Here are Betsy DeVos’s responses to questions from the Office of Government Ethics about potential and real conflicts of interest.
http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2017/01/see_how_betsy_devos_responded.html
She is an artful dodger.
Instead of admitting that she pours millions of dollars into advancing the cause of school privatization, she simply says that if any questions should come up, she will refer them to the appropriate ethics official.
These answers were written by a lawyer and intended to deceive.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As the story goes….
There lay her grandmother with her cap pulled far over her face, and looking very strange.
Sound familiar?
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Like!
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It is similar to taking the fifth. I guess she thinks she is above the law – like DT.
I was hoping that the linked article would show more, but what is quoted is the same as what was released last week.
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That is the same implied message I got. Conflicts of interest are for “the little people.” She will impose her will as she wishes like the “queen of hearts.”
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Yes, they all think that they are above the law.
Do you remember Leona Helmsley, the”Queen of Mean,” who once said “Only the little people pay taxes”?
Well, DeVoss, Trump, et al, are cut from the same cloth. They don’t think that the laws apply to them.
Self-entitled narcissists who think they know better than everyone else.
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Ed reformers must be concerned about DeVos. The big leaders are all coming out with heart-felt vows about how they support public schools. Walker in Wisconsin, former Obama Administration people, Jeb Bush.
They’ve dropped the use of “government schools” and “union dominated monopolies” and they’re all insisting public schools will be treated fairly now that they utterly dominate the federal government.
I don’t know though- a week before a high profile confirmation hearing and people who have attacked public schools for 30 years all have a sudden change of heart?
I’m skeptical.
These are sophisticated people. We’ll have to take apart their proposals particularly the funding side.
The biggest damage DeVos did to public schools in Michigan is lobby to gut their funding. As all of you know funding cuts hit public schools immediately and they affect every student. In Michigan this was done by lobbyists in last minute proceedings that were off the public radar. Expect the same from DC reformers. Read the fine print. It’s about money- which sector of schools get it, and which don’t. Public schools won’t get it.
In the last 8 years while ed reformers were focused exclusively on opening charters and handing out vouchers, the majority of public schools lost funding. 90% of kids. That’s where they do lasting damage. My local public school has lost funding every year since 2009 and we don’t have any charters. In addition to losing funding, ed reformers have added expensive, gimmicky mandates every year. It’s a double whammy. They take. That’s what they do. There’s no plus side to this ledger.
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Team charter does not want to share their public booty with the voucher zealots. They are opposed to DeVos because her plans for public money does not match theirs. They only like the “free market” when they are the sole recipient of tax dollars, and they don’t want to compete with vouchers.
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“These are sophisticated people.”
That is if sophisticated means conning, conniving, and duplicitous.
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I think the worst part about DC Democrats and ed reform is they get nothing from Republicans in return for their enthusiastic embrace of privatization.
It would be one thing is this was a negotiation- they’d double funding for charters and vouchers IN RETURN for GOP support of existing public schools, but that isn’t how it goes. They get nothing for public schools.
Duncan and DeVos are good examples of this. Republicans got Duncan, who was an enthusiastic promoter of any and all privatization scheme that crossed his desk. What do Democrats get that now that Republicans are in power? DeVos- a far Right opponent of existing public schools. How is this “bipartisan” if Democratic ed reformers never get anything for public schools? Are they just lousy advocates, or what?
We need actual advocates. Charters and vouchers have advocates- whole orgs with hundreds of employees, entire blocs of Senators. Public schools deserve them too. We deserve at least one Senator out of 100 who supports PUBLIC schools- the schools that exist and serve 90% of students.
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The Democrats that support charters are funded by DFER mostly from Wall St and Silicon Valley. It is still a sad commentary that only a dozen or so Democrats from the House stood up for public schools. There are still many Democrats that are behind the war on public schools.
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So one thing to watch for is where grants go. Exactly where they go.
The Obama Administration would award a grant to a charter system directly- the grant would go to KIPP , for example.
Often public schools would receive grants indirectly- the grant would go to some ed reform approved org to promote an ed reform approved policy. That’s one way to direct funding to ed reform groups even if money is (supposedly) going to public schools.
These people do this for a living. DeVos has been drafting laws in Michigan for 30 years behind the scenes. They’re good at it. Since we don’t have lawmakers who are advocates we have to get better at it discerning how they’re skewing the playing field.
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That is why I predict there will be a feeding frenzy for ESSA funds with partiality given to tech companies and corporations. Most public districts stand to lose the money that paid for compensatory services for poor struggling students.
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“These answers were written by a lawyer and intended to deceive.”
Must be nice to be able to afford lawyers who know how to deceive when paid for it, eh!
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This CREDO Petition already 286,000 signatures —
Senate Democrats: Betsy DeVos is not qualified to be secretary of education
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From the comments on the article:
“I like the first two questions.
Please identify any conflicts of interest: ‘I’m going to identify them.’
Please tell us how you will resolve said conflicts: ‘I’m going to resolve them.'”
Cute.
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DeVos could benefit from some Common Core close reading and annotation of text. Let me check which standards are in question.
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I like DeVos, my main concern is that she is not financially secure enough for the position and that may be a problem. To make ends meet, she may sell the light fixtures out of the dept. of ed. I’d be much more comfortable with someone with more money like Melinda Gates or Priscilla Chan.
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And “the appropriate ethics officer” might turn out to be Bernie Madoff after Donald Trump pardons him….
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