UPDATE 1/18/17: DeVos’ hearings were an utter fiasco; she made clear she lacks even a basic understanding of education issues. Mother Jones has gathered together videos of her worst moments here; Vox looks at one key issue she evidently knows nothing about. Also, BEARS!
Time to pester your senators again, this time about Donald Trump’s awful pick for Secretary of Education: Betsy DeVos, a billionaire school-privatization fanatic who’s devoted more than two decades to questionable education “reforms” that put more government money into the pockets of private corporations and Christian schools while undermining public schools.
After a delay caused by her failure to fully disclose her financial info, DeVos will be grilled by members of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee today.
Lisa Graves of the progressive Center for Media and Democracy sets out the case against DeVos, noting in a post on PR Watch that many observers “have decried the choice as a looming disaster for public schools in America.”
Teachers unions are aghast:
Randi Weingarten, the president of AFT, stated that “Betsy DeVos is everything Donald Trump said is wrong in America–an ultra-wealthy heiress who uses her money to game the system and push a special-interest agenda that is opposed by the majority of voters.”
As Graves concludes,
The nomination of Betsy DeVos to be the head of the Department of Education is a clear sign that the nation is about to embark on a dangerously extreme national experiment in the privatization of our education system that could deal a death blow to our public schools as we have known them.
The expansion of charters has marched forward despite the fact that fly-by-night charter operators … have committed more than $200 million dollars in fraud and waste in recent years, as documented by the Center for Popular Democracy. …
As the Center for Media and Democracy has detailed, the federal government has spent nearly $4 billion in tax dollars on the charter school experiment advanced by DeVos and other billionaires, like the Kochs and the Walton family. …
[C]harter schools in the DeVos backyard of Michigan have been embroiled in fraud and scandal, and … the state has even received federal tax dollars for charters that never even opened. …
Betsy DeVos has used her family fortune to distort public policy to suit her personal agenda through direct donations and dark money because, in her own words, she wants a “return on our investment.”
Meanwhile, NPR notes that
DeVos and her family have given more than a million dollars to sitting Republican Senators, according to Federal Election Commission reports, as well as some $10 million more to Super PACs and party committees.
That has prompted numerous left-leaning groups, including End Citizens United, to call for some senators to recuse themselves on a DeVos confirmation vote.
Ya think?
So get calling! Or emailing!
You can find contact info for your senators here.
You can find out if they’re on the Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee here.
See my posts here and here for information and advice on how to make your calls and emails effective. If making these sorts of calls is tough for you, here’s some advice on calling politicians if you have social anxiety.
And please set some time aside this week to call your senators and congresspeople to urge them to oppose the GOP’s attempt to repeal the Affordable Care Act. (See my post here.)
And to encourage them to boycott Trump’s inauguration. (See my post here.) At last count, more than 40 congresspeople have announced that they will be standing with John Lewis and skipping Trump’s coronation.
A real national resistance movement is developing to stand up against Trump and the Republicans. Make yourself part of it!
Equal opportunity, ain’t that what we want to be?
But every step we take it seems that there’s a hulking enemy
Give the cash to a corrupt bloke, all kids get are pigs in pokes
And every action that she takes seems to warrant a blackened cloak
In a world with so much young, every off-key song’s been sung
Why we should play keep-away with cash to push them down a rung
Same ol’ song, different tune, give the rich white men a boon
While everyone who’s not quite that’s jettisoned towards certain doom
People, please, you don’t want this! Something’s critically amiss
They whip ’em out and in the well of potential they’ll surely piss
The world’s on its tipping point, this ain’t my choice to appoint
Do this and our nation will be truly doomed to disappoint
Really think that it’s okay to simply send your kids away
To labour over inane, mind-numbing tasks for pennies a day?
What a critical mistake, that a man can surely make
On this runaway train I’d say it’s about time to hit the brakes!
Troubelle, get some tunes behind this and get it on yoo-toob!!
@Weird Eddie
You’ll have to talk to dlouwe about that.
I wonder if she was behind that shocking documentary about privatised schools, Waiting For Superman? I’ve never seen such a heavy handed nasty bit of propaganda.
is she the one who’s in favor of child labor?
@brian
yes, yes she is.
My senator is on this committee and has issued a statement expressing his concern. I’m going to thank him for that when I call.
My Senator’s the Chair of the HELP Committee and he’s issued a very glowing statement on Betsy.
Gonna read him the riot act.
Riot act read.
DeVos is just another fox wanting to guard the henhouse.
OT:
Today I went to the mall downtown, Nordstan, to pick up a few things. I went to the Asian food store for some veggies, the pet store for cat candies, the liquor store for ginger beer, the book store for notebooks, and the grocery store for onions and a light bulb. Then I gave some change to a homeless woman, and sat down at the coffee shop for an hour to read and play Pokémon.
I just came home, fried up some veggie burgers and sat down by the computer to eat. After reading some WHTM comments and some news articles, I happened upon the Twitter page of 34 year old Paulina Forslund, one of the most prominent Nazis in Sweden (also a mother of 8!). She had also been to Nordstan!
In fact, she had recently posted a picture she took in the mall, where she challenged readers to identify any actual Swedes in the picture. Presumably her point was that most of the people in the photos had dark hair.
She also linked to a “news” article (which you probably shouldn’t click on, but I include the link just in case):
http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/754126/Violent-migrant-gangs-Swedish-shopping-centre-no-go-zone-Gothenburg
From the article:
Yeah, the headline just cuts off there. Officials what? We’ll never know.
Wow, which shopping centre could this be? That sounds terrible!
It’s right here in Gothenburg? Oh wow, how come I haven’t heard about this hellhole before?
Wait, wha…? Nordstan? The… mall… right next to central station? The place I visit several times a week is a “no-go zone”? Police are being harassed there? Gangs are dealing drugs openly? But… I was just there! I saw nothing like this! In fact, I’ve never seen anything like this in Nordstan because it’s not fucking true.
Paulina Forslund lives in Kungälv, which means she must’ve been to this mall hundreds of times before. In other words, she knows it’s not a “no-go zone”. Why the fuck would she go to a place where “girls” are allegedly routinely harassed by roving refugee gangs, just so she could take a crappy photo for her Twitter?
Scrolling through the replies to one of Forslund’s tweets about Nordstan, I see people with screen names like “Deplorable BW”, “Deplorable Me”, “The Deplorable Polak”, “deplorablejayo”, “Defender of West”, and so on. I see comments like:
When I was down there, in this alleged war zone, just a few hours ago, I discussed Pokémon Go strategies with a mixed race couple and their Team Mystic daughters. I had to walk away from some pushy Jehovas Witnesses. I watched an old man dancing to Michael Jackson songs. In my reality, these are things that happen in Nordstan.
The neo-Nazis live in an alternative, entirely made up, reality. They are using their invented dystopian fantasy story to justify violent attacks.
I’ve never felt unsafe in Nordstan. Until now.
Hello again, I’m really look forward to the discussion on this subject, and I have a question on it. How should I feel about having attended a charter school? I
If any of you have seen waiting for superman a school called “Summit” was brought up at one point, I went to its sister school “everest.” For me I felt that it was very much a positive experience, since I was able to get support from my teachers due to the small amount of students, but a lot of the other students found issues with the system, which had changed a lot since the filming of “Waiting for superman” (I’ll elaborate if anyone wants). i also know there are a lot of problems with charter outside of mine in particular (though I’ve avoided learning specifics out of fear of triggering my depression, but consuming information through conversation instead of media always makes it easier for me, so feel free to educate me) so I just need some other opinions I guess. Sorry for this rambly post, and thank you for reading if you did.
Also TL:DR
I don’t know how to feel about going to a charter school, and need someone to set me straight.
@IP
Sweet Jesus, dude. I’m not sure what to say about that. It’s like, I know my red relatives don’t seem to have the most clear view on things, but this….This is just ridiculous.
I think this in and of itself deserves something of its own, directed towards those with this interlocutor’s viewpoint.
Come on with me and soon you’ll see
A place where there’s diversity
People from diff’rent walks of life
Int’racting with min’mal strife
Now I’d say this is an example of a normal society
But there’s something shining in your eyes
You think that there’s something up with these guys?
You think you’re gonna say something unwise?
And there you are again, on about people that aren’t like ye
I’ve heard every word of it before
Terms present in several tomes of yore
Peppered with many terms that invoke gore
I try to ask you why, but you say there’s something I can’t see
But you don’t care to share
I ask why I should care
You take it as a dare and go off on me
I’m telling you, I’m so very tired
Of the conflict in which your mind is mired
Now, I may be the one who sports the spectacles here
But they won’t let me see through your eyes
Go on and tell me, just what’s wrong with them?
Is it the fact that they have their fair share of melanin?
Is it what they wear on their heads that’s not a ball cap or a top hat?
And now I can’t understand a single word you’re saying….Won’t you stop that?
Despite my simple suggestion that’ll stop all the attention
You’re drawing to yourself with your noise
Women, men, nonbinary folks, little girls and boys
You continue to insist it’s your choice
Your choice to what? Your choice to hate? But you ignore the question
In favor of going on and on
Everyone can tell that something’s going wrong
Goin’ on about some….well, let’s just say it would rhyme. Pretend it does.
Soon folks are clear your opinion here is you think they’re afflictions
I’m pretty [BLEEP]ing sure that they mind
Yes, you’re being very much unkind!
[FAST, EXTENDED] I tell you that, but you keep going, you not being deaf is something I’m knowing, so my conclusion is that you’re blind
You can’t bring yourself to look them in the eyes
Blinded by the hate that made your human compassion lyse
The only thing you’re accomplishing is looking like a tool!
And yet you insist that you’re not the media’s fool
I don’t know what happened to make you this way
Guess hate was your potter to your lump of clay
I’ll decide for you that that’s enough for today
Now let’s get you far, far, away…
I’m tired of hearing you scream at those folks
I told you round the bend,
I had some advice to lend (but you didn’t take it)
You demanded why I’d grinned (’twas more like a rictus)
You could have been anything, even a friend
But all tolerance and love for fellow man you’d binned…
Guess this has to end.
@Overly,
I think if you had an extremely positive experience at a Charter school, that is great. EVERYONE deserves to have a great school experience, which is why I believe in public school education.
I believe you can be supportive of the education you have had (I went to a private Catholic school from kindergarten to 8th grade, because the public schools in my area were not “good.”), but still understand how it hurts the public school system as a whole. (My home-city’s public school system is awful, and my parents moving me to a private school did contribute to that in some small way)
A majority of white people in my city either sent their kids to private school or moved to the suburbs, devastating the schools of the major city. Charter schools pull money from the public school system (further weakening public schools) – which then allow politicians to further denigrate our public schools. (They are also potentially not managed very well and have a track record for going out of business in the middle of the school year).
I think public schools are intensely, majorly, beyond-words, important. And the move to charter schools can further damage our public education system. However, I also understand that some of these schools have made an incredible impact to school districts and their students. I think you can acknowledge the good your school did for you, while still not supporting the greater system it exists in.
She is very homophobic and donates to homophobic organizations.
Unfortunately, since I live in the region where the DeVoses place thier ~philanthropy~ I’ve probably accidentally gave them money before.
@Overly Long Name, Dan Hoan:
And also, there are different types of charter schools. Some of them can be quite good, while others exist solely to function like private religious schools (see http://www.salon.com/2017/01/17/inside-donald-trumps-extremest-education-agenda_partner/ and particularly the section about the Barney Initiative) to keep a safe insular environment where the students and their families won’t be challenged by dangerous and secular ideas like same-sex couples or inter-racial marriages. All the while sucking money from the rest of the school system.
In some of these cases, the charter schools in fact violate the law by not living up to the educational requirements that are needed to get the government money; they rely on the government in question being too underfunded to check on what they’re actually doing.
Considering that DeVos actively supports Focus on the Family and other such groups, it’s not hard to guess where she stand on this.
Charter schools can be good. But there is no indication that DeVos is interested in anything but using Charter Schools to create religious schools that suck enough out of the education budget that the rest of the public school system can be drowned in the proverbial bathtub.
I agree with what Dan says to Overly Long Name. If there are good charter schools out there and you went to one of them, great.
OTOH, we’ve seen some rotten apples in that barrel, and they aren’t going to get magically better. Why is it that DeVos and company will say that public schools can’t be saved by money, but if we give charter schools money all will be well?
I know I’ve said this before, but every charter school in my area has closed after just a few years…
Overly, I am glad you received a quality education. That hasn’t seemed to be the norm in my particular area.
Yeah, I just want to echo, if you’ve had a great school experience, that’s great! Don’t let anyone make you feel bad for where you went to school.
These charter school hawks stand to profit from every dollar that gets shunted their way from public schools, either because they’ve invested in them, or they get paid to lobby.
The problem with educational vouchers is the same problem with health care vouchers. When the money’s spent, it’s spent, and you have to make up the difference. What’s to keep the schools from raising tuition, and the government from slashing vouchers?
Pretty soon, it’ll be the richest among us going to school, while the rest of us flip burgers. Not to mention, the educations are going to vary wildly. They’ll be teaching the lessons that they want to teach, not the truth.
@ Everyone who Replied
Thank you, it means a lot having support and kindness coming from so many intelligent and compassionate people. Now I’m going to try to respond to each of you individually.
@Dan
I very much agree that there needs to be more funding for public schools, since the majority of people will probably go to one, and that there needs to be a way to keep public school situations from worsening because of (white/middle class/rich) people not wanting to send their kids there.
@ Jenora
Firstly wow, that’s super awful to take funding away from places that need it just so you can keep your child in an echo chamber. Also kind of humorously my charter school had the opposite effect on me exposing me to new ideas, and probably keeping me from turning into a brogressive or worse.
@VP
I agree, and the thing to remember about bad apples is that they ruin the rest of your apples too (bruised apples emit some hormone that causes other apples around them to rot), so the more we allow this to happen the more it will happen
@PeeVee
What were the charter schools like in your area? I figure crappy, and lacking in proper education, but were there any particular stand out things they did?
@Falconer
Honestly I feel like in that worse case scenario, people wouldn’t even be employed, the rich would be happy to let the poor die off while replacing them with mechanical workers, because I don’t think they want people to suffer, they want to maximize profits and if mechanical means are cheaper then paying for employees they’d take that route. Which would honestly make an interesting concept for a dystopian novel, set during the transition were the poor and middle class are dying off while the economy becomes more and more insular to the rich, who are able to cut off the poor from any source of income due to government deregulation, or something like that.
Opposing a woman’s cabinet nomination? How feminist of you! But of course you only support women who aren’t thought criminals and who support every piece of your progressive agenda. Look up New Wave Feminists and the injustice that was perpetrated on them by the Women’s March. I did not like trump before and did not vote for him but now I realize that he and Tsar Putin are the only hope to save us from treacherous totalitarian treason.
Part of the issue with DeVos, and I probably should have put in something about this, is that she’s also advocated for LESS oversight of charter schools, which certainly will mean more fly-by-night companies getting into it.
Education is complicated, and some charter schools are great. But DeVos is a fanatic on the issue.
Well, yes, she’s an advocate for less oversight. No surprise given her obvious enthusiasm for blatantly religious schooling. The article I posted a link to above mentions her connections to (as in, several members of her immediate family graduated from) Hillsdale College. Hillsdale is one of the colleges that not only rejects any federal funding (including financial aid), but they’ve also been applying for Title IX exemptions so they can legally discriminate against LGBT students. Which they already do anyway. Hillsdale is also one of Rush Limbaugh’s sponsors.
Hillsdale College is what DeVos wants education to be like: only available if you can pay for it, and limited to ‘Christian’ education where evolution is taught as a conspiracy to prevent people from learning the Truth about God, and where you can get thrown out without a refund if you get caught having sex out of wedlock.
Really, the family list is scary enough. Her brother founded ‘private security firm’ Blackwater/Xe/Academi. Her father-in-law was a co-founder of Amway.
Hi everyone! Longtime lurker who really appreciates this blog -especially these days…
While I think all of Trump’s appointments are awful, as a person who works in special education, I have a particular concerns with this appointment. Below is a link from a conversation on NPR this morning with incoming Senator Maggie Hassan that I think sums up my concerns very well.
I appreciate her mentioning the legal protections special education students often must forego to access vouchers, as well as her explanation of public vs private charters and their lack of accountability.
@Overly,
They mostly closed for poor academic performance, and for the theft of federal funding.
@IP
“It’s a feature, not a bug” (though it is an extremely annoying feature). More specifically, it is a hallmark of “headlinese”; a dash followed by a noun at the end of the headline means that the rest of the headline was a quote or paraphrase of the identified party (in this case, unnamed “officials”). It is essentially a “people are saying” clause.
But yeah, the Daily Express is toilet paper at the best of times.
@Ariblester
Oh! Well, in my defense the article was absolutely packed with typos, missing words, and weird grammar mistakes. It seemed plausible that they might have accidentally left out half the headline too. :p