable to reach Toomey by phone or fax.

Today, I am dismayed at Toomey’s written response, in which he relays he will support Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education despite the flooding of opposition to her from his constituents.

We see who Sen. Toomey serves, and it is not the people in his state, but the people with deep pockets - families like the DeVos family who have donated nearly $60,000 to his campaign.

Unfortunately, I cannot buy Toomey with that sort of money because I am a special education public school teacher at a Title I school, and that amount is more than I make in a single year.

In Toomey’s letter, he refers to schools like the one I work at as “subpar” schools.

I challenge Toomey to question what about them is subpar - the teachers and staff who work on average 50+ hours a week? Who spend their weekends planning lessons and spending money from their own paychecks for classroom supplies? The students who lack access and power yet continue to show up in the hope that education is the key? The parents of those students who work to provide a better life for their children?

If we are subpar, it is because the people who we have elected, the people who make the laws, largely ignore our schools and our children.

Toomey’s decision to support Mrs. DeVos will only further marginalize our students and deteriorate our schools.

Mrs. Devos’ reliance on charter schools and vouchers will further widen the opportunity gap that already exists for poor and working class students, students of color and students with disabilities.

While Mrs. DeVos boasts of vouchers and claims to “work on behalf of all children,” students with disabilities often must give up their legal and civil rights under IDEA in order to use such vouchers. Furthermore, the cost of funding education and transportation for voucher recipients will fall on the public school in which that student resides. This serves to further burden our poorest districts by pulling away even more money and resources from our most marginalized students.

And speaking of those students, how will Toomey and Mrs. DeVos decide who most deserves those vouchers? Must they apply? What are the qualifications? Will there be a wait list? How will they decide who is most deserving? And what do we plan to do with those students deemed undeserving - those left to attend the “subpar” schools, as Toomey calls them?

Because the students left behind in this plan will be those children who already most lack access, power and privilege. And those are the students Toomey’s constituents will continue to fight for and represent, as he has chosen to ignore us.

We will not forget Toomey’s betrayal of us in favor of those who funded his campaign. He may hope the sting will numb over the course of the next six years, but we will do everything in our power to remind those who voted for Toomey of where his loyalties lie.

Regina Clark

Allentown