Earlier I posted a list of Republican senators who had not yet declared how they would vote on DeVos and her radical privatization agenda for our public schools. One by one, the list has been shrinking. At this point, there is only one Republican senator who might vote NO (I say this with the caveat that someone might surprise us): Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska (she was not on the earlier list).
Nebraska has no charter schools, no vouchers. It has a strong tradition of public education. According to Wikipedia, Senator Fischer’s mother was an elementary school teacher in the Lincoln, Nebraska, public schools. I’m willing to bet that Senator Fischer is a graduate of public schools. She is a graduate of the University of Nebraska.
Which way will she go? Will she support public schools or open the door to public funding (and regulation) of religious schools? Will she give the High sign to entrepreneurs and out-of-state corporate charter chains to poach students and money from Nebraska’s public schools?
Will she preserve her mother’s legacy? Millions of parents and teachers are waiting to find out.
Stand with us, Senator Fischer. Become a hero of American public education.
If you live in Nebraska, call her. If you don’t, send her an email or a tweet.
The Senate will probably vote on Friday.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thanks for sending this!
This public school teacher hopes that she will vote No for DeVos. Billionaire DeVos knows nothing about public ed. She has bought this nomination. There is nothing fair or good about her nomination.
Senator Deb Fischer’S Twitter handle is @senatorfischer
I am an educator in NE and just learned that Senator Fischer voted to support DeVos. I am sickened. Thousands — THOUSANDS– of people called, and many of those Nebraskans, begging her to oppose DeVos. She did not listen.
laurengatti,
I am so disappointed that Senator Fischer did not listen to the parents and educators of Nevada. As the daughter of a school teacher, she knows better. As a former school board member, she knows better. DeVos lied to the committee. Why would Senator Fischer accept her promises now?
Laurengeti, I do not believe the confirmation vote has been held yet. It will take place sometime next week.
The vote today was only whether to go ahead with the vote.
Certainly not a good sign for anyone to have voted to go ahead with the vote, but it does not necessarily mean they will vote to confirm DeVos.
In other words, people should still be contacting Fischer and other Senators to ask them to vote no on the final confirmation vote.
DEVOS SPEAKS: at her SXSW speech last year Betsy DeVos lays out her plan for the “education industry”. Her opening was cringeworthy, introducing herself as “the 1%”.
Her plan includes ending seniority and tenure as we know it, firing more teachers and going to an “open system” education “marketplace” of “providers” including charter schools, online schools, virtual schools and expanding technologies such as Khan Academy and cloud-based learning.
She said schools should compete for enrollment or they need to go away.
She calls out Obama’s hypocrisy for sending his kids to private schools (even as she did the same?).
She played a video of her 4 month old grandkids touching an iPad as proof that technology is changing education. Huh?
She acknowledges Cory Booker, Diane Feinstein and Andrew Cuomo as Democrats willing to buck their parties for school choice, to side with Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal and other Republicans.
Her explanation for intractable problems in “failing schools” was…teacher unions. She claims they intimidate Democrats into supporting the status quo.
She didn’t disclose that she and her husband have supported anti-union PACs. 55 min total.
^o^
I just called Senator Fischer’s office to formally request the number of phone calls, emails, letters, and visits she received from people asking her not to support DeVos. It is incredible to me that a senator can just willfully ignore the constituents she is charged with representing. I am disappointed, but mostly I am fired up to fight.
I live in Michigan, and as a teacher have witnessed first hand how charter schools have ruined education. Please keep fighting.
Forwarded to the few folks I know in Nebraska. Let’s hope they make the spirit of Willa Cather proud.
Rumors are circulating from Indivisible chapters that Rob Portman in Ohio and Cory Gardner in Colorado are other possibilities
May their votes be IMMEDIATELY shared publicly so that they know how quickly they can be held accountable.
Thanks for leading this fight, Diane. I tweeted her a couple times.
You are an amazing advocate. Thank you.
Please vote NO Betsy DeVos for Education Secretary! She has no clue about educating children!
Please vote no Betsy Devos for Education Secretary!! She is not qualified and wants to destroy our public school system!
No on Devos!!!!!!!!!!
Washington D.C.
454 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6551
Fax: (202) 228-1325
Kearney
20 West 23rd Street
Kearney, Nebraska 68847
Phone: (308) 234-2361
Fax: (308) 234-3684
Lincoln
440 North 8th Street
Suite 120
Lincoln, Nebraska 68508
Phone: (402) 441-4600
Fax: (402) 476-8753
Norfolk
Post Office Box 1021
Norfolk, Nebraska 68702
Phone: (402) 200-8816
Omaha
11819 Miracle Hills Drive
Suite 205
Omaha, Nebraska 68154
Phone: (402) 391-3411
Fax: (402) 391-4725
Scottsbluff
1110 Circle Drive
Suite F2
Scottsbluff, Nebraska 69361
Phone: (308) 630-2329
Fax: (308) 630-2321
Spread the word!
“Nebraska
Currently, Nebraska doesn’t have a voucher scheme, but two bills have been introduced in the state that would definitely be classified as voucher programs—LB 118, which would set up education savings accounts, and LB 295, a bill to create opportunity scholarships. Both bills would use public dollars to subsidize private schools. Lawmakers held a hearing on LB 188 this week.” (From NEA page)
Those education savings accounts are being pushed relentlessly by Jay P Greene paid for by Walton Foundation and pushed in all the states through ALEC… (University of Walton)
I’ve heard the vote is Friday from Nadler’s office. Haven’t gotten through to Schummer or Gillibrand. Phones too busy.
Any specific suggestions on ways to influence Republican Senators? Everyone says call – but you can’t get through to any of the any other Senators people think are movable?
Thanks for all that you do and any and all insight!
they each have a contact page…. write a letter for that page and it goes to them electronically (I get a response back from Ed Markey within minutes that they have received it).
Nebraska senator page for D. Fischer http://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/email-deb
Bob Braun’s Ledger is on Facebook. This is the comment he appended today to a NYPost article…
“IN CASE THERE’S ANY DOUBT WHERE CHARTER ADVOCATES STAND–This big wet kiss from Eva Moskowitz, the queen of the privatizers, to Trump should eliminate it. The Moskowitz crowd is solidly pro-Trump and pro (Blackwater, Amway, Neurocore) Whacko Betsy DeVos as education secretary–someone even rational Republicans (and Eli Broad) can’t abide. The school privatizers–including New Jersey’s own Shavar Jeffries and Muhammad Akil–already have applauded DeVos’s choice. And these are the same Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) people who are trying to strip away protections for children (no need for school employees to be licensed) and rights of public employees. Debate all you want, folks, but if you think public education will survive four to eight more years of the Trump/DeVos/Jeffries/Akil/Cerf/Christie crowd, you’re just lying to yourself.”
With the charter school industry favored by nominee for U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos bleeding vital funds from the public’s schools, the thoughtful person will ask: “Why are hedge funds the main backers of the private charter school industry? After all, hedge funds are not known for an altruistic interest in educating children.”
Well, the answer, of course, is MONEY.
For example, look at DeVos’ home state of Michigan: There are 1.5 million children attending public elementary and secondary schools and the state annually spends about $11,000 per student which adds up to pot of about $17 billion that private charter school operators have their eyes on. If these private operators succeed in getting what DeVos wants to give them — the power to run all the schools — these private profiteers could make almost $6 billion in profit just by firing veteran teachers and replacing them with low-paid inexperienced teachers, which is what the real objective of so-called “Value-Added” evaluations of veteran teachers is all about.
But wait! There’s more!
In fact, there are many more ways that big profits are being made every day right now by the private charter school industry. Here are just some:
The Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Education has issued a warning that charter schools posed a risk to the Department of Education’s own goals. The report says: “Charter schools and their management organizations pose a potential risk to federal funds even as they threaten to fall short of meeting the goals” because of the financial fraud, the skimming of tax money into private pockets that is the reason why hedge funds are the main backers of charter schools.
The Washington State Supreme Court, the New York State Supreme Courts, and the National Labor Relations Board have ruled that charter schools are not public schools because they aren’t accountable to the public since they aren’t governed by publicly-elected boards and aren’t subdivisions of public government entities, in spite of the fact that some state laws enabling charter schools say they are government subdivisions. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A “PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL” because no charter school fulfills the basic public accountability requirement of being responsible to and directed by a school board that is elected by We the People. Charter schools are clearly private schools, owned and operated by private entities. Nevertheless, they get public tax money.
Even the staunchly pro-charter school Los Angeles Times (which acknowledges that its “reporting” on charter schools is paid for by a billionaire charter school advocate) complained in an editorial that “the only serious scrutiny that charter operators typically get is when they are issued their right to operate, and then five years later when they apply for renewal.” Without needed oversight of what charter schools are actually doing with the public’s tax dollars, hundreds of millions of tax money that is supposed to be spent on educating the public’s children is being siphoned away into private pockets.
Charter schools should (1) be required by law to be governed by school boards elected by the voters so that they are accountable to the public; (2) a charter school entity must legally be a subdivision of a publicly-elected governmental body; (3) charter schools should be required to file the same detailed public-domain audited annual financial reports under penalty of perjury that genuine public schools file; and, (4) anything a charter school buys with the public’s money should be the public’s property.
NO PUBLIC TAX MONEY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO GO TO CHARTER SCHOOLS THAT FAIL TO MEET THESE MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS OF ACCOUNTABILITY TO THE PUBLIC.
Don’t vote for her I am a teacher of 44 years in Indisna and Pence. Sold public education and teachers down the river
I am a retired Elementary teacher. I have taught in both Catholic and Public Schools. I do not believe that Betsy De Vos is any way qualified to be Secretary of Education. I do not believe that she will meet the needs of our poor, disadvantaged or special needs students. Please do not confirm her.
Please VOTE NO… she was born with that silver spoon and so were her kids! She knows diddly squat about public education. Everyone saw her responses to questions. She’s ignorant.. NO to BETSY DEVOS!
I am a retired educator….It would be a travisty to have Mrs. Devoe become our nation’s Secretary of Education….please vote no!! Thank you
CEC email today (Council for Exceptional Children)
“In a time of uncertainty, CEC remains a constant
The CEC Board of Directors just completed its first meeting of the year at our offices across the Potomac River from the nation’s capital. The consensus around the Board table is that those of us in the field of special education need to be prepared for a sustained period of intense advocacy work…..Not since the mid-1970s and the passage of Public Law 94-142 has the special education and early intervention field seen so much uncertainty. Many CEC members have expressed deep concern over the future of our field. Read CEC President Mikki Garcia’s message about how, while the world around us may be fraught with great challenges, one thing will remain constant: The Council for Exceptional Children, its units, and its divisions will be there for you. “
(continued from email)
DeVos nomination: CEC calls all special educators to keep the pressure on Share on FacebookTwitterShare on LinkedinE-mail article
CEC has a new Call to Action on its Legislative Action Center. On Jan. 31, the Senate HELP Committee voted the nomination of Betsy DeVos out of committee on a 12-to-11, party-line vote, paving the way for the entire Senate to vote on the confirmation. CEC continues to call on all special education advocates to express their opinions to their Senators. Specifically, CEC requests that Senators carefully consider concerns over the following unanswered questions as they cast their vote on the DeVos nomination:
Will DeVos uphold the basic tenets of IDEA?
Will DeVos enforce all provisions of IDEA?
Will DeVos not divert the use of public IDEA dollars to support private schools?
Will DeVos guarantee the civil rights of all children with disabilities and their families?
The Legislative Action Center makes it simple to send a message to your Senators. We know that the massive outpouring of concern expressed by educators in the last couple of weeks—including CEC’s unprecedented outreach last week—is making a difference; both Republican and Democratic members of Congress have stated as much.
Senator Fischer, I know I am technically a constituent from the great state of Nebraska but I care deeply about our country and I am absolutely sure you do too. The children of America deserve the best education we can provide them. It is through education that all barriers can be broken! No matter the color, religion, SES status, or develmental skill and function—ALL children deserve schools where their specific needs are the #1 priority. As a professional educator of almost 30 years I can honestly say that teachers in our country have never been better prepared or worked harder than they are today. We are desperate for great leaders like you to see the light and honor our professionalism regarding matters as critical as our Department of Education selection. We do not oppose Betsy DeVos because she has an R in her party column. Party status should not divide our focus on educating our children. It is her lack of knowledge and educational background that is important. If you were diagnosed with a serious medical problem would you not want the best most qualified doctor you could find? If your car was not working properly would you not want a good mechanic who specializes in your car model’s particular functions to work on it? As professional public educators we want a highly qualified person to lead us, on the federal level, so our future educational programs meet the ever changing needs of our children. Our world demands that we tailor our teaching to help children master the necessary skills to meet the needs of our global economy. We have worked so hard to alter and change our techniques and teaching strategies so we help kids succeed. Please help us by choosing a leader that truly has the knowledge and professional background to keep us moving forward in a positive direction! Vote NO on Betsy DeVos. Highly qualified educators, support personnel, and our children are depending on your rational decision. We do not have time to waste.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -” The Nebraska Board of Education voted Friday to oppose legislative bills that would authorize charter schools and provide vouchers for students to attend private schools in certain cases.
The board voted 7-1 to oppose those bills. Only board member Pat McPherson, of Omaha, supported the bills.
The first bill would authorize charter schools in districts with low-performing public schools. Several board members questioned the constitutionality of that proposal, noting it would create a separate commission to oversee charter schools.
The other measure would provide vouchers for students to attend private schools if their local schools are among the lowest-performing statewide. ” WOWT News
Charters in Omaha would be all black. Separate but equal?