Graham Vyse writes in The New Republic that Betsy DeVos was stumped time and again by straightforward questions from Democrats. Meanwhile, Republicans fell all over themselves praising her for being willing to serve in a job for which she is manifestly unfit.
“Betsy DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, just failed her first test. At her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday night, the billionaire conservative philanthropist and “school choice” advocate appeared unprepared to answer straightforward questions about school reform, and she aired extreme views that could cause headaches for the incoming administration.
The worst of it began when Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, asked DeVos about a longtime debate in education policy over whether students should be evaluated on their academic growth or “proficiency.” The nominee seemed stumped:
“I think, if I’m understanding your question correctly around proficiency, I would also correlate it to competency and mastery, so that each student is measured according to the advancement they’re making in each subject area,” she said.
“Well, that’s growth. That’s not proficiency,” Franken replied. “I’m talking about the debate between proficiency and growth and what your thoughts are on that.”
“DeVos said she was “just asking to clarify,” and then Franken really pounced.
“It surprises me that you don’t know this issue,” he said, “and Mr. Chairman, I think this a good reason for us to have more questions.”
“To the average American tuning in on C-SPAN, this moment might have seemed like know-it-all nitpicking from Franken. DeVos’s answer suggests she’s not well-versed on policy, and begs the question why she wasn’t better prepared.”
Possibly, DeVos knew that her generous contributions to Republicans made her confirmation a mere formality, so there was no need to prepare. Most of her answers were evasive or noncommittal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
DeVos is more knowledgeable on the grizzly bear issue.
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She doesn’t know jackshit about us bears.
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Al Franken’s questioning showed Betsy’s true ignorance on ed issues. Hope he runs for Prez in 2020. He demonstrated by direct encounter that she is not fit for this, or any, office in the leadership of the nation.
And his encounter with the weasel Lamar Alexander was an embarrassment to Alexander who actually kissed her ring as the new Pope of Ed. Shame on him. Diane, hope you gave you old boss hell for his rudeness to Franken and his determined support of DeVos.
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“…whether students should be evaluated on their academic growth or “proficiency.” ”
How about neither of the above?
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Yes, Dienne. On the other hand, I liked NCLB’s characterization as autopsy.
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Good point.
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Kaine was getting no answers at all… if I can paraphrase he said “if this were a courtroom the huge would order an answer” to my question… So , instead , he took a different approach: he would word the statement and then say “do you agree or disagree?” asking her to go on record that way. I liked his approach and it pointed out how she was totally unable to frame the answer to a question.
so there was no need to prepare. Most of her answers were evasive or noncommittal.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
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Yeah, I think the other senators could learn from Kaine how to ask questions, so that it cannot be dodged without embarrassing the answerer. He was better than the others in making his questions clear and forcing DeVos to clearly state her position. Here she is forced to (implicitly but clearly) admit that she doesn’t believe in equal accountability of schools receiving federal funds.
This is at 2 min 29 sec
It’s worth staying on and hear the questioning about students with disabilities at 3 min and 45 sec.
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After watching the hearing on CSpan it is clear that like Senator Sanders pointed out if it wasn’t for all the billions her family donated she would not be the nominee for this role. This just highlights what a terrible choice she is. It’s absurd to make someone the top official in area they have no background or experience in at all. Her answers had less depth than what the presidents of loca PTA’s could have offered.
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It is truly painful that when speaking about her vetting, yesterday, the larger media kept repeating that she is being considered because she “cares about kids…”
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The difference between growth and proficiency? Oh, those gotcha questions.
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These type of questions separate the authentic from the posers. DeVos is the latter.
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I’d like to ask Frankenstein how he defines growth and proficiency.
Does he define them by standardized tests?
Knowing the buzzwords does not necessarily mean that one really knows what one is talking about.
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Franken not Frankenstein!
The self-correct on my tablet did that!
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Does anyone know DeVos views on Gulen charters in the U S?
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Why care? What difference does it make? (and no I’m not being facetious)
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Because Gulen charters are so numerous and have so many students enrolled
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Thanks for the clarification. You’re right that should have been one of the y/n questions. Do you believe that a foreign national on the run from his government should run X number of Turkish oriented charters?
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Since the FBI has repeatedly raided Gulen headquarters and schools, and the Gulen schools have claimed that there aren’t enough qualified local teachers to hire and they seem to rarely hire women to be school Principals……
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Really the Dims let a great opportunity to destroy have THEBetsy destroy her own credentials and policies.
Simple yes/no questions would have sufficed to show just how unqualified she is and how amazingly out of the mainstream (despite what L. Alexander had to say about her being in the main stream of education) she is.
But some needed to grandstand, some needed to preen and primp, some needed to show just how much they supposedly know about education, wasting valuable questioning time. I was very disappointed by most of the questioning by the Dims.
Did you attend public schools? Y/N
Did your children attend public schools? Y/N
Have you ever taught in a public school? Y/N
Did you say that you expected results from your political donations? Y/N
Have you been an administrator of a public school? Y/N
Have you been on the board of a public school district? Y/N
Do you believe that “student achievement” can be “measured”? Y/N
Do you believe that you will be raptured when Jesus returns? Y/N
Do you believe that you can cure homosexuality? Y/N
Do you know what the acronym IDEA stands for? Y/N (if yes a follow up of What does it stand for?)
And many more. She would have hung herself and she would never have had the time to deflect and disseminate. Simple yes or no.
But, hey those senators really know how to grill someone. What a farce!
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But seriously…
When you have someone as Sec of Ed that is as clueless and inexperienced as Arne Duncan, you have set the bar so low that—as surely as night follows day—a Betsy DeVos is bound to follow. At least she admitted she would follow orders no matter how much they Trump genuine teaching and learning.
I must admit to one major disappointment. A critical question they apparently didn’t ask: are you the president-elect’s basketball buddy? How’s your three-point shooting? Passing? Defense?
If they had, perhaps they would have been pleased to see that she’s a good dribbler…
😎
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The b-ball test is not a bad idea.
Otherwise, how do we know she’s not just Arne Duncan in drag?
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” are you the president-elect’s basketball buddy?”
The pres elect doesn’t exercise beyond mocking people, does he?
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/14/politics/donald-trump-dr-oz-weight/index.html
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“Simple yes/no questions would have sufficed to show just how unqualified she is ”
I agree, Duane. I like Al Franken’s views but his questioning is never ever clear, so people are not surprised that DeVos is confused, and the main point—namely that DevOs has no idea about the growth vs proficiency debate—doesn’t jump at you.
All questions should have been asked by Kaine. To me the most striking fact is that she dares to say that different publicly funded schools can have different accountability even in how they spend federal dollars.
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The average person watching the hearings, if such there were, would not know the difference between proficiency and growth. Too arcane.
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DeVos is not supposed to be “the average person” but rather she is supposed to know education terms and issues, and to be able to address them when questioned.
But of course, she follows in the power mad ignorance of her President, and all she needs to run the Dept. of Ed, is to be a billionaire.
Even more dangerous is Tillerson, who does know the answers, but obfuscates and bullies…both of these candidates should be scratched.
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“DeVos is not supposed to be…”: Bingo, Ellen! I may know nothing about genetics or malignancy, but my oncologist better well. I may nothing about the physics of bridge building, but that civil engineer better well…
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They were only allowed one question each, Duane. Franken used his question as a rapier…showed her complete ignorance on Ed issues.
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I thought that they were allowed five minutes to ask questions. . . and yes, according to the transcript on C-Span this is what Alexander said ” I WILL FOLLOW THE GOLDEN RULE AND NOT CHANGE THE RULES THAT WE DID NOT APPLY TO PRESIDENT OBAMA’S NOMINEES ARE PRESIDENT BUSH’S NOMINEES. SO WE WILL HAVE A FIVE-MINUTE ROUND OF QUESTIONS.
Aside from his lie about the “golden rule” (I guess he was trying to ward off a golden shower, oops wrong guy) that clearly states that each senator had five minutes to ask questions.
Now it’s obvious that Alexander ambushed the Dims with that supposed precedent point of order-what a lie, which made it all the more important that the Dims be efficient in their asking questions. In my view the Dims did not handle the situation well at all and gave only a token resistance to Alexanders lies, falsehoods and prevarications. OH, but boy did they follow Senate decorum, eh! Candyasses!!
Again the only one who really challenged her, at least in my take on it, was Kaine-good for him. But the Dims could have been a hell of a lot more hard hitting than being so friggin deferential. Oh well, another four years of the Dims capitulating on most everything and allowing this country to regress back to an xtian fundamentalist far right never never land.
If there ever was a chance, right up front to stand up to THETrumpster, THEBetsy hearing was it. They got served a perfect 8 ft high slow pitch right out over the plate. . . . . . and. . . . popped it up straight to the catcher behind the plate instead of slamming it out of the park.
Sad, very sad spectacle indeed.
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Duane…Franken was aggressive in his questioning about growth v. proficiency. He insisted she answer his question, not her manipulated reply. Then he accosted Lamar Alexander about why Dems could not get another round to question her since she was showing her complete lack of knowledge about public ed, and her dedication to privatizing.
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Ellen Lubic
Would it have mattered if they were allowed 50 questions. This is a despicable swamp. Price should be disqualified ,Tillerson , Ross a billionaire at Commerce caught employing an undocumented employee. How fitting that the man in charge of ” the Business of America ” in the the administration of demagogue in chief who ran on mass deportation should not know how to use the E-Verify system . Yes the business of America is business as usual.
But had they asked 50 questions, at the end of the day this would always be a dog and pony show. If 4 Republicans cross over so will 3 Democrats to insure that the show goes on. The Democrats are happy to run on social and identity issues . The primary rule being do no harm to your corporate masters.
So yes we have many principled Democrats but what is the ideology of the party.. This is a party who had a super majority in the Senate and what did they do with it in their first 100 days. Kennedy passed away in August. not April .
The Republicans are almost refreshing in their support of Trump. They would throw there own mothers off a bridge to accomplish their ideological goals. As they are willing to imperil Democracy for the same.
The sight of Wall Street Chuck Schumer leading the party response says it all. The most revealing thing that happened in the last 2 months was the 13 Democrats who crossed over to vote with Republicans on Sanders amendment to allow importation of drugs from Canada.
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“Price should be disqualified ,Tillerson , Ross a billionaire at Commerce caught employing an undocumented employee. ”
I think what we see is that the billionaires, who were leading the country from behind the scenes, are now stepping into the limelight. In a way, you can call this transparency.
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their own
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“A farce to be reckoned with”
Salmon is for grilling
But Congress is for shilling
And public is for billing
As long as we are willing
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Glad you are back. You are really sharp, fast, and on point.
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Betsy’s answers were absolutely pathetic. She was given the kid glove treatment by most of the senators. And she had a smile on her face that said, “It doesn’t matter if I’m a complete incompetent. I have you in my pocket.” Really sickening.
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Her attitude was disgusting. She was SO smug: “I know everything better than you do.” Smug is even worse when the person doesn’t know what they’re talking about.
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It would be hilarious if it wasn’t so frightening. But really the last two education were also awful and unfit for office. I agree with a previous poster, the bar has been set so low, which just tells you what PE Trump and President Obama think about public education
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This country has been going downhill for 30 years. It’s gotten worse and worse each year. And now there’s drumph, who is just a d—- o– m– with a big mouth and small hands and fingers. He’s a big brat who has temper tantrums and can only tweet obscenities. He cannot hold a thought longer than a tweet. Welcome to the circus.
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I was really struck by how reluctant she was to admit the job includes public schools.
It’s outrageous to hire a secretary of education who doesn’t support public schools. It’s an indication of how cloistered ed reform is that they would consider this acceptable and even desirable.
Seriously? We now have to beg these people to grudgingly admit they will allow the continued existence of public schools? This is a negotiation? We have to turn over 20 billion for vouchers or Betsy DeVos will…what? Harm our schools?
It’s nuts. The only place it isn’t considered nuts is inside the echo chamber.
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I believe they said there were 12 repub senators and 11 dem senators at the hearing which means that we need just 2 repub senators to vote no and good ole betsy will be a distant memory (unless you own a water softener from Amway) because I am sure ALL 11 dem senators will vote NO
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Maybe the two Republican senators who did not get DeVos money will vote against her.
But I doubt it. There is always tomorrow.
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“we need just 2 repub senators ”
Why 2? Only one: if one of the 12 repub senators vote no, then we have 11 dem no plus 1 repub no giving 12 nos, vs 12-1=11 repub yes.
Isn’t that enough?
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I’m not so sure of those Dim votes VNS! Now just to spite Alexander they might but other than 4-5 of the Dims I heard/saw nothing to indicate much “dissent”. The question is “How far will more of DeVos’s money go before the vote?”
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I think the 5-minute limit worked to Devos’s disadvantage. Kaine and Franken (possibly others) each used the time limit as a license to cut Devos off in mid-response so they could rephrase her response and move on to the next question, which definitely seemed to unnerve her.
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“which definitely seemed to unnerve her.”
Imo, it’s more important to have clear answers from her which can then repeated in the media.
I think we can agree, that the dems didn’t organize their questioning among each other very well since there were some repetitions. It’s incomprehensible to me how it’s possible for a senator to have such poor rhetorical skills as Franken. Ha is as bad in finishing sentences as W was. Maybe he simply needs to prepare better.
Still, there’s a possibility that DeVos won’t be confirmed. They’ll find a procharter candidate easily.
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Franken has his moments. And he got what he wanted today. Asking clear, crisp questions is not easy. Tim Kaine was a trial attorney, not a comedy writer, and that experience showed in his questioning.
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Diane, you may have addressed this in previous comments, but I haven’t had a chance to read them all. A friend asked if DeVos would have that much of an impact on public ed given that ESSA is the law. What’s your take?
Thanks!
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I posted this thought some where not sure where but here it is again:
The Rethugs may jettison DeVos as “well, she hasn’t provided the necessary documents, has little experience, etc. . .” as an apparent compromise foil to the Dims. “Look, we’re listening to your concerns. We’ll have a new nominee that will be better and improved.”
And then that nominee will be none other than THEJebster. “Why he’s got experience as a governor and all of that”.
I hope not but somehow I can see that scenario play out.
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Duane,
Take ’em one at a time.
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