If you support Public Education - please vote no on Betsy Devos

[GreyhoundFan]

"Here’s who Trump invited to the White House to talk about schools. The list says a lot about his education priorities.", It's a good article, but here's the interesting list -- you can see the discrepancy between the invitees and actual school enrollment percentages.

Quote

The 10 invited teachers and parents were, according to the White House:

* Carol Bonilla, a Spanish teacher at a private school
* Bartholomew Cirenza, a parent of seven students in a public school
* Kenneth Michael Smith, a parent and president of a dropout-prevention program
* Aimee Viana, a parent of two students at a private school and a former principal
* Kathyrn Mary Doherty, a parent of a student at a private Catholic school
* Laura Lynn Parrish, a parent of a home-schooled student
* Julie R. Baumann, a fifth-grade teacher at a public school
* Jane Quenneville, a principal of a public school specializing in special education
* Jennifer Jane Coleman, a parent and a teacher of four home-school students
* Mary Caroline Riner, a parent of a student at a charter school

Keep in mind that more than 80 percent of America’s schoolchildren attend traditional public schools. According to the National Center for Education Statistics:

* About 10 percent of schoolchildren in the United States go to private schools, according to 2013-14 data, the latest available, with 38 percent of these enrolled in Catholic schools.
* About 5 percent attend charter schools, according to 2013-14 data, the latest available. Charter schools are publicly funded but operate outside traditional public districts, and many are run by for-profit companies.
* About 3 percent are home-schooled, according to 2012 data, the latest available.

At the meeting were two invitees from traditional public schools, and one from a public school that specializes in special education. That’s three out of 10. Three were from private schools.  Two were home-schoolers. One was from a charter school. One was from a dropout-prevention program.

What does this tell us about the education priorities of Trump and DeVos? Exactly what supporters of public education had expected: that the Trump administration would focus on promoting alternatives to traditional public education rather than working on helping improve the schools that most students attend.

 

[PsyD2013]

I see that Rep.  King from Iowa helped introduce a bill to strip money from public schools.  HR 610, the School Choice Act, would eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  These federal funds would then be used to create "block grants" to be used to distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll their child in a public school alternative such as private, for profit or homeschool.   It would also roll back nutritional standards for free lunches for poor children.  

 

[Childless]

43 minutes ago, PsyD2013 said:

I see that Rep.  King from Iowa helped introduce a bill to strip money from public schools.  HR 610, the School Choice Act, would eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  These federal funds would then be used to create "block grants" to be used to distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll their child in a public school alternative such as private, for profit or homeschool.   It would also roll back nutritional standards for free lunches for poor children.  

 

Grrrrrrr....  People are so stupid!  Why would anyone support this?  They're not going to give you enough money to cover the entire cost of tuition at these private schools.  Where are these people going to get the money to make up the difference?  Hint: Nowhere.  They aren't going to be able to do it.  So, their kids will go to the same public school they've always attended.  The only difference is that now there will be less money available as rich people, who were sending their kids to private school before and could easily afford to do so without government funds, will be siphoning money out of their kids' schools.  Only idiots would support a bill that would harm their own children.  And I say this as someone who sends her kids to private school.  Would a voucher make my life a bit easier?  Certainly.  But I don't want other kids' educations to suffer so I can have more spending money in my pocket.  It's just pure greed.  If someone wants to send their children to a private or parochial school, they should do so on their own dime.

And I haven't even touched on the fact that there are limited spaces available in private and parochial schools, so good luck getting you special needs or C (or below) average kid into one of these places.

Edited February 17, 2017 by Childless
Missing words make it hard to understand sentences

[quiversR4hunting]

1 hour ago, PsyD2013 said:

I see that Rep.  King from Iowa helped introduce a bill to strip money from public schools.  HR 610, the School Choice Act, would eliminate the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  These federal funds would then be used to create "block grants" to be used to distribute a portion of funds to parents who elect to enroll their child in a public school alternative such as private, for profit or homeschool.   It would also roll back nutritional standards for free lunches for poor children.  

This made my heart sink.

@Childless I agree whole heartily. These rich fat cats in congress are trying to take us back to the time when only the rich were educated. Middle and poor class be damned.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Poor Betsy-wetsy, money doesn't blow away your critics: "DeVos: Critics want to ‘make my life a living hell’". An excerpt:

Quote

In a speech and several interviews, DeVos made clear that she is planning to push the expansion of school choice — charter schools, voucher programs and other alternatives to traditional public schools.

In an interview with Axios, excerpts of which were published on Feb. 17, she said:

“I expect there will be more public charter schools. I expect there will be more private schools. I expect there will be more virtual schools. I expect there will be more schools of any kind that haven’t even been invented yet.”

The one thing she said she didn’t expect more of was traditional public schools.

As far as the role of the federal government in education, she said:

“I think in some of the areas around protecting students and ensuring safe environments for them, there is a role to play. … I mean, when we had segregated schools and when we had a time when, you know, girls weren’t allowed to have the same kind of sports teams — I mean, there have been important inflection points for the federal government to get involved.”

But when asked whether there are any other issues in which the federal government should intervene, she said: “I can’t think of any now.” As to whether the Education Department should be eliminated, she said:

“It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job, but I’m not sure that — I’m not sure that there will be a champion movement in Congress to do that.”

In an interview with conservative columnist Cal Thomas published on Feb. 16, the Michigan billionaire blasted protesters for the second time in the same week, saying they are “sponsored and very carefully planned” and not “genuine protests.”

“We’ve seen enough written that they want to make my life a living hell. They also don’t know what stock I come from. I will not be deterred from my mission in helping kids in this country.”

She is such a piece of work.

[bashfulpixie]

7 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Poor Betsy-wetsy, money doesn't blow away your critics: "DeVos: Critics want to ‘make my life a living hell’". An excerpt:

She is such a piece of work.

If by "piece of work" you mean "flaming sack of dog shit" I agree completely. That piece of garbage raises my blood pressure so bad

Edited February 17, 2017 by bashfulpixie

[PsyD2013]

I hope supporters of public education continue to make Betsy's life a living hell.  

[GreyhoundFan]

"Betsy DeVos being guarded by U.S. Marshals Service". The article begins:

Quote

The U.S. Marshals Service says it is providing security for Education Secretary Betsy DeVos after a handful of protesters prevented her from entering a D.C. middle school

The move is unusual for the Education Department, which typically has a team of civil servants guarding the secretary, and for the marshals, law enforcement officers who are generally responsible for protecting federal judges, transporting prisoners, apprehending fugitives and protecting witnesses.

The last Cabinet member protected by marshals was a director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Lynzey Donahue, a spokeswoman for the Marshals Service. That office ceased to be a Cabinet-level position in 2009.

This all came about because of the group of protesters who tried to block her from entering a public school in DC last week.

The article also includes the following:

Quote

In an interview Wednesday with the conservative publication Townhall, DeVos said that on the basis of her first few days in the job, she had concerns that some Education Department employees were sympathetic to the Obama administration.

“I . . . would not be surprised if there are also those that would try to subvert the mission of this organization and this department,” Devos said. Asked what she could do about that, she said, “Whatever can be done will be done, and it will be done swiftly and surely.”

So she goes right to full-blown paranoia -- those skeery subversive libruls are going to cause problems. That's okay, she's going to fire them all quickly, just like Tillerson.

[RoseWilder]

Glennon Doyle Melton (the blogger who writes Momastery) normally annoys me, but I'm cheering her on right now because she posted this on her Facebook page: 

Quote

Last week, I learned that an event at which I was booked to speak is being held at The DeVos Place Convention Center, and that the DeVos family company is the diamond-level sponsor of the event.

As a public person who holds other public people to the highest standards of transparency and integrity, I cannot accept money from a source whose agenda flies directly in the face of my values: Namely, my commitment to the integrity of excellent public education for all our nation's children as a bedrock of our communities and the foundation of our nation’s future; and my conviction that government officials should be bound, not to the dictates of those who write large checks, but to the most vital needs of the people they’ve been elected to serve.

I have decided that the next right thing is to pull myself out of the event, and then accept the consequences of that decision.

I hope more people follow her lead. 

[GreyhoundFan]

"DeVos criticized teachers at D.C. school she visited — and they are not having it'. A couple of quotes:

Quote

Newly minted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had a hard time getting inside the District’s Jefferson Middle School Academy last week when protesters briefly blocked her from entering. But at the end of her visit — her first to a public school since taking office — she stood on Jefferson’s front steps and pronounced it “awesome.”

A few days later, she seemed less enamored. The teachers at Jefferson were sincere, genuine and dedicated, she said, they seemed to be in “receive mode.”

“They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,” DeVos told a columnist for the conservative online publication Townhall. “You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.”

...

Jefferson educators found her comments about their work hard to take: On Friday evening, the school responded to DeVos via its Twitter account, taking exception to the education secretary’s characterization of Jefferson teachers.

“We’re about to take her to school,” the first of 11 rapid-fire tweets said.

The tweetstorm singled out teachers like Jessica Harris, who built Jefferson’s band program “from the ground up,” and Ashley Shepherd and Britany Locher, who not only teach students ranging from a first- to eighth-grade reading level, but also “maintain a positive classroom environment focused on rigorous content, humor, and love. They aren’t waiting to be told what to do.”

“JA teachers are not in a ‘receive mode,'” the tweets concluded. “Unless you mean we ‘receive’ students at a 2nd grade level and move them to an 8th grade level.”

Some interesting Tweets are enclosed in the article. I hope every time she says or does something stupid and/or offensive, she's taken to task for it publicly.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

"Former D.C. schools chief takes on DeVos: ‘Sorry lady … this is so amateur and unprofessional’". I can't really quote it, because the Tweets and screenshots are too integral. I hope public figures keep hounding DeVos.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Rough First Week Gives Betsy DeVos a Glimpse of the Fight Ahead". The article begins this way:

Quote

By the end of her first full week as the secretary of education, Betsy DeVos had already sparred with a middle school and a former schools chancellor in Washington, accused some of the school’s teachers of passively awaiting instruction and said she would be pleased if the department she currently runs did not exist in the future. She encountered an immediate display of the type of fierce resistance she will face as she tries to set new policies for the Education Department.

On Sunday, she received a somewhat warmer welcome from the New York City schools chancellor, Carmen Fariña, who said in a radio interview that she was ready to work with Ms. DeVos. Even as she urged Ms. DeVos not to cut funding for the city’s public schools, Ms. Fariña said that despite their ideological differences, the two could make sure that children are properly educated. “I work with everyone,” Ms. Fariña said. “I will have conversations with anyone and everyone to ensure that the work we’re doing here is being celebrated and recognized, and we’ll see what time will bring.”

In interviews with two online news organizations, Ms. DeVos began laying the groundwork for her approach. “It would be fine with me to have myself worked out of a job,” she told Axios, adding that she expects there will be more public charter schools, private schools and virtual schools under her leadership. She told Townhall, a conservative outlet, that she doubted the validity of the demonstrations against her and that her critics and protesters wanted to make her life “a living hell.”

“I don’t think most of those are spontaneous, genuine protests,” she said. “I think they’re all being sponsored and very carefully planned.”

She said in the Townhall interview that she planned to focus on rolling out the Every Student Succeeds Act, a policy signed into law by President Barack Obama, while also pushing for controversial school choice policies like voucher programs.

...

The article continues with some of the Tweets that have gone back and forth about Betsy Wetsy. I have a feeling Ms. Farina will regret being welcoming, as Betsy will make sure her schools are screwed in the long run.

[RoseWilder]

It's really getting irritating how every Republican who is greeted with protests and other forms of resistance claims they're not people who are genuinely opposed to them, but rather paid protestors. So in their warped minds, no on the entire country could possibly disagree with them. What a bunch of assholes. 

[formergothardite]

Who exactly is supposed to be paying massive amounts of people to protest? It doesn't even make sense when it is thought through. 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, formergothardite said:

Who exactly is supposed to be paying massive amounts of people to protest? It doesn't even make sense when it is thought through. 

It's all those ill-gotten funds from the Clinton Foundation, you know, the money they stole from Haiti after they killed Vince Foster. I'm sure that's what the Republican jackholes would say or think...

[VelociRapture]

Posted this in the Trump thread too:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/899/text

[candygirl200413]

It kills me why people think some departments (ie: Education/EPA) don't do shit. Like really?! really?! Just because you don't feel personally the affected doesn't mean you still aren't being affected!!

 

[Howl]

The Onion nails it yet again.  

 They are doing a series called the First 100 Days of the Trump Administration.  Day 24 is Betsy DeVos. 

Quote

Betsy DeVos was confirmed by a 51-50 Senate vote Tuesday to run the Department of Education. Here’s how President Trump’s controversial cabinet pick plans to change the nation’s education policy:

• Relax unrealistically strict standards for secretary of education
• Modify Title IX to allow invisible hand of the market to sort out any student rape cases that may arise
• Identify at-risk students and do nothing whatsoever
• Ensure that all students, regardless of background, receive the opportunity to bask in the shining light of Christ
• Let low-income parents choose which one of their children gets to go to school
• Create emergency vocational program for cabinet members who lack proficiency and are way out of their depth
• Place power for establishing gym class floor hockey rules back in states’ hands where it belongs
• Require free- and reduced-lunch recipients to prostrate themselves before the principal at mealtimes
• Steer tax dollars away from failing, fundamentally defective public school students

•  

Edited February 22, 2017 by Howl

[JMarie]

11 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

It's all those ill-gotten funds from the Clinton Foundation, you know, the money they stole from Haiti after they killed Vince Foster. I'm sure that's what the Republican jackholes would say or think...

Or it's that darn George Soros again

[PsyD2013]

If the Department of Education is eliminated, then does the enforcement of federal legislation for students with disabilities return to local jurisdiction?  

[Howl]

19 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Who exactly is supposed to be paying massive amounts of people to protest? It doesn't even make sense when it is thought through. 

None of these Trump people will ever think this through; they're already eyebrow deep in whackaloon-ery and sinking fast. 

Republicans are starting to take pages out of Trump's  playbook -- Cheatin' Hillary, Little Marco Rubio, Lyin' Ted, the dishonest media, MAGA, Sad! -- and planting these phrases like "paid protesters" and then using  them over and over.  Again, we must remember, this co-opts Trump's base, who now believe it's the Gospel Truth that all these engaged, enraged, energized citizens are actually paid protesters bused in from out of state (or somewhere) to shit on honest politicians who are trying hard to have a folksy, cozy town hall meeting with their constituents. It's is a brilliant and brutally effective manipulation of political rhetoric to delegitimize legitimate political protest.  Seizing the narrative in this way literally creates an alternative reality for the people who believe it. 

As I mentioned upthread, 80% of Republican voters in my state approve of Trump's job performance as president so far.  

Edited February 22, 2017 by Howl

[sawasdee]

I'm not sure if I am putting this in the right thread, but as its main subject is education, I'm putting it here.

I have just watched a documentary, made last year, about the state  of US higher education, and student debt.

The main points -

1. The US spends  two and a half times as much taxpayer money on higher education than the average for developed countries - $25,000 to $10,000.

2.Despite this, the US has dropped from the No 1 position in quality of higher education to No 15 in the last 20 years.

3. Education seem to be the first cut made in state budgets.

4.The level of student debt has become crippling, with, for example, LSU going from 70% state funding, 30% student, to 20% state and 80% student, alongside a 65% rise in tuition costs.

5.For profit universities are being sued in many states for misleading students with regard to the marketability and recognition of their degrees, claiming alumni placements in their field as high as 95%. When students fail to find a job with a salary able to service their debt to such universities - often because they have been misled - and default, the taxpayer picks up the bill. Trump U , anyone?

Can you see DeVos doing ANYTHING about any of these concerns?

Surprisingly, for me, the Republican Governor of Tennessee has spearheaded one of the most successful initiatives to make higher education more widely available, with free two year community college for state students - allowing them to eventually finish with much less debt after a four year degree. He said this was encouraging a lot more low income students, and first generation college students, who were a definite asset to the state, and  helping encourage social mobility. Obama strongly supported this initiative - I do not see federal support as continuing, let alone the programme being encouraged in other states.

Finally - I remember, years ago, in the UK a proposal for a graduate tax, whereby higher education would continue to be free - as it was then! - but once income passed a certain, quite high, level, graduates would pay an extra 1% income tax until retirement. This would mean that socially important but low paying jobs, such as social workers, teachers, probation officers, would not in most cases have to repay, but those whose education had allowed them to maximise their earning power would pay forward. This, to me, is the best proposal other than free higher education for all that I have encountered. Under the present system in both the US and the UK, working in socially important but low paying jobs is economic suicide.

Sorry for the rant - the documentary truly disturbed me.

ETA Sorry - so mad I didn't say the name of the documentary! It was from a rather oddbird series on Fox Crime here, called Vice  - in season 4. Don't understand why it's called Vice - it covers international affairs, medicine, science, politics - mostly from a left of centre perspective.

 

 

[sawasdee]

Sorry to double post - but I forgot the point I was trying to make!

The educated of any nation are the future - the trailblazers, the researchers, the inventors - and the dumbing down of higher education in the US is gambling with that future. Another statistic from the documentary - the US has slipped from No1 in technical innovation to No 16.

This does not bode well. It may be good for the GOP to have an uneducated electorate - but it ain't good for the US, when countries like India - a growing economy - are outpacing them in such an important field. And in the current political climate, would you, as an Indian citizen, really want to come to work in the US? Especially as a Muslim Indian? The law of unintended consequences, Mr tRump.

[GreyhoundFan]

Betsy really should shut not open her mouth in public. She is so freaking stupid. "Betsy DeVos said, ‘There isn’t really any Common Core any more.’ Um, yes, there is."

Quote

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos can’t seem to make an accurate statement about the Common Core State Standards.

The Core was among the most controversial topics in education for years. It started as a bipartisan effort to create a set of math and English language-arts standards for students across the country to use, but it became an educational and political mess. Most states adopted and implemented the standards early in the Obama administration — but failed to give teachers sufficient time to learn it, and critics from every part of the political spectrum found fault with some part of the initiative.

A grass-roots revolt took place against the Core and federally funded standardized tests aligned to the standards, and some states have either replaced the standards or renamed them with minimal changes.

When she was first nominated late last year to be education secretary by Donald Trump, the Michigan billionaire was described as a strong ally of former Florida governor — and Common Core booster — Jeb Bush. She had not at that time attacked the Core publicly but later said she was not a supporter. During the campaign, Trump had promised “to get rid of Common Core,” and at a December rally with the president-elect, she repeated that sentiment, saying that the Trump administration would put an “end to the federal Common Core.”

Here’s the problem: The federal government didn’t technically impose the Core on the individual states; the standards were fully or in part approved by state bodies, departments of education or legislatures in 46 states. Only states can decide to get rid of the standards, and, in fact, some have. The Obama administration did dangle federal funds before states as incentives to adopt the standards — an act some states saw as coercion — but states didn’t have to adopt them, and a few didn’t.

Recently, DeVos told Michigan radio station host Frank Beckmann that the Every Student Succeeds Act effectively does away “with the notion of the Common Core,” Education Week reported. Wrong again. The ESSA, the successor law to No Child Left Behind, left it to states to decide on their standards, but, then again, the states had that right before.

And many states are still using them. A recent analysis found that of the 46 states that adopted the standards, eight states have officially repealed or withdrawn, 21 states have finalized revisions — many of them minor — or have revision processes underway, and 17 states have not yet made any changes.

Then on Monday, Devos told Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer that the ESSA “essentially does away with the whole argument about Common Core.” Hemmer asked her whether she would withhold federal funds to states that decide to maintain the Common Core standards as part of their ESSA accountability plans, which must be submitted and approved by the Education Department. This was her response:

There isn’t really any Common Core any more. Each state is able to set the standards for their state. They may elect to adopt very high standards for their students to aspire to and to work toward. And that will be up to each state.

Of course there still is something known as the Common Core. What she may have meant was that the federal government can’t tell states what to do about the Core, though, again, it couldn’t force states to adopt them before ESSA was passed in late 2015.

So, the bottom line is that DeVos, yet again, has talked — incorrectly — about the Common Core.

...

 

[AnywhereButHere]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/devos-education-cuts-alarming-but-necessary/ar-BBCaAcL?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=msnbcrd

Quote

Overall, Trump plans to eliminate or phase out 22 programs that the administration says are “duplicative, ineffective, or are better supported through state, local, or private efforts.”

The administration wants to cut teacher training, vocational training and before- and after-school programs, among others. It also wants to eliminate subsidized loans and a new loan forgiveness program for students who commit to public service after college. Trump wants to funnel the savings into several school choice proposals — including a $250 million fund for expanding public funding of private-school vouchers.

Sure, because teacher training is duplicative and ineffective. Okay then. What is wrong with this lady - besides being supremely unqualified for her job...