A petition to replace Betsy DeVos with basketball superstar and philanthropist LeBron James as Secretary of Education is gaining steam. The petition has a goal of 30,000 signatures, and at the time of this writing has well over 25,000.
The petition was started by a woman named Rebecca G. and is intended for the eyes of President Donald Trump. As Rebecca G. outlines in the petition, there are two possible choices: "LeBron James, a highly respected and extremely influential community advocate and activist who recently opened a state-of-the-art public school for at-risk children in Akron, Ohio," she says, or "Betsy DeVos, a scandal-ridden Republican donor who shows an inexcusable dislike for public education, wants to gut protections for women and minorities, and has advocated for teachers to be armed in schools."
Even if the petition reaches its goal, which it seems on pace to, the likelihood of the Secretary of Education being fired at the behest of an online petition is incredibly slim. Even slimmer is the likelihood that a millionaire athlete would give up playing ball to work under an administration for which he's publicly expressed distaste. Anyway, last week, the President called James dumb on Twitter.
Still, stranger things have happened, and as the petition says, "it's worth a try!"
Jacob Stocking is a summer editorial intern at the Metro Times.
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