The New York Times is called (and calls itself) “the newspaper of record.” Talk show hosts, editorial writers, and influentials read the Times. That’s why I get so frustrated by its consistently awful editorials about education, which as a rule favor the data-driven, test-and-punish approach to schooling. But its news writing about education just keeps getting better all the time.
Here is its take on DeVos’ appearance before the HELP committee: a Bronx cheer, a raspberry. The theme of the story: DeVos is in over her head. After a long run as an advocate for school choice, she has no idea about the lingo of federal education policy or about federal law. She is being asked to take charge of a department that administers aid to college students, but knows nothing about the department’s role or programs.
“Her confirmation hearing that night opened her up to new criticism: that her long battle for school choice, controversial as it has been, is the sum total of her experience and understanding of education policy. In questioning by senators, she seemed either unaware or unsupportive of the longstanding policies and functions of the department she is in line to lead, from special education rules to the policing of for-profit universities.
“Ms. DeVos admitted that she might have been “confused” when she appeared not to know that the broad statute that has governed special education for more than four decades is federal law.
“A billionaire investor, education philanthropist and Michigan Republican activist, Ms. DeVos acknowledged that she has no personal experience with student loans — the federal government is the largest provider — and said she would have to “review” the department’s policies aimed at preventing fraud by for-profit colleges.
She appeared blank on basic education terms. Asked how school performance should be assessed, she did not know the difference between growth, which measures how much students have learned over a given period, and proficiency, which measures how many students reach a targeted score.
“Ms. DeVos even became something of an internet punch line when she suggested that some school officials should be allowed to carry guns on the premises to defend against grizzly bears.
“But if she was sometimes rattled on the specifics, Ms. DeVos was unshakable in her belief that education authority should devolve away from the federal government and toward state and local authorities. Whether the issue was allowing guns in schools, how to investigate sexual assault on college campuses, or how to measure learning, her answer was always that states and what she called “locales” knew best.”
Meanwhile, a story on Huffington Post reported that former Senator Joe Lieberman, who introduced DeVos, giving this rightwing extremist a bipartisan gloss, is associated with a law firm that represents Donald Trump.
“Former Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) tonight introduced Donald Trump’s controversial nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, to the Senate HELP Committee. Lieberman lavishly praised DeVos, but failed to inform the American people that his law firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman LLP, “have represented Trump in all manner of matters since at least 2001. Such matters have included, but are certainly not limited to, the restructuring of $1.3 billion in bondholder debt connected to his Atlantic City casinos; a defamation case filed against the author of TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald, for stating that the businessman was worth between $150 million and $250 million, not billions (a suit that Trump later lost); and the fight to keep filings from his 1990 divorce from ex-wife Ivana Trump sealed.”
“Most recently, Lieberman’s law firm represented Trump by threatening the New York Times for publishing pieces of Trump’s tax return.
“In 2012, asked about his future work upon his retirement from the Senate, Lieberman promised, “I’m not going to lobby. For sure.” In 2013, as a member of Kasowitz Benson, Lieberman registered to be a lobbyist, representing a Libyan politician.
“As soon as the election was over, Trump abandoned his promise to drain the swamp of corruption in Washington and stand up for working people. His appointment of entitled billionaire Betsy DeVos, who has financial investments in education companies, has favored privatization over public education, has failed to finalize the necessary paperwork with the Office of Government Ethics prior to her hearing, has contributed millions to the Republican Party, and is now opposed by leading civil rights and education groups and 68 members of the congressional black, Hispanic, and Asia Pacific American caucuses, is part of this betrayal.
“Joe Lieberman’s invocation of his Democratic Party credentials to endorse DeVos, without mentioning out loud to the American people that his law firm has long worked for Trump, is yet another piece of the deep corruption Trump is bringing to Washington.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeVos is clueless unless the topic shifts to privatizing publics (or, “Government Schools”, as she refers to them). And, Lieberman is a traitor to the middle class, to working families. It’s strange, at times, to consider how power, influence, and money can corrupt a country as well as the soul of its citizens. This is what happened to the former senator from Connecticut. Too bad, as I once thought he was a real mensch.
The late night talk show hosts rented (or pulled out of costume storage) bear costumes for skits skewering Devos’ comments:
Here’s Jimmy Kimmel (disclosure: I once taught his two eldest kids Kevin & Katie at a Hollywood private school):
Here’s Stephen Colbert: (“small world” disclosure: my Master’s Thesis advisor’s son works on Colbert’s writing staff):
And here’s James Corden: (no connection, but I’m a big fan of his film THE HISTORY BOYS)
(no bear costume on that last one, just monologue jokes)
Also …
Google: Devos grizzly
and you get 800,000 hits or sites
Here’s the entirety of the New York Times article (behind a paywall for some)
WASHINGTON — Until Tuesday, the fight over Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be secretary of education revolved mostly around her support of contentious school choice programs.
But her confirmation hearing that night opened her up to new criticism: that her long battle for school choice, controversial as it has been, is the sum total of her experience and understanding of education policy. In questioning by senators, she seemed either unaware or unsupportive of the longstanding policies and functions of the department she is in line to lead, from special education rules to the policing of for-profit universities.
Ms. DeVos admitted that she might have been “confused” when she appeared not to know that the broad statute that has governed special education for more than four decades is federal law.
A billionaire investor, education philanthropist and Michigan Republican activist, Ms. DeVos acknowledged that she has no personal experience with student loans — the federal government is the largest provider — and said she would have to “review” the department’s policies that try to prevent fraud by for-profit colleges.
She appeared blank on basic education terms. Asked how school performance should be assessed, she did not know the difference between growth, which measures how much students have learned over a given period, and proficiency, which measures how many students reach a targeted score.
Ms. DeVos even became something of an internet punch line when she suggested that some school officials should be allowed to carry guns on the premises to defend against grizzly bears.
But if she was sometimes rattled on the specifics, Ms. DeVos was unshakable in her belief that education authority should devolve away from the federal government and toward state and local authorities. Whether the issue was allowing guns in schools, how to investigate sexual assault on college campuses, or how to measure learning, her answer was always that states and what she called “locales” knew best.
Those answers reflected the same instinct that has driven her advocacy of school choice, primarily vouchers, which take money from public schools to help families pay tuition at private schools, and charter schools, which are publicly funded but typically independent of school district or union rules. As she said bluntly in a 2015 education speech, “Government really sucks.”
Ms. DeVos’s supporters defended her performance at the hearing, saying she showed herself to be a champion of innovation against Democrats’ defending the status quo.
“They tried their best to turn her into Cruella de Vil, but America got to see the real Betsy DeVos first hand,” said Ed Patru, a spokesman for a group calling itself Friends of Betsy DeVos. “The country saw an authentic, compassionate and eminently reasonable education leader who is committed to empowering parents and putting kids first.”
With a Republican-controlled Senate, Ms. DeVos is still likely to be confirmed. But her statements on special education could make her vulnerable; families of children with special needs are a vocal lobby, one that Republicans do not want to alienate.
The federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, has governed special education in the nation’s public schools since the mid-1970s. Before the law, states and local school districts had been excluding or essentially warehousing students with disabilities.
Complaints from states and local school districts have been less about the law than about the federal government’s failure to pay its promised share of the costs. But at the hearing, Ms. DeVos questioned the basic premise that the federal government has a role in ensuring that any school receiving taxpayer dollars — whether a traditional public school, a charter or a private school accepting vouchers — comply with the law’s requirements for students with special needs.
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Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia, last year’s Democratic nominee for vice president, asked Ms. DeVos whether schools that receive tax dollars should be required to meet the requirements of IDEA.
“I think that is a matter that’s best left to the states,” Ms. DeVos replied.
Mr. Kaine came back: “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities, and other states might not be so good, and then what? People can just move around the country if they don’t like how their kids are being treated?”
Ms. DeVos repeated, “I think that is an issue that’s best left to the states.”
“It’s federal law,” an exasperated Mr. Kaine replied.
Mr. Kaine then asked if all elementary and secondary schools receiving tax dollars should be required to comply with reporting requirements on harassment, discipline and bullying.
Ms. DeVos answered, “I would look forward to reviewing that provision.”
Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat of New Hampshire, pressed Ms. DeVos about whether she really intended to say that states could ignore the law.
“Were you unaware that it was federal law?” Ms. Hassan asked.
Ms. DeVos answered, “I may have confused it.”
Ms. Hassan, who has a son with cerebral palsy, expressed concerns about private schools that accept vouchers on the condition that students waive legal rights under federal education law.
“Do you think families should have recourse in the courts if schools don’t meet their needs?” she asked.
“Senator, I assure you that if confirmed I will be very sensitive to the needs of special needs students,” Ms. DeVos said.
“It’s not about sensitivity, although that helps,” Ms. Hassan countered. “It’s about being willing to enforce the law to make sure that my child and every child has the same access to public education, high-quality public education.”
In her opening statement, Ms. DeVos spoke of wanting to expand options for higher education beyond traditional “brick and mortar and ivy.”
Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, asked Ms. DeVos whether she would enforce Obama-era education policies intended to prevent fraud at for-profit colleges — institutions like Trump University, which paid to settle federal class action lawsuits accusing it of using marketing tactics to enroll students.
“I will review that rule and see that it is actually achieving what the intentions are,” Ms. DeVos said.
Ms. Warren, in apparent disbelief, responded: “Swindlers and crooks are out there doing back flips when they hear an answer like this.”
She added, “If confirmed, you will be the cop on the beat, and if you can’t commit to use the tools already available to you in the Department of Education, then I don’t see how you can be the secretary of education.”
As Mercedes Schneider showed in a recent post, Ed Patru is a hired professional who is the only member of “Friends of Betsy DeVos.”
If Ed was figuring on boosting membership with Grizzly bears, I think DeVos just shot that plan to hell. .
My question is who is recommending these choices for cabinet posts to Trump? I do not believe for one second that he is that much of a policy wonk that he could pull these names out of his rolodex. SO who is the person recommending an anti-public school person for the education department, a known racist for Justice, and man who repeatedly sued the EPA to head the EPA. These are extreme right wing choices. I’m thinking Steve Bannon. Thoughts anyone?
My guess? Mike Pence.
That makes sense. He has been in those circles his entire political life. Now I’m even more worried.
Pence must have been behind the choice of all the domestic agency posts.
Two Congressmen from S Carolina?
Scott Pruitt from Oklahoma?
Not Trump world.
Bingo!
Which begs the question, who would be worse to have as president, Trump or Pence? I truly don’t know how to answer.
Here’s the correct answer, it is none other than Betsy DeVos’ brother of Blackwater fame advising Trump on all of his appointments!
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/17/1621714/-Guess-Who-s-Been-Advising-Trump?detail=email&link_id=1&can_id=abf82c90d33d015c5d0975dba96a3a70&source=email-guess-whos-been-advising-trump&email_referrer=guess-whos-been-advising-trump&email_subject=guess-whos-been-advising-trump
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/17/notorious-mercenary-erik-prince-is-advising-trump-from-the-shadows/
Whoever confirms this POS should be taken out of office as quick as the papers can be filed. besides her knowing nothing she is in conflict of interest if she gets the position because of her money in private education.
The biggest bear that Ms DeVos needs to be afraid of is bare reality. Only a huckster like The Donald could pick a companion con artist to run what could be called, without exaggeration, the Arsenal of Democracy: our children. By getting rid of public education, the billionaire of babbling bull-sh-t might as well turn over the electoral process to “Let’s Make a Deal.” In return for keeping the public ignorant, the 1% agree to allow the 99% to spend their time watching reruns of Fox News, quiz shows, and Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Do not nominate this unqualified ideologue. JVK
Parents, relatives, friends of children with disabilities:
Tell every GOP senator your story.
Explain why you need federal law to support and protect your children.
This woman claims to want choice for the underserved yet she has NOT HEARD OF I.D.E.A.?” She confused it? WITH WHAT?
Surely there are Republican senators with children with disabilities. HOW WILL THEY VOTE? and then go home and face their kids? (Don’t know how they explain any of this to their daughters)
Surely there are Republican senators whose constituents – by the thousands – have children with disabilities. Do they know these folks vote?
This is beyond “how can they in good conscience…?” (Save that for her statement about doing away with gun free zones around schools).
It’s “how can you vote for a person oblivious to a law that protects millions of children – yes, even rich ones.
Nice to see the NYT calling a spade a spade for a change.
Joe Lieberman is such a sleaze.
You’re being way to kind in calling Joe Lilly-Livered Lieberman a sleaze.
As they say, it takes one to know one.
And the NY Times editors certainly have the twittery* covered.
*Habitat for twits .
I’m having Cathie Black flashbacks.
A few years back, she was appointed the New York City Chancellor of schools — after having ZERO experience in education. Her career was in magazine publishing, if memory serves. She got her appointment because she was in lock-step with then-NYC-mayor Michael Bloomberg on privatizing schools through charter expansion and closing schools and union busting and on and on …
However, Cathie only lasted about a month. Here’s why.
Black’s “grizzly bear” moment when she said that on video that the reason NYC’s schools were so over-crowded was that city’s low-income Puerto Ricans needed to learn how to use birth control. From that point on, at every public event she then went to, crowds of Puerto Rican women waved condoms at her, booed her, cursed her, etc.
Even the pro-privatization Bloomberg recognized that these photo ops were proving disastrous, and that Cathie had to go. He soon canned her.
Perhaps the same thing will play out with Betsy.
No such luck. I am researching grizzly bears.
DeVos is used to smiling and writing a check. In Washington she is a know nothing, fish out of water.
Unfortunately that’s the purpose of all Trumos nominees: to destroy the federal government. Honestly, Steve Bannon is making all these appointments because that’s his ultimate goal.
Her hearing was particularly offensive to me as a special educator.
Reblogged this on DelawareFirstState.
I have to wonder if she’s disingenuous, or thinks the rest of the country is as appallingly ignorant of teaching and education as she is.
That said, I do endorse her position on guns in schools: here in the Financial District of Manhattan, where I work in a public school, grizzly bears have been a persistent problem that we really must get under control.
What about when the market is bullish?
Cattle prods?
How did you know?!?
Especially when the former CEO of Bear Stearns is loitering about the cafeteria looking for table scraps.
The NYTimes should have refrained from commenting on DeVos.
The Times has spent the past decade or more supporting every broad idea that DeVos supports, from charter support to teacher/union-blaming, to questioning the very essence of public school.
Had HRC won, inevitably her pick for Sec. of Ed. would have been a fellow-travelling reformer/privatizer (though far less flagrant). The Times would be, right now, publishing all kinds of supportive, laudatory, superlative-laden pieces on the pick.
The Times also prefers its billionaires and elites to come from certain sectors….tech, finance, inheritance…..not Amway. They prefer their billionaires to have the bought-and-paid for legacy credentials of the Ivys, with all of the associated lingo, rather than some born-again christian college.
Its hard to take the Times seriously……and I say that not from the typical right-wing position, but from a left-wing/progressive one. The Times likes who it likes based on all the things we should abhor: who chose them, where the money came from, who their daddy was, etc….not really on policy. The Times is VERY old-school WASPY on that front. Seeing people like horses. DeVos doesn’t have the right blood-line in the Time’s view. On policy, the NYTimes is actually much closer to DeVos than to us.
DeVos is not a bigger/badder ed reformer/privatizer. She is simply a more flagrant one, shed of all nicety and nonsense (including even basic qualifications….but whatever, its not like John King’s “experience” and qualifications amounted to anything but BS).
We are fast descending into an ahistorical space where we are starting to think that Trump and DeVos are ushering in a new era of privatizing and reform. They are not. The Democrats did that. Obama did that. We are just going to be getting it now with no padding, no lubrication, and certainly no BS lingo.
The Times’ editors have no compunctions about criticizing that which they have been cheerleaders for because like most other media these days, they think facts don’t matter — and that no one has paid any attention to what they said in the past.
The New York Times editorial department is just a bigger, more organized version of Donald Trump., Which actually makes it hilarious when they criticize him
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
In case you want to reach their Senator on this vote.
https://actionnetwork.org/letters/tell-your-senator-to-vote-no-for-betsy-devos?source=facebook&
“Prince of Piece”
A Prince of Piece
For guns in schools
To keep the peace
When grizzly rules
Prince is Betsy DeVos maiden name. Her brother Erik CeO of Blackwater/XE is THE Prince of Piece (piece being slang for gun, of course)
During the hearing, Colorado Senator Michael Bennet asked some pointed questions about the poor performance of charters, particularly in Michigan. According to Jennifer Berkshire (aka The Edushyster) on Twitter, the NYT’s editorial page editor is the Senator’s brother. Perhaps that accounts for the new attitude.