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

[GreyhoundFan]

Awww, poor Betsy is unhappy that people are mocking her: "Betsy DeVos defends herself on Twitter after being skewered for ’60 Minutes’ performance"

Spoiler

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos took to social media Monday to defend herself after she was hit with a tsunami of criticism for her performance during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

DeVos published a few tweets saying “60 Minutes” had failed to include information about schools in Michigan, the secretary’s home state, that she had provided. CBS did not immediately respond to a query about her tweets.

On Sunday night, DeVos was interviewed by veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl, who repeatedly challenged the education secretary on her views. DeVos said, for example, she had not “intentionally” visited an underperforming school and Stahl suggested that perhaps the secretary should. (DeVos responded, “Maybe I should.”) DeVos said billions upon billions of federal dollars had gone to waste in the public education system, another point Stahl said was not true.

Critics took to social media to lambaste DeVos — a Michigan billionaire who never attended or sent her children to a public school — for stumbling over some of her answers about basic education issues.

DeVos was back on television Monday, on a few different channels, talking about a new role President Trump has given her: leading a commission on school safety. The White House said it was setting up the Federal Commission on School Safety and would begin helping states to provide “rigorous firearms training” to some teachers to help prevent or stop campus shootings.

After her morning television interviews, DeVos repaired to Twitter to take issue with one part of the CBS interview. It involved the performance of public schools in Michigan, DeVos’s home state and the place where DeVos had spent decades and millions of dollars to encourage the spread of charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately run. She had less success in pushing vouchers — which use public money for private and religious school tuition — in the state.

Part of the conversation went like this:

DEVOS: “Well, in places where there have been, where there is, a lot of choice that’s been introduced, Florida, for example, the studies show that when there’s a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better, as well.”

STAHL: “Now, has that happened in Michigan? We’re in Michigan. This is your home state.”

DEVOS: “Yes, well, there’s lots of great options and choices for students here.”

STAHL: “Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?”

DEVOS: “I don’t know. Overall, I,  I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better.”

STAHL: “The whole state is not doing well.”

DEVOS: “Well, there are certainly lots of pockets where this, the students are doing well and . . .”

STAHL: “No, but your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better is not working in Michigan, where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.”

DEVOS: “I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”

STAHL: “The public schools here are doing worse than they did.”

DEVOS: “Michigan schools need to do better. There is no doubt about it.”

STAHL: “Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?”

DEVOS: “I have not, I have not, I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.”

STAHL: “Maybe you should.”

DEVOS: “Maybe I should. Yes.”

On Monday afternoon, DeVos tweeted the following, saying that “60 Minutes” had left out some information she had provided:

But DeVos did have time in the interview to note that Michigan schools were not preparing students as well as she thinks they should. Nobody mentioned the charts she cited in her tweet, comparing Michigan standardized test scores to national averages. But it is unclear why DeVos thought they should have been used by Stahl. The “60 Minutes” correspondent noted that Michigan schools were not doing well.

Again, it’s unclear why DeVos thought this should have been highlighted. It’s worth noting that during DeVos’s confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee in January 2017, she said, “I believe there is a lot that has gone right in Detroit and Michigan with regard to charter schools.” Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) noted that charter performance in Detroit was nothing to brag about.

“Detroit Public Schools averaged 9 percent — 9 percent of kids are proficient,” Bennett said. “Charter schools were a little better, 14 percent of the kids were proficient. I will stipulate that charter schools are doing better, but that is a horrible outcome for everybody involved.”

... < faux news video >

 

[GreyhoundFan]

From the wonderful Alexandra Petri: "Betsy DeVos has definitely seen a school at least once"

Spoiler

Lesley Stahl: Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: I have not — I have not — I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming. — “60 Minutes” interview, March 11, 2018 

Lesley Stahl: Have you ever seen a school?

Betsy DeVos: A school? I have — well, I hesitate to say a school. We, of course, know a school is not a building, nor is it a bus — unless it’s a bus? I’m pretty sure it’s not a bus. Although one can certainly learn on a bus. Indeed, that unconventional instructor with red hair who boldly threw away the lesson plan often taught on a bus. Indeed any place that learning occurs for a student, that, I would say, is a school.

Maybe the real school is life.

No, I’m sorry, Lesley, you must think I am an idiot. Of course this is a trick question: Schools do not exist. The real school is inside all of us.

Stahl: I thought this was going to be an easy question, but now I’m genuinely concerned. Have you never seen a school?

DeVos: I am hesitant to say I’ve SEEN a school, Lesley, because I know I’ve seen students. I think what I have seen is a group of students performing well or badly in isolation from one another in a kind of a building where they all stayed for the course of the day and gathered to hear different adults address them. Is that what you’re referring to? That entirely unconnected group of people?

Oh! No, wait, Lesley, I apologize.

I know what a school is.

Ha, this is embarrassing.

A school is a wonderful feature of the natural landscape of America of which we should be justly proud. Many communities have them, and it is easy to help them thrive. The sheer array of colors! The scales are just beautiful. The fins. The way they all move in concert together as though guided by an invisible force. It’s like an underwater ballet, Lesley. Schools create possibilities. Such as, for instance: They found Nemo, Lesley. That was a great achievement of a school.

Stahl: That is fish.

DeVos: I can’t tell if you’re joking or tricking me.

Stahl: You’re the secretary of education.

DeVos: I am in charge of arming the schools, I know that. Whatever they are. We are going to make certain teachers have the options to have guns, and also that students who do not have the option to go to a good school have the option to — have options. Oh my gosh, Lesley, I apologize. I remember now. That thing when you are nearly asleep when you feel suddenly as though you are falling, that momentary sensation that jolts you awake: That is a school.

No? I know it is not a tree. Or, of course, a mineral. Is it alive?

Ha ha, Lesley, do not answer; I know what a school is! I am just using a rhetorical technique!

A school is like a spa for the very poor? Like if you had a tutor to teach your students but there were a lot of students and you felt weird inviting the instructor to stay for tea sandwiches afterward?

Don’t answer, Lesley, I have it!

A school is a few feet out from shore with a big light on it and it helps prevent shipwrecks. A school is that feeling when you want to remember a word and it doesn’t come to you until hours later, maybe weeks later. A school is — they give everyone a little white ball and then you hit it with a silver stick, and it builds character.

Stahl: Please just Google “school,” Betsy. This is painful.

DeVos: I think a school is a tie store. People who have been to schools together they always say they have ties. You go there, and you get a big shirt that says your name and the year and some ties and when you wear them later in life people nod at you — Oh, oh! Is a school where Robin Williams tore up the book and they all got up on the desks? Or is a school where Robin Williams honked his nose? I know Robin Williams was in a movie about a school.

Stahl: Please just Google this.

(Long silence.)

DeVos: Well, I was basically right.

Stahl: Have you intentionally visited any schools?

DeVos: I have not intentionally done anything.

 

[quiversR4hunting]

So I started my evening (after kids are in bed) with watching the Naugler rant on their BLH f/b page. Then I promptly went to 60 minutes online and watched Betsy. I think I now need to go read my good book. I've tortured myself enough for 1 day. 

Holy Shit. Give me 2 hours and then get a tv crew to my house and I will be better prepared for school data questions than Betsy. Let's face it, she has never worked a day in her life, she married richer than herself and she only started stepping foot into public schools when she created public (privately ran) charter schools. I bet she would never step foot in a rural school district. The one I graduated from had a lot of poverty and a lot of middle class and a bunch of family farm (30 minutes to the closest McDonalds, hospital or movie theater, etc). 

She is so stupid that she thinks the answer is just move schools (schools of choice). Well if you are poor or middle class and everyone is working who in the hell has time to drive the kids to school of choice every freaking day? Why don't we just fix the freaking schools we have instead of creating more schools? UGH UGH UGH UGH

[GreyhoundFan]

There are far too many tweets here for me to copy, but it's worth a read if you need a laugh (or cry): "‘Is this a freaking SNL skit?!!!!!’ — and more reaction to Betsy DeVos’s rocky interview on ’60 Minutes’". This one is my favorite:

 

[GreyhoundFan]

In one of the tweet threads from the last article I posted, a couple people had some good memes:

[GreyhoundFan]

A good one from Dana Milbank: "The unappreciated genius of Betsy DeVos"

Spoiler

Betsy DeVos gives every indication that she is, to borrow President Trump’s phrase, a “low-IQ individual.” Her interview with Lesley Stahl of CBS’s “60 Minutes,” broadcast Sunday night, is being mocked as the most disastrous televised tete-a-tete since Palin met Couric.

But this unabashed ignorance is DeVos’s hidden genius — and precisely why she is a perfect choice to be Trump’s secretary of education.

Whenever DeVos speaks, it feels as though the sum total of human knowledge is somehow diminished. During her confirmation hearing last year, she was utterly defeated by complex subjects such as “teachers” and “students” but was certain that schools need guns to repel attacks by “potential grizzlies.”

After a (too-quiet) first year on the job, DeVos is back, letting her foolish flag fly. Interviews with DeVos broadcast Sunday night and Monday morning by CBS and NBC show that she’s performing below grade level in all subjects — and her deviation below the mean is anything but standard.

Have the public schools in her home state of Michigan improved?

“I don’t know.”

Are the number of sexual assaults equivalent to the number of false accusations?

“I don’t know. I don’t know.”

Why is she known as the most hated Cabinet secretary?

“I’m not so sure exactly.”

Has she visited bad schools?

“I have not. I have not. I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.”

Stahl offered a suggestion: “Maybe you should.”

“Maybe I should, yes,” agreed DeVos, who also expressed her reluctance “to talk about all schools in general, because schools are made up of individual students.”

Yes, and brains are made up of individual brain cells, many of which self-destruct upon hearing DeVos speak. Listen to her for five minutes and you will no longer be able to complete the New York Times crossword puzzle. After 10 minutes of DeVos, the human brain loses the ability to perform simple arithmetic. After 15 minutes, those in the presence of DeVos report forgetting the answers to their security questions, including first pet and first car.

All this proves that it is sheer (if perhaps unintentional) genius to have DeVos, who married into the Amway fortune, in her role in the Trump administration. If this is the caliber of the top education official in the land, it hardly speaks well for getting an education. People could quite reasonably conclude that education isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and they wouldn’t go to all the trouble of attending school.

As it happens, this is exactly what Trump needs to secure the future of his political movement. For Trump, the fewer people who get an education, the better off he will be. Exit polls showed a huge education gap in the 2016 election. College graduates favored Hillary Clinton by nine percentage points, while those without college degrees favored Trump by eight points. That 17-point gap was “by far the widest” dating to 1980, according to the Pew Research Center.

The danger for Trump is more Americans are going to college. The National Center for Education Statistics, part of DeVos’s Education Department, predicts enrollment of full-time students in degree-granting postsecondary institutions, up 38 percent between 2000 and 2014, will climb an additional 15 percent by 2025.

Thankfully, DeVos is doing all she can to combat this noxious scourge of people going to school. DeVos, who once said traditional public education is a “dead end,” is proving by example as the nation’s top educator that education generally is a dead end.

Early on, she said she was “confused” at her confirmation hearing about federal disability laws, and she didn’t seem to know the difference between “growth” and “proficiency.” After her full year of on-the-job learning, though, DeVos’s appearance Sunday on “60 Minutes” showed no diminution in her ineptitude.

There she was again on NBC’s “Today” show Monday, armed with two things to say — “everything is on the table,” and things are “best decided by local communities and by states” — and she recited these rote phrases to Savannah Guthrie no fewer than six times during the brief interview, regardless of relevance to the question.

How does such a high-level official maintain such a low level of learning? Well, consider that DeVos, whose brother Erik Prince founded the Blackwater mercenary outfit, jettisoned the Education Department’s usual security in favor of round-the-clock protection by U.S. marshals for $6.5 million a year.

Apparently, this security team has been able to create an impermeable zone of ignorance around DeVos. It’s downright brilliant.

 

[JMarie]

3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Awww, poor Betsy is unhappy that people are mocking her: "Betsy DeVos defends herself on Twitter after being skewered for ’60 Minutes’ performance"

  Hide contents

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos took to social media Monday to defend herself after she was hit with a tsunami of criticism for her performance during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

DeVos published a few tweets saying “60 Minutes” had failed to include information about schools in Michigan, the secretary’s home state, that she had provided. CBS did not immediately respond to a query about her tweets.

On Sunday night, DeVos was interviewed by veteran correspondent Lesley Stahl, who repeatedly challenged the education secretary on her views. DeVos said, for example, she had not “intentionally” visited an underperforming school and Stahl suggested that perhaps the secretary should. (DeVos responded, “Maybe I should.”) DeVos said billions upon billions of federal dollars had gone to waste in the public education system, another point Stahl said was not true.

Critics took to social media to lambaste DeVos — a Michigan billionaire who never attended or sent her children to a public school — for stumbling over some of her answers about basic education issues.

DeVos was back on television Monday, on a few different channels, talking about a new role President Trump has given her: leading a commission on school safety. The White House said it was setting up the Federal Commission on School Safety and would begin helping states to provide “rigorous firearms training” to some teachers to help prevent or stop campus shootings.

After her morning television interviews, DeVos repaired to Twitter to take issue with one part of the CBS interview. It involved the performance of public schools in Michigan, DeVos’s home state and the place where DeVos had spent decades and millions of dollars to encourage the spread of charter schools — which are publicly funded but privately run. She had less success in pushing vouchers — which use public money for private and religious school tuition — in the state.

Part of the conversation went like this:

DEVOS: “Well, in places where there have been, where there is, a lot of choice that’s been introduced, Florida, for example, the studies show that when there’s a large number of students that opt to go to a different school or different schools, the traditional public schools actually, the results get better, as well.”

STAHL: “Now, has that happened in Michigan? We’re in Michigan. This is your home state.”

DEVOS: “Yes, well, there’s lots of great options and choices for students here.”

STAHL: “Have the public schools in Michigan gotten better?”

DEVOS: “I don’t know. Overall, I,  I can’t say overall that they have all gotten better.”

STAHL: “The whole state is not doing well.”

DEVOS: “Well, there are certainly lots of pockets where this, the students are doing well and . . .”

STAHL: “No, but your argument that if you take funds away that the schools will get better is not working in Michigan, where you had a huge impact and influence over the direction of the school system here.”

DEVOS: “I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”

STAHL: “The public schools here are doing worse than they did.”

DEVOS: “Michigan schools need to do better. There is no doubt about it.”

STAHL: “Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?”

DEVOS: “I have not, I have not, I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming.”

STAHL: “Maybe you should.”

DEVOS: “Maybe I should. Yes.”

On Monday afternoon, DeVos tweeted the following, saying that “60 Minutes” had left out some information she had provided:

But DeVos did have time in the interview to note that Michigan schools were not preparing students as well as she thinks they should. Nobody mentioned the charts she cited in her tweet, comparing Michigan standardized test scores to national averages. But it is unclear why DeVos thought they should have been used by Stahl. The “60 Minutes” correspondent noted that Michigan schools were not doing well.

Again, it’s unclear why DeVos thought this should have been highlighted. It’s worth noting that during DeVos’s confirmation hearing before the Senate education committee in January 2017, she said, “I believe there is a lot that has gone right in Detroit and Michigan with regard to charter schools.” Sen. Michael Bennett (D-Colo.) noted that charter performance in Detroit was nothing to brag about.

“Detroit Public Schools averaged 9 percent — 9 percent of kids are proficient,” Bennett said. “Charter schools were a little better, 14 percent of the kids were proficient. I will stipulate that charter schools are doing better, but that is a horrible outcome for everybody involved.”

... < faux news video >

 

She seems proud that 23.6% of charter school students are proficient in English language arts.  Hey, Betsy, that means that 76.4% AREN'T proficient.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[fraurosena]

Bimbo Betsy is making headlines again.

Betsy DeVos Is Now Fighting The Union At The Education Department

Quote

THE UNION REPRESENTING nearly 4,000 federal employees working for the U.S. Department of Education filed a complaint this week accusing the agency, run by Betsy DeVos, of union busting.

The complaint, filed with the Federal Labor Relations Authority on Tuesday, comes after the Education Department effectively declared itself free from union mandates by imposing upon the agency’s 3,900 staffers a “collective bargaining agreement” that commands no union agreement at all.

The move is a first, even for the boundary-pushing Trump administration. But DeVos has never been known for having positive relations with teachers unions. For decades prior to her joining the Trump administration, she funded politicians dedicated to weakening organized labor and backed school choice advocacy groups that depicted teachers unions as selfish enemies of deserving children. 

On Friday, management officials at the Education Department informed their workers’ union, the American Federation of Government Employees Council 252, that they would no longer be bargaining with them. Instead, management issued a 40-page document the department is calling a “collective bargaining agreement.” This unilateral agreement supposedly took effect on Monday. Education Department staffers have been represented by the AFGE since 1982.

“AFGE did not agree to these unilateral terms,” said Claudette Young, AFGE Council 252 president, in a statement. “The agency has imposed an illegal document that we had absolutely no bargaining over. It’s a total attempt to strip employees of their collective bargaining rights and bust the union. This is an attempt to tie our hands.”

In an interview with The Intercept, AFGE Assistant General Counsel Ward Morrow said it’s “extremely unusual” to have to file a complaint over something like this. “You can’t even call it a ‘collective bargaining agreement’ because it wasn’t collective, it wasn’t bargained, and there was no agreement,” he said.

The new edict seeks to curtail union activity by imposing significant new rules and restrictions on the AFGE. “They take away union office space, all equipment, and we have officers who have already been locked out of the system, who are unable to access files and documents,” Young told The Intercept. Federal laptops, printers, and cellphones assigned to union members must be returned by March 26. Union office space must be vacated by April 11, unless the AFGE wants to start paying fair-market rent for its use.

Staffers who serve as union officers are now also being told that they will no longer receive paid leave for time spent performing union representational duties. “That impacts not only our salaries but our retirements,” said Young. 

In a statement released Wednesday, the AFGE said stripping officers of their paid time to focus on bargaining and union duties “is like asking the fire department to operate without fire trucks or a firehose.” 

The Education Department did not return The Intercept’s request for comment, but Liz Hill, a department spokesperson, told Politico that the AFGE “spent more than a year dragging its feet on ground rules negotiations without reaching any agreement, and then failed to respond in timely manner to negotiate over the contract proposed by the Department.” 

According to Young, the union had been hashing out ground rules between October 2016 and December 2017. They had another meeting scheduled for this month. Their last contract was negotiated in 2013.

“We did not have any sticking points, we were not at an impasse,” she told The Intercept. “We were negotiating ground rules and making progress at every negotiating session. We don’t believe that we had anything we would not have been able to reach an agreement over if bargaining were to continue.”

The Federal Labor Relations Authority is expected to launch an investigation in response to the complaint. (A spokesperson for the labor board did not return a request for comment.) Hill told Politico that the agency’s unilateral contract “complies with all statutory requirements and maintains union members’ rights under the Civil Service Protections Act and the Federal Labor Relations Act.”

The one-sided agreement includes a number of obvious deficiencies, union members said. For one thing, it’s not signed by anyone in the union. “In order for any contract to be legally binding, it must be illustrated by a signature,” said Sharon Harris, national executive vice president for Council 252. The document also uses the union’s logo on its front cover. “They didn’t get permission from AFGE to use that, and it gives a false perception that this was a joint agreement between management and the union,” Harris added. Moreover, the document includes a preamble which states:

The following articles of this agreement constitute a total and complete agreement on the subjects addressed in the articles, by and between the U.S. Department of Education … and the American Federation of Government Employees …

“Their preamble states they reached an agreement with our union, which they did not,” said Young.

DeVos has avoided the AFGE’s attempts to sit down in person, according to union leaders. They say they have made numerous attempts to schedule meetings with the education secretary, to no avail. Specifically, they say there have been at least three emails sent to her schedulers, and two in-person requests. 

“I saw her once, made an earnest effort to step forward and introduce myself and request a briefing, and she said, of course, send it to her scheduler, and we’ll put it on the calendar,” said Harris. “We got receipt of our request but never actually anything scheduled.”

 

[fraurosena]

Brainless Betsy's latest brainchild:

Betsy DeVos Wants to Eliminate the Very Programs She Thinks Will Help Stop School Violence

Quote

As students across the nation walked out of class Wednesday to demand gun control, Ryan Petty, the father of one of the 17 people killed in the Parkland massacre, proposed an alternative course of action. “I would encourage the students to not only walk out, but walk up,” he said to lawmakers during a Senate hearing on gun violence and school safety, a sentiment he echoed on Twitter later that day.

#WalkUpNotOut—the idea that students should “walk up” to their peers in order foster a friendlier, more inclusive school environment—gained momentum in the days leading up to Wednesday’s national school walkout. It’s premised on the notion that reducing the amount of bullying and ostracism that occurs in school can also lower the potential for violence. Some have criticized the idea as an oversimplification of the factors that lead to gun violence, but research indicates that it’s an effective means for improving schools safety—more than 4,000 mental health experts endorsed guidance to that effect late last month. What’s more, the idea has found an ally in Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, at least when it comes to her rhetoric. “We must acknowledge issues of loneliness and isolation,” she said to the PTA Legislative Conference on Monday. She added, “We must find meaningful ways to help them reconnect, and we must address social-emotional learning.”

But when it comes to actually running her department, DeVos seems to have a very different set of priorities. Two days before the Parkland shooting, the Trump administration released its 2019 budget proposal, which outlined DeVos’ plan to scrap funding that could be used to promote the very “walk up” movement that DeVos has so enthusiastically endorsed. 

DeVos’ budget, if approved by Congress, would eliminate Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants, funds given directly to local school districts that can currently be used for, among other things, promoting “safe and healthy students.” The Education Department’s October 2016 guidance lists examples of the types of programs the grants could support, including “promoting supportive school climates,” “implementing systems and practices to prevent bullying and harassment,” and “developing relationship building skills to help improve safety through recognition and prevention of coercion, violence and abuse.” In other words: the very sort of preventative activities DeVos says she would like to see more of.

The grants, made available under the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act—legislation that governs the nation’s primary and secondary education—have been lauded by experts in social and emotional learning, a school of thought that promotes teaching skills such as cooperation, self-management, and empathy alongside traditional academics. States received $400 million in federal funding through the program in 2017. While states have broad discretion in how to allocate those funds, some, like Nevada, have prioritized social and emotional learning initiatives. This is actually DeVos’ second attempt to eliminate the program. The omnibus 2018 spending bill, which Congress is expected to vote on next week, provides $500 million for the grants, despite DeVos’ efforts to dismantle them.

DeVos’ budget would also eliminate funding for a program that helps schools pay for counseling and conflict resolution for students exposed to pervasive violence, as well grants for student programming during non-school hours, which can be directed toward school safely initiatives. 

According to the Education Department’s budget proposal, the programs slated to be eliminated “have achieved their original purpose, duplicate other programs, are narrowly focused, or are unable to demonstrate effectiveness.” Speaking specifically about the Student Support and Academic Enrichment grants, the department has stated that other federal, state, and local resources can cover these activities, and that the amounts awarded under existing formulas “would be too small to have a meaningful impact.” But the funds that remain in the proposed budget mostly support such initiatives only tangentially. For example, while the Education Department would devote $42 million to School Climate Transformation grants—which provide funds that could also be used to address bullying and violence—it would prioritize schools that would use the funds to address the opioid epidemic.

The good news for “walk up” proponents is that the budget proposal is more indicative of the Trump administration’s priorities than actual future spending levels. Trump’s 2018 wishlist bears little resemblance to the appropriations bill Congress will vote on next week. Lawmakers will also have the opportunity to grill DeVos about her spending plans on Tuesday, when she appears before a House committee to discuss her department’s 2019 budget.

I really hope next weeks grilling of Batshit Betsy by that House committee will be televised.

[Destiny]

On 12/03/2018 at 5:48 PM, GreyhoundFan said:

From the wonderful Alexandra Petri: "Betsy DeVos has definitely seen a school at least once"

  Reveal hidden contents

Lesley Stahl: Have you seen the really bad schools? Maybe try to figure out what they’re doing?

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos: I have not — I have not — I have not intentionally visited schools that are underperforming. — “60 Minutes” interview, March 11, 2018 

Lesley Stahl: Have you ever seen a school?

Betsy DeVos: A school? I have — well, I hesitate to say a school. We, of course, know a school is not a building, nor is it a bus — unless it’s a bus? I’m pretty sure it’s not a bus. Although one can certainly learn on a bus. Indeed, that unconventional instructor with red hair who boldly threw away the lesson plan often taught on a bus. Indeed any place that learning occurs for a student, that, I would say, is a school.

Maybe the real school is life.

No, I’m sorry, Lesley, you must think I am an idiot. Of course this is a trick question: Schools do not exist. The real school is inside all of us.

Stahl: I thought this was going to be an easy question, but now I’m genuinely concerned. Have you never seen a school?

DeVos: I am hesitant to say I’ve SEEN a school, Lesley, because I know I’ve seen students. I think what I have seen is a group of students performing well or badly in isolation from one another in a kind of a building where they all stayed for the course of the day and gathered to hear different adults address them. Is that what you’re referring to? That entirely unconnected group of people?

Oh! No, wait, Lesley, I apologize.

I know what a school is.

Ha, this is embarrassing.

A school is a wonderful feature of the natural landscape of America of which we should be justly proud. Many communities have them, and it is easy to help them thrive. The sheer array of colors! The scales are just beautiful. The fins. The way they all move in concert together as though guided by an invisible force. It’s like an underwater ballet, Lesley. Schools create possibilities. Such as, for instance: They found Nemo, Lesley. That was a great achievement of a school.

Stahl: That is fish.

DeVos: I can’t tell if you’re joking or tricking me.

Stahl: You’re the secretary of education.

DeVos: I am in charge of arming the schools, I know that. Whatever they are. We are going to make certain teachers have the options to have guns, and also that students who do not have the option to go to a good school have the option to — have options. Oh my gosh, Lesley, I apologize. I remember now. That thing when you are nearly asleep when you feel suddenly as though you are falling, that momentary sensation that jolts you awake: That is a school.

No? I know it is not a tree. Or, of course, a mineral. Is it alive?

Ha ha, Lesley, do not answer; I know what a school is! I am just using a rhetorical technique!

A school is like a spa for the very poor? Like if you had a tutor to teach your students but there were a lot of students and you felt weird inviting the instructor to stay for tea sandwiches afterward?

Don’t answer, Lesley, I have it!

A school is a few feet out from shore with a big light on it and it helps prevent shipwrecks. A school is that feeling when you want to remember a word and it doesn’t come to you until hours later, maybe weeks later. A school is — they give everyone a little white ball and then you hit it with a silver stick, and it builds character.

Stahl: Please just Google “school,” Betsy. This is painful.

DeVos: I think a school is a tie store. People who have been to schools together they always say they have ties. You go there, and you get a big shirt that says your name and the year and some ties and when you wear them later in life people nod at you — Oh, oh! Is a school where Robin Williams tore up the book and they all got up on the desks? Or is a school where Robin Williams honked his nose? I know Robin Williams was in a movie about a school.

Stahl: Please just Google this.

(Long silence.)

DeVos: Well, I was basically right.

Stahl: Have you intentionally visited any schools?

DeVos: I have not intentionally done anything.

 

This is satire, right? RIGHT? Please say yes. 

[GreyhoundFan]

1 hour ago, Destiny said:

This is satire, right? RIGHT? Please say yes. 

Yes, Alexandra Petri is a satirist. I adore her stuff. Sadly, some of it isn't far off the truth, is it?

[quiversR4hunting]

@fraurosena now DeVos needs to face Congress on her hidden plans to gut the ed department and impose illegal collective bargaining agreement

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/education-secretary-devos-reorganization-plan-union.html

Part of the article:

Quote

In recent weeks, Ms. DeVos has clashed fiercely with department staff members over the plan, which they say she tried to withhold from Congress as she imposed on the department what they call an illegal collective bargaining agreement.

Ms. DeVos will testify before the House Appropriations Committee, whose staff was told a week ago that her office had withheld vital information from it regarding the department’s budget for the fiscal year that begins in October. The budget request calls for a 5 percent spending cut, eliminates dozens of programs and pitches a $1 billion school choice proposal. It also includes a shake-up of several divisions that is already underway.

A career department official unveiled details of Ms. DeVos’s “Education Reform Plan” in an email to staff members on the House and Senate Appropriations Committees. The email, obtained by The Times, said information driving budget decisions was omitted from budget justifications submitted to Congress.

 

 

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, quiversR4hunting said:

@fraurosena now DeVos needs to face Congress on her hidden plans to gut the ed department and impose illegal collective bargaining agreement

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/20/us/politics/education-secretary-devos-reorganization-plan-union.html

Part of the article:

 

 

I hope the grilling she gets in Congress is a serious one, with serious consequences. Sadly, I have my doubts about that happening.

[fraurosena]

Speaking of that grilling... 

It is so incredibly obvious that Bimbo Betsy has learned a few lines by rote and this is what she will repeat over and over and over again no matter what question is asked of her.

For those of you who don't know exactly what this exchange is about, here's a Now This video of the exchange that explains it.

 

Edited March 20, 2018 by fraurosena
adding now this

[Botkinetti]

Knowing nothing else about her I would want Rep DeLauro on my side. Her dogged determination to get Betsy Devos to answer her questions was admirable. To anyone of any intelligence Devos’ inability or unwillingness to do so should be a massive red flag. 

[AmazonGrace]

 

Quote

 

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos criticized Oklahoma teachers who are on strike over school funding cuts, telling them to “serve the students,” according to the Dallas Morning News. 

“I think about the kids,” DeVos said last week while touring a Dallas middle school. “I think we need to stay focused on what’s right for kids. And I hope that adults would keep adult disagreements and disputes in a separate place, and serve the students that are there to be served.”

 

 

[fraurosena]

1 hour ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

 

It's precisely about the (in)ability to serve those students, you twit, that the teachers are on strike right now. Bet that one flew right over your dumb bimbo blond head, eh, Betsy?

[candygirl200413]

While I have problems with the boycott (mainly that a majority of these teachers voted for 45), it's kind of hard to serve the children when you supposedly have textbooks for the 80s that are peeling and breaking .

[GreyhoundFan]

Bill Maher's New Rules ended with a great monologue about the problems with how teachers are treated. It's quite good. Oh, and there's a nice dig at Junior and Eric at the end:

 

[AmazonGrace]

It's true that 10 year olds can get married?

[fraurosena]

4 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

It's true that 10 year olds can get married?

Yep. In some states, they can legally get married. To the pedo rapist that got them pregnant. It's horrific. I posted about this some time ago, but can't remember where in these threads exactly.

[GreyhoundFan]

14 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

It's true that 10 year olds can get married?

I know Wikipedia isn't a scholarly journal, but here's their article on the subject. It's sobering.

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

Betsy DeVos is still terrible: