Here are the members of the Senate Committee on Health Education Labor and Pensions.
http://www.help.senate.gov/about/members
Eight of the 12 Republican members have received money from Betsy DeVos.
On the Democratic side, Michael Bennett is a major advocate for charters and a favorite of DFER.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Shall we say it is not looking good?
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She will likely be confirmed. But we must raise the biggest possible noise so the public understands she is an e Themistocles.
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Rat bastards!
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Could you be more be more specific.. I can’t maybe you can (LOL)
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They are all rat bastards! LOL! I’m so glad my son is a senior in high school, because public schools are about to get super shitty. Education should never be for profit, but all these rat bastards are going to make a ton. All the while our children will be left with charter schools with unqualified people trying to make a buck, I mean teach them.
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I was looking for some colorful adjectives.
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That having been said, there are 11 Dems. And Rand Paul has been known to disagree
w/fellow Republicans, as he did recently. So, perhaps, she may not be confirmed …by a very close margin.
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I am totally disgusted with congress.
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Conflict of Interest anyone? I hear the Republicans are rushing confirmation hearings before the vetting process on the nominees has been completed. The same people who refused to hold hearings on Obama’s nominees before the vetting process was complete now use the line that the Dems are just sore losers for questioning the oversight. The sore loser line is getting rather old. I wonder how long they will try to use it.
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I just hope the Senators are getting some input from someone outside the ed reform echo chamber. I was really disappointed in the Senate ed committee hearings I heard last time. They didn’t question any of the assumptions ed reform relies upon- they were tweaking the same “market-based ed reform” policy we’ve had for the last 20 years.
I admire the teachers who went to testify last time but I don’t feel as if it changed anything – Senator Franken heard hours of testimony from teachers and his suggestion was we go to computer-based testing, which really didn’t address their concerns at all.
I think the only people who get access to them are “movement” ed reformers and the Senators enter that hearing room with their minds made up. The testimony from “ordinary” people is just a show, so they can say they had a “debate”. I felt bad for the NYC teachers who took time off and traveled at their own expense. I’m grateful to them for doing it, but I don’t think it changed that legislation one iota.
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I don’t know if there’s a way to find out who gets access to Senators in preparing for hearings, but I would like to know. I would like a list of the people they meet with. I’d be very interested if it’s skewed towards the same 150 high profile “movement” ed reformers we hear from all the time. I’d like to know if they meet with public school principals, or teachers, or parents, or school board members from their respective states.
Ohio once held a hearing on a public school issue where 14 of the 15 witnesses were part of Michelle Rhee’s lobbying group. That is not a “debate”. It’s an ed reform cheering section.
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On a positive note, the one Senator I have some hope for is Tim Kaine. I may be the only person in the country who voted for Hillary Clinton to get Kaine 🙂
I have heard him speak on public schools and he seems to have an understanding that is deep enough to allow him to get past slogans. I don’t know, but I think this is because he was both a mayor and a governor.
I’m sorry he didn’t win VP. I was more impressed by him during the campaign than anyone else running, including both Presidential candidates. I felt as if he was head and shoulders above the whole field on both experience and character.
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“I have heard him speak on public schools and he seems to have an understanding that is deep enough to allow him to get past slogans. I don’t know, but I think this is because he was both a mayor and a governor.”
I think his knowledge of public schools was driven by his wife’s background. I don’t mean that to be a negative. The Kaines obviously made decisions together to educate their own children in public schools. He just has a practitioner right in his own house and pays attention to her.
I liked him, too. I don’t think the campaign used him enough or the media highlighted him although that may be because I live in Illinois. Neither one of them spent much time here and as a native daughter the attention was understandably always on Hillary.
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