The Los Angeles wrote in an editorial today that the Senate should not confirm Betsy DeVos. She embarrassed herself by her lack of knowledge of the role of the federal government, federal policies, and federal laws.
Betsy DeVos’ love of private school vouchers didn’t disqualify her for the role of U.S. Education secretary, even though vouchers are a bad idea. Nor did her lack of experience in public schools.
What did render her unacceptable was her abysmal performance at her confirmation hearing Tuesday, during which she displayed an astonishing ignorance about basic education issues, an extraordinary lack of thoughtfulness about ongoing debates in the field and an unwillingness to respond to important questions.
She was so unprepared that she sounded like a schoolchild who hadn’t done her homework. She frankly embarrassed herself and should be rejected by the Senate. Better yet, President-elect Donald Trump should withdraw her name and find someone who at least meets the basic qualifications for the post…
DeVos said, reasonably enough, that all kinds of schools — traditional public, charter, private — could expect her support if they did a good job of educating students. But then she contradicted herself by refusing to say that she would hold charter and private schools just as accountable as conventional public schools. Doing a good job matters only for some schools, apparently….
DeVos apparently didn’t even realize that there’s a federal law protecting the educational rights of students with disabilities, saying it should be up to states to make decisions about disabled students. Told that this was a matter of federal law, she stumbled yet again, saying, well, then, the law should be followed, and suggesting that she might have been confused earlier. In addition, she was wildly off in her figures on student debt.
Add to this her failure to answer questions about her home state of Michigan’s underperforming charter schools, whose growth she advocated; about existing laws to protect adults from predatory for-profit colleges; or whether she would honor the Obama administration’s rules regarding sexual abuse on campus.
DeVos is entitled and expected to disagree with Obama administration policies; what disqualifies her is her lack of understanding of existing law and policy, and her inability to address them thoughtfully.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Karin..if you wrote this editorial, I commend you.
Thank you Ellen. I did write it.
Thank you, Karin.
DeVos is an embarrassment to the nation. She gave one evasive response after another, smirking all the while because she knew that nothing she said or did not say would derail her nomination.
However, she may grow bored being Secretary of Education. It means going to work every day.
I wrote to Lamar Alexander yesterday and said that not only had DeVos made a fool of herself, but that the senator himself should be embarrassed by his own remarks supporting this completely unqualified individual. No response was forthcoming from Mr. Alexander.
Standardized test question: Which is greater?
The size of Betsy DeVos’ knowledge gap of education policy or our knowledge of her financial ties?
There’s a bad dream quality to all this. No, seriously. Like, I’m going to wake up and go, whewww….you know that deep sense of relief when your realize…..”it was only a nightmare.”
But it’s NOT!
At least there’s the hope that Trump’s Potemkin Cabinet is being exposed for the tragic farce that it is.
John O, I feel exactly the same. This can’t be. Where did the thoughtful, reasonable people go?
Why is DC now the biggest swamp in history?
Easy answer. Too many people stayed home, and did not vote in the last election. “Indifference is the opposite of civilization”- Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Nobel prize winner.
If you do not vote, do not complain.
“This can’t be” – yet it can, and it is, and we had better acknowledge that as the all too real outcome of a seemingly democratic process.
There are lessons to be learned about democracy, and how to deal with it in order to work out for the better, not for the worse.
The combination of disgruntlement and populism is a vast undermining factor when it comes to the potential value of democracy. It makes people perceive and act (vote) against their own interests, and those of their children. Remember that both Hitler and Putin came to power in a totally democratic way.
So as a people, we must learn to handle the both precious and fragile instrument of democracy. It might break in your hands.
It is no wonder that we should learn how to handle it. Homo sapiens has existed for 200.000 years without democracy. As a species, we are conditioned to listen to the tribe leader with the loudest voice and the biggest muscles. It is only during the last 0,1% of our modern existence that we experiment with democracy. Now we learn – in the hard way – that it has its perils, and its childhood diseases.
Whether we survive our childhood diseases, remains to be seen.
Me too, John. Every time some pundit refers to President Trump, I cringe and think I am having a bad dream. How could this happen? Now the country is run by Omarosa and her Donald…and his relatives. Today there is much talk about the First Lady…and I think of Michelle Obama, the attorney from Princeton and Harvard..but then I think of the mew, uneducated, First Nude Model, and I want to cry.
This is the new crude picture the world sees of America today.
Now, Melania I have to give a pass. I doubt she ever wanted the job of first lady. I don’t think her opinion mattered. Wives are just eye candy and to bear children.
The way Melania attacked the author of a article in the New Yorker who wrote about her, the anti Semitic rage she dumped on this journalist causing her to be vilified by bigots and in fear of her life, and Melania’s European past history and her concocted lies about it all, shows her true colors..and they are in no way the purist ‘white’ she now chooses to wear as First Hot Nude Model. No amount of razzle dazzle can change history.
Why should a billionaire donor need to prepare for a hearing like this? Lamar alexander was going to do everything he could to protect her from every tough question–or the need to face a second round of questions. Hey Lamar–ho is standing up for the millions of kids (some still unborn) that will suffer because this donor was permitted to assume this position? Bernie Sanders was correct–their are millions of Americans much more qualified than this lady–but this fraud distinguished herself in one way–as a donor.