Kate Zernike of the New York Times writes that the DeVos hearing next week on January 17 may be contentious, because she has been unable to clarify her many conflicts of interest. Some are financial: she has investments in online charter schools and other for-profit education ventures. Others are ideological and political: She has given heavily to entities that want to privatize public education.
In a sane world, Betsy DeVos would not be a candidate for Secretary of Education. Not because she is rich, but because she has devoted her efforts to destroying the public education sector which is attended by about 85% of all U.S. students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Definitely.
The Democrats, many Republicans, and the entire corporate Ed lobby want an Ed reform narrative that is more palatable and less frank than DeVos’ brand of Ed reform. They prefer the Democratic Party’s brand of Ed reform. Social justice and corporate lingo all in one, slick, and with the ability to place the noose around the necks of most within public education more gently.
You know: the kind of Ed reform that Randi Weingarten can get behind!
If DeVos doesn’t make it through, there will no doubt be another murderer of public Ed quickly found and put up, this time with nicer language to wrap it all in.
I kind of prefer DeVos to anybody the Dems would put up for the gig. Plain to see and understand. With a pick by the Dems, there would be this awful “I don’t think they’ll be that bad” period people on our side will go through because they can’t wrap their heads around the bipartisan nature of our enemies. The dems version of Ed reform is also very successful at really bedding in a narrative across many social lines.
Anyway, it’s best to understand that no matter who it would or could be, it’s all bad.
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This is stated very well — we might not do “better” under a less outspoken pro-privatization leadership. DeVos’s antics would at least force those who like to play the middle game (and thus ruin public services slowly) into taking clear-cut sides.
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And in a sane world no one would put rational question to DeVos about her countless conflicts of interest. They would simply haul a certified Exorcist into the hearing room and allow the Demon Eviction Ritual to begin.
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You want someone who hates Common Core and Charters. Trump does not like the control of teachers unions. Surely, there is someone who can fit the job description who just happens to be an educator. Diane, give him some suggestions.
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An owner of retailer, L. L . Bean, Linda Bean, described customers boycotting the retailer’s products as, “a small kernel of hardcore bullies out on the left coast, West Coast in Calf…”
I hope that she’s wrong and, that the boycott is widespread, because Dean contributed to Trump’s campaign. No presidential candidate has been a bigger bully than Trump. He even mocked the disabled.
Dean is reportedly on the Board of the Eagle Forum Education and Legal Defense Fund. Eagle Forum was founded by Phylis Shafly. The site states, “Public schools are financed by our money, forcibly taken from us in federal, state and local taxes, which the public school establishment spends under a thin veneer of accountability…” Given the lack of transparency of charter schools, that’s a laughable statement. If L. L. Bean’s profits ceased, the money taken from the heiress, would be limited to assets she inherited or already has.
Bean is also on the board of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which lists its notable alumni, Scalia, Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Peter Thiel, ABC’s Jonathan Karl. ISI’s donor tab, describes a “legacy society- a select group of dedicated patriots.” I’m curious how that fits into the recent reports about Trump’s appointees and Russian ties.
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Intercollegiate Studies Institute- A “team” photo gallery of 38 people at the website, where are the people of color?
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BTW- Richard DeVos is an ISI emeritus trustee.
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I have bought stuff from LL bean for many years.
I am canceling my account.
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Try Marmot or Patagonia.
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Lands End
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Patagonia is Good, capital ‘G’. Not affordable, but Good. Speaking of capital ‘G’, I think of the film, Gandhi. Best is homespun. Not doable, but best.
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I better learn to sew
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Re: Patagonia (although I’m partial to Marmot): http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/patagonia-utah-national-monument_us_587907a7e4b0b3c7a7b0f7fc
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Woolrich for durability.
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Diane,
Giggles
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“I better learn to sew.”
I can help you with that! Been sewing all my life. It’s not that hard, especially with pre-made patterns. A new machine doesn’t cost that much. You can get a decent mid-range one for around $500 and it will do all the stitches you need. And a good sharp scissors is mandatory.
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Linda Bean may learn that those checks L. L. Bean gives her aren’t guaranteed. If she cared about the people who work for the company, she would have been more circumspect about her political activities that concentrate the wealth of the richest 0.1%.
BTW, there’s a comment form at the L.L. Bean site.
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Many brilliant LTEs in today’s NYT, especially on the Affordable Care Act repeal efforts. But this one by Shelley Haiken from Cottonwood, AZ summed up the reason why L.L. Bean discussion in this thread is so important:
“Since elected, Donald Trump has made both positive and negative comments about various companies (Boeing, Pfizer, Sprint and most recently L.L. Bean), and those comments have had an impact on their stock prices. I am concerned about the possibility of insider trading by members of Mr. Trump’s inner circle. All he would need to do is inform them of the company he plans to tweet about the next day, and they could buy or sell depending on the tone of the tweet and walk away with a fortune.”
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But it isn’t a sane world – everything is completely topsy-turvy and there doesn’t seem to be any way to retrieve it.
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I cc’ed your comments to my two senators because I thought you had succinctly nailed the issues.
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She may be the least qualified person to head the Dept of Ed, but former boss Arne Duncan could certainly give her a run for the money. Mr. Duncan on C-Span, this evening, “There are some excellent
teachers (and they could teach anywhere) and there are some teachers that are hurtful.”
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Betsy is much smarter than Duncan, and her. Goals are more malevolent. He worked to please the .0001%. She is the .0001%. As EduShyster showed in her amazing article yesterday, the DeVos family never has enough money. They want more, more, more. They don’t want to pay taxes. They want more. They are among God’s Chosen.
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Malevolent: malignant, vicious, malicious, venomous, hostile, vindictive, vengeful, maleficent, evil, baleful, evil-intentioned, evil-minded, rancorous, harmful, injurious, sinister, pernicious, hellish, spiteful, wicked.
A useful thesaurus for the coming four years.
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Agree, but what do you expect from a Trump appointee, who never went to a public school, has no understanding of what public education has to do w/supporting democracy, and probably does not really accept immigrants and other minorities.
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Ron,
DeVos is contemptuous of public schools. Duncan undermined them. DeVos will destroy them.
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Contemptuous: aloof, arrogant, condescending, contumelious, derisive, disdainful, dismissive, disrespectful, haughty, high and mighty, imperious, insolent, insulting, lordly, mocking, on a high horse, opprobrious, overbearing, pompous, pretentious, proud, scathing, scoffing, scornful, sneering, snide, snotty, supercilious, superior, withering.
🙂
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I’ve been trying to get a handle on who the good guys are in the Democratic party and Senator Patty Murray of Washington (the ranking Democrat on the committee that will hold the hearing for DeVos,) keeps coming up short. I got an email this week indicating she was one of 13 Senate Democrats who voted this week against an amendment that would have allowed for cheaper importation of prescription drugs from Canada.
The 13 Senate Democrats were: Michael Bennet (Colorado), Bob Menendez & Cory Booker (New Jersey), Maria Cantwell & Patty Murray (Washington), Tom Carper & Chris Coons (Delaware), Bob Casey (Pennsylvania), Joe Donnelly (Indiana), Martin Heinrich (New Mexico), Heidi Heitkamp (North Dakota), Jon Tester (Montana) & Mark Warner (Virginia.)
Here’s a petition addressing the 13 Democrats behaving badly who chose to support Big Pharma over the people:
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/sign-the-petition-denounce-the-13-democrats-who-picked-big-pharma-over-the-people-on-prescription-drugs
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New Jersey is home to a lot of pharmaceutical companies.
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Thanks for the link.
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Why is it so difficult for the Trump selections to identify or admit what everyone can see are clear conflicts of interest? The answer should be, “Sorry, I can’t do that. I am invested in things that are clearly conflicts, and I learned in 8th grade civics class that I must decline.”
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