HELP Committee Approves DeVos 12-11

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1. Susan says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:35 pm

   All we needed were two votes- two people that thought beyond the train- to stop this insidious choice.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     January 31, 2017 at 4:17 pm

     Just 1, not 2. One Republican. Do Republicans hate public schools?

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2. Ed Ciaccio says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:38 pm

   Of course Repulsives voted for the unqualified DeVos. Repulsives despise all public institutions except the military-industrial-intelligence-congressional complex which provides so much $$$ to BOTH major political parties. Their great dream is to privatize everything, so they can get even wealthier, regardless of how many people suffer. The market is God.

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3. Chiara says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:38 pm

   DeVos put a charter promoter in to mollify liberal ed reformers:

   http://educationpost.org/the-choice-of-botel-for-white-house-education-advisor-should-offer-some-comfort-to-devos-opponents/

   You’ll notice she doesn’t feel she has to appoint anyone to represent the interests of public school parents and children. They know no one will make a fuss if we’re completely ignored.

   Looking forward to “public school policy” that excludes any input from anyone in a public school. That’ll go well.

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   • TC says:

     January 31, 2017 at 2:30 pm

     Race to the voucher. States that embrace vouchers and charters will see more millions of fed grants headed their way. States who don’t? As Blues Brother Dan Akroyd said, you go hungray.

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4. jdhollowell says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:50 pm

   I think her commitment to parental choice in education will strengthen our educational system. Options for students are a good thing.

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   • Dienne says:

     January 31, 2017 at 12:53 pm

     Parental choice is great for those parents who happen to have white, affluent, English-speaking, non-disabled, compliant, cheap and easy to educate students whom any school would fight to accept. I guess you don’t care much about the rest of the riff-raff, do you?

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   • GregB says:

     January 31, 2017 at 1:04 pm

     Have you ever read anything by Diane Ravitch?

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   • Joe says:

     January 31, 2017 at 1:32 pm

     It’s faux choice, it’s toxic choice, it’s not real choice. It’s phony baloney choice. Finland does not have so called school choice. It has a good public school system – no charter schools, no school vouchers, no home schooling, no privatization glop.
     Bad options for students is not positive in any way, shape or form.
     Charter schools don’t want kids with serious behavioral problems or severe learning disabilities. They counsel them out or make life miserable for the parents of those kids. This goes on now in Camden, NJ, and many other places in the country.

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   • jcgrim says:

     January 31, 2017 at 1:46 pm

     Baloney. Privatized schools have ALL of the choice. Students with disabilities who are too expensive need not apply. That’s called discrimination, not choice.

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   • drext727 says:

     January 31, 2017 at 2:05 pm

     jdhollowell…I believe that you are on the wrong blog to be commenting in favor of “school choice, vouchers, or charter schools”.

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     • Bill McAninch says:

       January 31, 2017 at 7:24 pm

       Typical leftist attempt to deny an opposing view.

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     • drext727 says:

       January 31, 2017 at 7:25 pm

       I’m not denying anything, I just disagree.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       January 31, 2017 at 8:29 pm

       Typical rightwing sneer at those who don’t share their views

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     • bethree5 says:

       January 31, 2017 at 8:43 pm

       Contrary to drext727, I as a regular blog contributor, welcome opposing views, they spark dialog & keep us from being an echo chamber. I hope you will expand on the basis for your opinion.

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   • Michael Fiorillo says:

     January 31, 2017 at 2:43 pm

     Options for the (select) few result in fewer resources for the overwhelming majority. It’s simple arithmetic, combined with racism and class warfare.

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   • Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

     January 31, 2017 at 2:51 pm

     HUH? Do you read and are you aware, jdhollowell? Put on your thinking cap, please.

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   • TC says:

     January 31, 2017 at 3:07 pm

     Options are a good thing. So is fully funded education. If she can compel the states and the federal gov to come up with another quarter trillion per year to fully fund education, more power to her.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       January 31, 2017 at 3:24 pm

       Under DeVos, expect budget cuts. Predestination.

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     • Charles says:

       January 31, 2017 at 3:27 pm

       There might be a surprise here! Once school choice is initiated, and parents get the vouchers, there could be a surprise. If the voucher payments are not adequate, to meet tuition at private/parochial schools, then the government might be persuaded to increase the amount of the voucher. When the vouchers are redeemed at public schools, the amount of per-pupil spending will increase accordingly! Well worth consideration.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       January 31, 2017 at 4:16 pm

       Charles, that is nonsense. Several cities already have vouchers. No, the amounts have not increased. Kids go to poor schools and outcomes are negligible. Money drained from public schools, so that public schools suffer

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     • retiredbutmissthekids says:

       January 31, 2017 at 5:34 pm

       “Fully funded education” for whom? As is happening now, public schools are being starved. Money is being stolen by charters, both non-profit & for-profit.
       The last place the money goes to is students, if you’ve been following any of this at all, TC. Lot$ of $$$$ to “$tandardized” te$ting, i.e., Pear$on Publi$hing (&, oh, “poor” Pear$on–the WSJ has reported that their $tock$ dropped by 30%! {& you’ve GOT to wonder just WHO owns Pear$on $tock-?}). Then, archive thi$ blog, & read about all the PUBLIC (that’$ right–OUR tax $$$) school monies stolen by charter school operators, rent that’s been saved & charter schools that have–w/o much or any prior notice–been shuttered, leaving families scrambling.
       Or…just read Diane’s recent postings about DeVos & just what she’s done to schools in Michigan.
       The very LAST thing she needs is “more power.”

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     • Ken Watanabe says:

       February 1, 2017 at 10:20 am

       Charles,

       NIOL(Not In Our Lifetime)!

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     • Máté Wierdl says:

       February 1, 2017 at 12:30 pm

       “Options are a good thing.”

       Yeah, if they are for all. But in this case, as in most cases where politicians want to deregulate, only the 1% will have a choice.

       “Options” and “choices” are dirty words here.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     January 31, 2017 at 3:18 pm

     JDHollowell,

     Any evidence or just your hope?

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   • DL says:

     January 31, 2017 at 9:39 pm

     As long as her school choice has accountability and plays by the same rules as public schools. In Michigan, the DeVos family used their money to have accountability removed from a charter school bill. Most charter schools in Michigan fall well below the public schools, in regards to test scores AND they are for profit. Makes you wonder why Mrs. DeVos is against accountability, doesn’t it?

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5. Chiara says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:51 pm

   Well, public school parents are going to have to start holding Republican Senators accountable. When they show up at your public school come election time tell them to take a hike. The least they could do is stay out of the public schools they spend all their time bashing. I’m not aware of any requirement that says we even have to host them. We have to comply with federal law. All the rest is optional.

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6. Eugene Gant says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:51 pm

   Did we REALLY expect anything less from the Republicans. Or should I day something better from the Republicans. NO!!!! Republicans are AFRAID of Trump. They are afraid to vote against anything or anyone that Dumb Trump wants. That is the bottom line. Republicans to not have the backbone necessary to stand up for the American people and serve the American people as we expect our elected officials to do. Republicans lined up behind Dumb Trump with their dunce caps on and stupid smiles on their faces.

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   • ciedie aech says:

     January 31, 2017 at 1:09 pm

     Yes. One thing that Trump has used to his own purposes often and abusively is his unfiltered (and untethered) voice: you can bet that when any person now theoretically on his “side” steps out of line, he won’t hold back.

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     • Ellen Lubic says:

       January 31, 2017 at 2:55 pm

       Yes, ciedie…and he is now in further lockstep with DeVos and her drive to use vouchers to indoctrinate the Nation’s children in Christianity, by insisting that all Christians from the 7 Islamic countries on his hit list be able to step to the front of the line and gain easy entrance to the US. How do you tell who is a Christian? Is there a mark imprinted on the forehead as with a Scarlet Letter?

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     • ciedie aech says:

       January 31, 2017 at 5:07 pm

       may many learn to game that system very quickly

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7. Beth Forrester says:

   January 31, 2017 at 12:55 pm

   I wonder what they were threatened with. After all — she doesn’t own ALL of them!

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   • Ellen Lubic says:

     January 31, 2017 at 3:04 pm

     As she has said herself, she does own most of them. She claims her major donations gives her the right to demand her positions be followed by the legislators who take her cash.

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8. Ugly People just plain Ugly says:

   January 31, 2017 at 1:01 pm

   This confirms that we are living in a corrupt country filled with fake people who are so corrupt that the system they serve will rise up to bite them in the ass. This confirmation is a sad day for american public education and education in general. This is complete bull shit and Devos will be despised in any environment she tries to attend such as a NYC school. If Devos tries to visit a NYC public school she better come with the secret service or it could get ugly

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   • dianeravitch says:

     January 31, 2017 at 3:17 pm

     She will bring a grizzly bear and a gun when she visits schools

     But I doubt she will ever visit public schools. Only charters and religious schools

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9. Darcie Cimarusti says:

   January 31, 2017 at 1:07 pm

   Two Senator, Murkowski from Alaska, and Collins from Maine, made it clear that they have significant concerns with DeVos as a nominee, and that she has not yet won their floor vote. Their votes today were to advance her out of the committee, but they were VERY clear that they have doubts about her ability to be an advocate for traditional public schools. All hope is not yet lost!

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   • GregB says:

     January 31, 2017 at 1:11 pm

     Don’t hold your breath. Especially with Murkowski, DeVos has invested in her.

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   • TC says:

     January 31, 2017 at 2:26 pm

     I would hope some of the moderate Republicans in the senate will throw out a few of the least palatable, be that Mnuchin, Perry, or DeVos.

     It would be sad if they rubber stamped everybody.

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     • GregB says:

       January 31, 2017 at 2:30 pm

       I think it will take 18 months at a minimum before Reps vote against Trump. Hope I’m wrong.

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     • Kim Walton says:

       January 31, 2017 at 2:43 pm

       Remembering the rubber stamp of the Bloomberg years in NYC…so many schools closed 😦

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     • Ellen Lubic says:

       January 31, 2017 at 2:57 pm

       Please call and write to these two, plus Sasse, McCain, Graham and others to NOT vote for DeVos…and the other candidates who will further deform America…particularly Tillerson.

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     • Abigail Shure says:

       January 31, 2017 at 7:29 pm

       Are there any moderate Republicans?

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     • GregB says:

       January 31, 2017 at 7:58 pm

       Abigail, it’s an extinct species. Susan Collins will claim to be one, but her voting record indicates otherwise.

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     • Abigail Shure says:

       February 2, 2017 at 5:05 pm

       Collins is a hypocrite.

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10. Darcie Cimarusti says:

    January 31, 2017 at 1:09 pm

    http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/01/senate_committee_backs_betsy_devos_two_GOP_votes_uncertain.html

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11. miminqueens says:

    January 31, 2017 at 1:31 pm

    One vote would have made all the difference 😦

    Now, Senate Democrats, show your filibuster power! Those who value public schools are looking to you.

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    • FLERP! says:

      January 31, 2017 at 2:02 pm

      There is no filibuster power for cabinet votes.

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      • Charles says:

        January 31, 2017 at 3:28 pm

        Sen. McConnell warned Harry Reid, some time ago. It has been proven true! The democrats brought this on themselves.

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    • FLERP! says:

      January 31, 2017 at 2:02 pm

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      • dianeravitch says:

        January 31, 2017 at 3:11 pm

        Thanks Harry Reid for this cabinet of deplorables

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12. jcgrim says:

    January 31, 2017 at 1:48 pm

    Democrats could have blocked the nomination with procedural rules. They didn’t .

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    • FLERP! says:

      January 31, 2017 at 1:59 pm

      Which rules? They can’t use the filibuster to prevent a vote.

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      • Reteach 4 America says:

        January 31, 2017 at 2:43 pm

        Democrats should be using the same tactics for promoting delays in Congress that Republicans used on them for the last 8 years.

        I’m certainly no expert on this, but as mentioned in an article Diane posted here a few days ago, to prevent cabinet nominees from being rushed through, Dems could withhold consent and trigger the cloture process:

        Former Senate Aide: Democrats Can Stop Trump, if They Have the Will and the Guts

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      • FLERP! says:

        January 31, 2017 at 4:23 pm

        I think that article is talking about ways to drag the process out, rather than actually blocking votes.

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      • Reteach 4 America says:

        January 31, 2017 at 7:32 pm

        I think it was very apparent I knew when I wrote that Democrats could use “tactics for promoting delays” and “prevent cabinet nominees from being rushed through” that this will “drag the process out.” Buying time is sometimes just what is needed to get through to someone who might be on the fence or wavering. Didn’t they only need ONE person to jump ship?

        Apparently, the procedure will cause a lot of extra work for Republicans. There’s no good reason why Democrats should be promoting smooth sailing for Republicans, or make things easier for them when dealing with such critical matters, especially after Republicans just spent year after year trying to thwart Democrats at every turn.

        If Democrats don’t capitalize on every single opportunity they get to at least try to prevent Trump from getting whatever he wants handed to him on a silver platter, they’ll just look like the party of wimps giving up to the fascist bullies.

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      • FLERP! says:

        January 31, 2017 at 7:35 pm

        Sorry, I read your comment as referring to using procedural rules to block a nomination.

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13. miminqueens says:

    January 31, 2017 at 2:27 pm

    Then we’ll just have to wait for a better time, and hope the public schools survive until that better time.

    Anything else? Is there any alternative to flying the white flag?

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14. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

    January 31, 2017 at 2:53 pm

    OMG…HELP committee. Turn everything 180 that comes from D.C.

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15. debmeier says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:02 pm

    Can you list for us who they are???

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

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    • Ellen Lubic says:

      January 31, 2017 at 3:07 pm

      Subcommittee Chair Ranking Member
      Subcommittee on Children and Families Chris Dodd (D-CT) Lamar Alexander (R-TN)
      Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety Patty Murray (D-WA) Johnny Isakson (R-GA)
      Subcommittee on Retirement and Aging Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) Richard Burr (R-NC)
      United States Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and …

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    • Ellen Lubic says:

      January 31, 2017 at 4:33 pm

      Deb…here is a follow up to the HELP committee and those members who took DeVos bribes…article by Steve Singer.

      Steven Singer posted this message on Basecamp.

      “Farcical Senate Closer to Selling Education Secretary Position to Highest Bidder

      Unqualified billionaire Betsy DeVos is one step closer to becoming our next Education Secretary.

      In one of the most embarrassing displays of subservience, once-respected Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) pushed the nomination through committee this afternoon despite numerous objections from Democrats.

      The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee voted along party lines 12-11 to bring DeVos before the full Senate. A final vote has not yet been scheduled.

      DeVos has next to zero experience with public schools. She never attended one. He children never attended one. She never taught in one. Nor does she even have a degree in education.

      Her entire experience is bribing policymakers to enact Common Core, push school choice measures and reduce transparency at charter schools – measures that have gutted public schools in her home state of Michigan.

      At her confirmation hearing two weeks ago, DeVos’ ignorance of even the most basic education knowledge was laughably on display.

      She wouldn’t commit to protecting students with special needs.

      She wouldn’t commit to keeping guns out of school campuses.

      She wouldn’t commit to holding charter and voucher schools to the same standards as traditional public schools.

      She didn’t know the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was a federal law.

      And she couldn’t explain the difference between proficiency and growth, two of the most common academic terms.

      DeVos entire qualifications are that, along with her family, she has donated around $200 million to mostly Republican lawmakers.

      That includes direct donations to at least five members of the HELP Committee:

      Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) – $70,200

      Sen. Tim Scott (R–SC) – $49,200

      Sen. Todd Young (R-IN) – $48,600

      Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) – $43,200

      Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) – $43,200

      If you add in PACS funded by DeVos and family, the number jumps to 10 members of the committee including Sen. Alexander, himself.

      Senators have been bombarded by calls from constituents not to confirm DeVos, but greenbacks apparently talk much louder than our fragile excuse-for-a-Democracy.

      However, two GOP members of the committee said that their votes today do not necessarily guarantee support on the final vote.

      Sen. Susan Collins, (R-ME) and Sen. Murkowski said they were approving DeVos out of deference to Donald Trump. In effect, the President can nominate whomever he likes, and the Senate should vote on it.

      Both Collins and Murkowski said they’re still concerned about DeVos’ seeming lack of commitment to enforce laws protecting disabled students and other policies.

      “I would advise she not yet count on my vote,” Murkowski said.

      The Senate, just like the HELP Committee, is controlled by Republicans. DeVos is only another party line vote away from becoming Secretary of Education.”

      It is a position that she has apparently already bought and paid for.

      READ MORE:

      https://gadflyonthewallblog.wordpress.com/2017/01/31/farcical-senate-closer-to-selling-education-secretary-position-to-highest-bidder/

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16. GE2L2R says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:05 pm

    DeVos’ involvement with Neurocore alone should disqualify her from being approved as Secretary of Education! Two paragraphs from ‘Betsey DeVos Invests in a Therapy Under Scrutiny’ which appeared in today’s New York Times:

    Neurocore is the creation of Timothy G. Royer, a licensed psychologist with a master’s degree in theology, who served as division chief of pediatric psychology at the Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich.

    Originally called Hope 139, after Psalm 139 from the Bible, the company marketed itself to schools — especially religious ones — in Michigan to help children improve academic scores and lessen the need for medication to treat certain ailments.

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    • Ellen Lubic says:

      January 31, 2017 at 3:28 pm

      The list of her holdings came to 102 companies listed. She said she would not divest from any of these. Neurocore is biofeedback which has been used for decades to ‘treat’ ADD, ADHD, and other learning disabilities. There are far more egregious companies on her list…the Prince family members are prime investors in weapons industries, and in clandestine military interventions…as with mercenaries. What a way to make billions….

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17. Máté Wierdl says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:12 pm

    So a single vote would have been needed, and then the 12:11 would have turned into 11:12.

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18. John Q. Parent says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:24 pm

    Correct me if I am wrong, but since charter schools are “public” schools and get “public” money it seems to me that they will be in the same boat as regular district schools in that they will be loosing kids to religious or prestigious private schools. Why would a parent put a kid in a charter school with huge classes when they can take the “public” money attached to the kid and put him or her in a nice, mellow, relgious or private school? Seems to me that charters are gonna be scrambling for kids harder than ever if the voucher law really kicks in.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      January 31, 2017 at 3:25 pm

      Yep.

      Like Milwaukee, and DC, and Cleveland. No winners.

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    • Máté Wierdl says:

      January 31, 2017 at 8:05 pm

      No, poor parents won’t be able to take their kids to Catholic schools with small class sizes, because the voucher doesn’t pay for the whole tuition, and poor parent cannot afford even the rest of the tuition.

      So what happens to poor parents’ kids is that their public school will get less funds, due to voucher sucking away the money from them. So there will be bigger and bigger class sizes, and eventually technology will take over the job of the teachers—because that’s the “most costeffective” solution.

      This is why vouchers give choice or “options” only to the rich, the rest will have even less choice than now.

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19. Sherri says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:34 pm

    We are doomed

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    • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

      January 31, 2017 at 4:02 pm

      We are NOT doomed unless we give up fighting, DeVos or No DeVos.

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    • dianeravitch says:

      January 31, 2017 at 4:14 pm

      Sherri,

      We are not doomed unless we give up. I ain’t giving up.

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      • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

        January 31, 2017 at 10:14 pm

        Nor am I!!!!!!

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20. Reteach 4 America says:

    January 31, 2017 at 3:47 pm

    No one wanted to hear our warnings when the Democrats were on the same page as the GOP regarding education policies, at least in part, due to their trust and belief in Obama for the past 8 years.

    Now we are going to have to make it very clear to the public on both sides of the aisle what privatization is all about, and that when billionaires want to take away something from us, whether it’s our public schools, our democratically elected school boards, our Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, health insurance or any other public good, they are not being altruistic or acting out of the goodness of their hearts. They are pursuing their own economic and ideological agendas. And, no, they really aren’t satiated by their wealth and always want more. (It’s like there’s a race to become the first trillionaire.)

    The super-rich are people that see themselves as “the betters” in our society and they have waged class warfare against us, who they see as their “lessers.” It should be a lot more evident to people today that when it comes to public education, billionaires are aiming to destroy something they have not used for themselves or their children because they don’t value it.

    And if you think that’s alarming, the choices those people promote for us are very limited in other arenas. Many of the same people who claim to believe in school choice are not only against women’s choice, but they also want to make birth control illegal, because they see contraception as the same thing as abortion:
    http://www.alternet.org/right-wing/anti-choice-advocate-admits-joy-reid-her-ultimate-goal-make-birth-control-illegal

    Trump did say something not long ago about making abortions illegal and about prosecuting women. Now try to imagine women being sent to jail for wearing the patch and men being sent to prison for wearing condoms –all created underground as contraband due to legal restrictions.

    If that ever happens, the people who pushed such policies should be jailed for promoting the spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, including HIV, because without condoms that are manufactured to a high standard, we are sure to see a very severe spike in STDs…

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    • Reteach 4 America says:

      January 31, 2017 at 3:58 pm

      Since so many of these right-wingers are fundamentalist Xtians, they probably want to make sex outside of marriage illegal, too.

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      • Norwegian Filmmaker says:

        January 31, 2017 at 4:02 pm

        They are just as likely to make sex inside of marriage illegal, the Puritans that they are.

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21. retiredbutmissthekids says:

    January 31, 2017 at 5:45 pm

    Thank you for the laugh, Norwegian Filmmaker!

    Also, others here…NOT doomed, NOT hopeless. As Bernie has been saying, we don’t have the luxury of despair. More people running for local, state office–primary legislators
    who are complacent, career (those who’ve never done anything else in their adult work lives) & those who are just plain lousy, take bad money (e.g.–those 13 DINOs who voted against that Big Pharma resolution).

    “Democracy is NOT a spectator sport…get out there, get active…tag, you’re it.”
    –Thom Hartmann

    (have to go—going to a meeting…)

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22. Werebat says:

    February 1, 2017 at 9:38 am

    I have been teaching in the public schools for 20 years, and after living through the Duncan years, I find DeVos to be refreshingly open and honest about being what the weasel Duncan tried so hard to hide being.

    Look at all of the angst and outrage about DeVos already coming from some of the same camps who SHOULD have opposed Duncan, but could not do any more than shift uncomfortably and cough a little because he was Obama’s choice — the choice of the Democratic president.

    DeVos is poised to boldly unmask corporate education reform and free many people to target it, and that is something that desperately needs to be done. The insidious Obama and Duncan were really a greater threat, IMO.

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23. miminqueens says:

    February 1, 2017 at 10:57 am

    In a comment of mine which disappeared (I don’t know why), I asked if there are any alternatives to flying the white flag. Now I ask, are there any alternatives to flying the white flag OR to clenching our fists with fruitless shouts of defiance?

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    • dianeravitch says:

      February 1, 2017 at 11:12 am

      Never fly the white flag.

      Join Network for Public Education and fight with your allies.

      If she gets confirmed, the fight goes on.

      No white flag. Never.

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24. Alexandra Miletta says:

    February 1, 2017 at 1:59 pm

    I watched the vote on DeVos live yesterday. As far as I can tell, only the Washington Post is fully reporting the bizarre double vote after Sen. Murray questioned the rule of order due to Sen. Hatch’s proxy vote (on cabinet appts senators must be present to vote). They tried to drag the poor clerk into the disagreement and Sen. Alexander basically stalled while they got Sen. Hatch back and revoted. As someone who knows about Robert’s rules of order, the shutting down of debate on a motion and the handling of the proxy vote were not trivial. Rules were broken. These are the signs of cracks in our democracy. Full transcript from c-span: https://www.c-span.org/video/…

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25. Tanya says:

    February 4, 2017 at 11:38 pm

    I just know that in these times God will prevail. What is tough makes us strong!!

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    • Máté Wierdl says:

      February 5, 2017 at 12:22 pm

      Well, DeVos and the adminsitration also think, God is behind them.

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