Mercedes Schneider noticed a strange phenomenon: whenever a news reporter went in search of a friendly comment about Betsy DeVos, for balance, the quote almost always came from the same person: Ed Patru, speaking on behalf of “Friends of Betsy DeVos.”
She he searched the Internet but could find no such organization. She searched for Mr. Patru and discovered he is a paid PR guy.
Ed Patru is the Friends of Betsy DeVos. Does she have any friends who are not paid to be her friend? We.. there’s Campbell Brown, but she gets DeVos money too.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
For an example of the PR machinery operating on behalf of Betsy Devos and family, just type this phrase below into your Google search engine with “anytime” and “verbatim.”
Here is the phrase to type in
Michigan charter school backed by DeVos growing
Exactly the same headline, all major news outlets.
LikeLike
I googled “Michigan charter school backed by DeVos growing”, looked at page after page of the exact same headline:
Page 42 of about 8,720 results (1.39 seconds)
There were 8,720 stories with that exact headline.
LikeLike
Diane: Someone needs to tell Betsy DeVos how corrupt she is, and how she is complicit in the corruption of the people she pays.
But of course it’s more complicated than that–apparently (correct me if I am wrong here–you have studied her more closely than I) to Ms Devos, her religious ideology translates secular notions of corruption (for instance, paying off Congresspeople for their support of her ideologies) into a moral and spiritual obligation to “work for God.” Also, that work can to be done by one Betsy DeVos et al with impunity and as immune from the oversight of representatives of those who pay for public education with their taxes. I’d like to say that my understanding of God is that God doesn’t need to fool people, or to pay PR people, to do good. In her present way of doing things, the eye of the needle won’t get any bigger, and certainly not big enough to let that damn camel through.
LikeLike
Catherine Blanche King: a sober and realistic assessment of how rheephormsters can make “the worse appear the better cause.”
Or to put it in terms that Betsy DeVos might understand: “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
Thank you very much for your incisive remarks.
😎
LikeLike
Kind of pathetic when you have to pay someone to be your friend. Maybe that’s why she needs all that money and has to join all those clubs.
LikeLike
Friends of Ohio charter schools, who are quoted in the newspaper, are funded with fairy dust.
I know that’s true, because no reporter, ever, ever, identifies the source of dollars, backing the cheerleaders-no mention of Gates, Walton,…. After Ohio was left with an alleged pay- to-play state government, “mostly truant” charter students, fleeced taxpayers, etc., the big-name, fairy dust picked up and took off. After their departure, reporters identified the source of the checkbook. But, while the money influenced state policy, it was unidentifiable fairy dust.
LikeLiked by 1 person
And too often when suddenly decided “reforms” have been pushed into low-income schools, the initial funding does indeed, somehow, quickly turn into fairy dust…and then sort of blows away, leaving the schools, the kids, and the staff with much chaos but no funded stability.
LikeLike
The ed reform echo chamber are all lining up behind her:
http://educationnext.org/betsy-devos-relatively-mainstream-reformer-education-secretary/#.WHOLxNuUy60.twitter
They don’t know much about Grand Rapids Michigan if they think anyone in that city will ever say anything negative about a DeVos. That would be career suicide. The DeVos’ own the place. No dissenters allowed.
Hopefully she doesn’t (yet!) own the US Senate and one or two Senators will defend the public schools in their states. I doubt it but hope springs eternal.
If no one in DC advocates on behalf of children who attend the unfashionable public school sector, can we hire a lobbyist? DeVos seems to have a whole cadre of them on her payroll. Surely 50 million children deserve at least one adult advocate.
LikeLike
I read in an article in WaPo facebook post that there have been 20 Republican governors submit a letter to Lamar Alexandar in favor of the DeVos appointment. But there is no link to the letter in that article so that I can see who the 20 are. I suspect that most or all have been supported financially by DeVos and I hope an education journalist is looking at that. I called the whole HELP committee yesterday objecting to the appointment of DeVos mostly on basis that her resume shows no qualification but also asked that any committee member who is financially supported by DeVos recuse themselves. I want to call Alexander’s office back and ask him to check the financial connection between the 20 governors who sent him the letter and the DeVos family. I am more concerned with her lack of skill to carry out the duties of her job. But I know politicians are more focused on money following and finanacial issues. If anyone has a link to the names of the 20 governors who signed support in that letter I would like to research a bit.
LikeLike
With a total of thirty-three governors, there is some hope that not all Republican governors wish to monetize their schools and children. The DNC has been sleeping while ALEC has been gobbling up more states. The Democrats must revamp their message if they want to be relevant today. They must become more progressive and stop pandering to Wall St. and Silicon Valley if they are to rebuild themselves. Sometimes the best defense is the offense.
LikeLike
Via google I found a post in Brietbart listing the 20 governors and their states. I’d rather see a main stream media report before I share as I don’t trust that source. Though the names I see certainly seem like the sort of people who would be financed by DeVos and that would be reciprocally supporting her.
LikeLike
So these signatures might be fake?
LikeLike
This may be more main stream: in a well over 100 years old news paper
http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/politics/national/story/2017/jan/09/haslam-backs-trumps-pick-us-education-secretary/406600/
It talks about only 18 governors. Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, the TN governor is among them.
LikeLike
Mate’ Just as an aside, I think the use of FRIENDSHIP here is already an abuse of that term. It’s like calling a networking get-together a “party.” True friendship is not about buying allegiance, and a real party has no purpose except to BE together–it’s not for the purpose of using one another to make a career connection or a job.
The abuse of the language by these clowns goes on and on.
LikeLike
Your last sentence, Catherine, says it all about the current state of not only political discourse in America but more importantly for the purposes of this blog in the educational discourse dominating public education these days:
“The abuse of the language by these clowns goes on and on.”
Abuse of language indeed.
We “measure” student “achievement”.
“Standards are only goals” (sic) when in fact the use of the term standard in the teaching and learning process is “abuse of the language”.
See: https://medium.com/p/47d3d4b43b30/edit
LikeLike
Also, for all the people who work for public universities, I wouldn’t celebrate DeVos eliminating public schools just yet.
You’re next. As soon as these folks privatize K-12 they’re going after universities. Bank on it. There won’t be a publicly-owned or run school, college program or entity anywhere in this country by the time they’re through “reforming”.
LikeLike
chiara with your mentality I guess its just a done deal so why do you bother to post your negative views here multiple times a day?? If you are going to post here post some positive, combative ways we can eliminate the fake education experts and expose them for what they are rather than constantly saying yep its a done deal……
LikeLike
She has a pollster. Is that common for cabinet appointees?
LikeLike
Thank you for this info. Please also publish the info about the 5 million she owes for fines. I do not know the whole story but I know that it is a big one.
LikeLike
Warren wrote a long letter voicing her concerns about DeVos’ appointment as secretary of education. While Warren has not always championed issues that are important to the readers of this blog, she pinpoints many of DeVos’ deficiencies for the position. Peter Greene summaries the highlights of the Warren letter. http://curmudgucation.blogspot.com/2017/01/warren-spanks-devos.html
LikeLike
Here is Ed Patru, as VP of the DCI group
http://www.dcigroup.com/leaders/ed-patru/
He is a Michigan native and has 4 kids and two dogs, so he must be a good, wholesome guy. 🙂
One of the DCI group’s strength is finding friends for you
We help our clients develop their strongest messages, reframe conversations, and recruit like-minded friends and allies to amplify their position.
http://www.dcigroup.com/
LikeLike
“He is a Michigan native and has 4 kids and two dogs, so he must be a good, wholesome guy.🙂”
Can I be a “good, wholesome guy” for being a Show Me Stater, having three kids, one dog and one cat?
LikeLike
I think the new standard for a good, wholesome guy is three wives, five kids and no dogs. And under the new standard dogs does not refer to four legged animals.
So no Duane, you don’t qualify anymore.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am not sure, Duane. I certainly not wholesome with my two kids and two dogs. But, if it makes you feel better, you are 37% wholesomer than me according to the formula.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Trump’s Christmas photo greeting, showed an emotionless guy, standing in front of the tree, all alone- reminiscent of Orson Welles’ portrayal of Hearst.
LikeLike
Do you have a link? Tia, Duane
LikeLike
Duane, I saw Trump’s Christmas greeting. Not only was it him alone, standing in front of a Christmas tree, but he held up a clenched fist. My reaction? What’s with the clenched fist?
LikeLike
Just stumbled across it while watching the Olberman video you posted. Strange indeed!
The only scarier part is that Pence will end up taking over when Trump eventually implodes. And Pence will probably pull a Ford and pardon the outgoing disgrace as part of the “deal”. And that Ford pardon has been used by many, Obama included, for not “looking back” and prosecuting high level crimes (illegal wars of aggression by Georgie the Least for one example or how Trump won’t go after Obama for ordering the extra-judicial killing of American citizens). Nixon was right, if the president does it it isn’t illegal, eh!
LikeLike