Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska is the deciding vote on the nomination of Betsy DeVos.
Apparently DeVos promised not to force vouchers and charters on Nebraska. But, Senator Fischer is making a decision that will affect every state in the nation, not just Nebraska. State’s like North Carolina, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Florida, the Rust Belt, the Deep South, the Midwest will see hundreds of millions–nay, billions–of public funds taken away from public schools and transferred to religious schools with no certified teachers and to charter schools that are neither accountable nor transparent, with academic performance no better than public schools and possibly worse.
Senator Fischer’s mother was a public school teacher. Senator Fischer served on her local school board and was president of the Nebraska School Boards Association.
Please reach out to her. Her twitter handle is @senatorfischer.
She needs to know that the future of public education in America hangs in the balance.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It is essential for us to reach out to any Nebraskans we know and urge the to call Sen. Fischer’s office beginning at 9 am Eastern in the morning. They can begin by sending emails now: http://www.fischer.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/contact
Here is her account of personal assurances to leave Nebraska alone: http://www.omaha.com/news/politics/confirmation-of-betsy-devos-may-depend-on-deb-fischer/article_02a99ddb-627d-5182-984e-55e56bc3f7a8.html
There’s an increasingly well-funded push in Nebraska, one of seven states without charter schools, to change the state’s law.
Katie Linehan previously “co-founded the Nebraska Alliance for Quality Education while working to pass a state charter bill; that organization is now defunct. The effort drew criticism from union leaders and Democrats, many of whom oppose the idea of charter schools in Omaha and fear money they’d draw from the public school system would disenfranchise public school students.
Linehan also helped found the pro-charter group The LEARN Coalition (Liberate, Educate and Reform Nebraska).”
Linehan also worked for a Success Academy school in New York City before returning to Omaha.
All politics is local!
A Nebraskan tweeted her Senate phone number:
202-224-6551
Please call and urge her to vote NO for the sake of American public education!
I know I sound like a broken record and I hope everyone contacts this Senator. I called Collins (before she sold out and approved DeVos out of committee), and I will contact Deb Fischer. But there is no way that Susan Collins would ever come out against Betsy DeVos unless she was “allowed” to do so by the far right, which means the votes are in and locked and they don’t need Collins.
I suspect Eli Broad’s 11th hour “I don’t like DeVos” is just as phony. The votes are in. I will be shocked if she doesn’t win. And happy to be proven wrong. But Susan Collins has NEVER thwarted the right wing that I can recall. She talks when it no longer matters. She voted for Betsy DeVos when it mattered. If she votes no because the yes votes are guaranteed and she got permission to do so, she only deserves our contempt.
Profiles in cowardice. If JFK was writing a book today, Susan Collins would be the first chapter in the book.
^^And Eli Broad no doubt wants to have his cake and eat it too. Appeal to all the LA parents who are disgusted with DeVos by pretending to oppose her when he will be delighted she wins. Why would he wait until Collins sold out and got her out of committee with her “yes” vote? I don’t trust his 11th hour pretense that DeVos won’t be everything he dreamed of and more.
I do hate to say this, but I believe you’re correct. I’ll be elated if I’m wrong, but I think that the votes are already decided and as good as cast.
Bush/Obama = 12 years of dismantling public education through an extremely effective, ridiculously well funded mass media propaganda campaign and state/federal interventions (both legal and illegal).
Those two previous administrations have laid the groundwork for Trump who’s, unfortunately, more than willing to finish the job off.
Correction:
“Bush/Obama = 16 years of dismantling public education. . . “
My mistake, Duane. I was thinking of Bush Sr’s one term.
Just got the bad news on her confirmation. Disgusting.
I agree with Diane. Either of those two Republican nay votes could have killed it before it ever made it to the Senate for a vote. They just want to have an out and look good in case it blows up in their faces later.
Oops. That was just a vote to have a vote. We’ve got until Monday.
Hopefully she’s not too afraid of Trump to do it. Fear is probably driving some of their decisions.
I was focussed on Nebraska, too. But a campaign worker just posted this:
U.S. Senator Dean Heller said he’ll support DeVos…but he is up for reelection in 2018–in a swing state that Hillary won, elected America’s first Latina senator, and flipped two House seats.
He is the deciding vote on DeVos’ nomination. KEEP CALLING HIM – these are your kids we’re fighting for.
Vegas: 702-388-6605
Reno: 775-686-5770
DC: 202-224-6244 or 202-224-3121
*focused
His Twitter site shows him hanging out with De Vos in NV today. Ugh.
What about Heitcamp, Warner, King & Manchin–all Dems who voted for Tillerson?
(They also helped kill the Sanders pharma resolution.) If you are constituents of theirs, CONTACT THEM!! (I suspect that they wouldn’t care to hear from people who aren’t their constituents.)
It sounds like they don’t care about their constituents, either.
I don’t agree with Eli Broad on much of anything, but he’s right about this:
“At the risk of stating the obvious, we must have a Secretary of Education who believes in public education and the need to keep public schools public,” Broad wrote
It is utterly ridiculous that the US Department of Education will now be opposed to public schools.
If “believes in public education” is no longer a job requirement at the US Department of Education then what IS their job? Why do public schools need them at all? What value do they add?
“Broadspeak”
Broadly speaking
Eli’s seaking
Deasy for the post
Surely hoping
That he’s noping
Betsy with a roast
Too bad Broad doesn’t see the irony of his words.
Done!
I did it… but doubt that an out-of-state tweet will change her mind and remain convinced that Mr. Trump has a deep bench of pro-voucher candidates ready to step in… and (gulp) maybe Jerry Falwell Jr. will reconsider and accept the appointment… My incurable optimism is dimming… I am increasingly convinced that things CAN get worse…
Wgersen,
Of course things can always get worse but you go for them one at a time. Win or lose on DeVos, we have mobilized a massive national protest and awakened many parents and educators to the real dangers facing public education. That’s a huge win. If confirmed, she will be the only cabinet member ever confirmed by a tie-breaker in the Senate. No one is fooled by her rhetoric. She is a privatization zealot.
Thanks for providing a ray of sunshine… Here’s hoping we prevail in this fight and the many others we need to take on…
“We’re hearing a mix,” Fischer said. “There’s obviously a lot of educators who have contacted us in opposition. I have visited with a number of them. I’ve asked them if they’ve read the transcript, and in many cases they haven’t.”
Ugh…
How could these people be so naive? Seriously.
You honestly believe that the Feds are going to be hands off in education policy? They’ll apply exactly the same kind of pressure, and more, that Arne Duncan did under Obama.
Many educators watched the hearings. What DeVos said was unimpressive, confused, ignorant.
What she has done over the past 20 years to cripple public education in Michigan and across the nation matters even more than the transcript.
“Read the transcript”
Read the transcript ’bout the bears
Betsy rheely rheely cares
Cares about our children’s fate
Guns for teachers ‘fore too late!
not sure if I spelled “rheely” correctly.
Have to ask KrazyTA, the world’s foremost Rheeform etymologist (or maybe it’s entymologist in that case)
“Betsy rheely reely cares” would add the image/dimension of “fishing” to the equation.
Baits and lures have been an essential component in the area of education reform. How else would you convince someone sink their teeth, hard, onto a sharp metal hook?
As for the correct spelling: I like a lower case “r” in this scenario. YMMV.
Alternate possibilities per Alfie Kohn via Twitter: Sen Flake of AZ (202-224-4521), Sen Moran of KS (202-224-6521), Sen Portman of OH (202-224-3353).
Rockhound has responded @MrFlickRocks
Please protect Public Education. No to DeVos
“Betsy DeVos and the three bears”
“Someone’s sleeping in my bed”
That is what the teacher said
“Someone’s eaten all my food
This is rheely rather rude
Someone’s taken all my stuff
Arne Duncan’s bad enough!”
You know, when Arne left, there was a plinth of space that I thought no one else would ever be able replace.
But I was obviously wrong.
“A Void”
The Duncan Race
Is plinth of space
That nothing ever
Can replace
But Betsy’s bear
Is empty chair
And nothing ever
Can compare
I don’t use Twitter, but senators accept email from anyone, so I have contacted Sen. Fischer via her website contact page. Thank you Dr. Ravitch, Jan Resseger, and so many others who have kept this issue front and center for so many weeks. Your tireless efforts on behalf of preserving public education may prove successful! Without you, this wouldn’t have been even close. The children of America and future bards will sing your praises. Thank you to you all.
Done! Thanks, Diane.
Done!
Done! Thanks!
Senator Bluntarski of Missouri came out on facebook with support of DeVos and almost all of the thousands of responses were against DeVos. Will Bluntarksi listen to his constituents? Not with Betsy “I pay for you to play, now do as I say” Devos having given tens of thousands of dollars to the Bluntarski family’s various campaigns in Missouri, you know just a tad away from Michigan.
Please vote no on DeVos’ nomination.
I oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Sec’y of Education – the public students of The United States of America deserve a Sec’y who will stand for them, not dismantle their schools.”
Please oppose Betsy Devoes as she is simply not qualified for the job. At the end of the day live with a conscience millions of underprivilege children are counting on you. Avoid the political coruptness going on here and remember why you got into politics … hopefully that was to do good. Here is your opportunity!!!
Please vote no on Betsey DeVos. She is profoundly unqualified for representing public education. Our children deserves the best the country has to offer, not the richest.
Please oppose Betsy DeVos. Her answers were an embarrassment and she clearly does NOT understand the education system!! Please give a voice to our children!
Please vote no to DeVos for Secretary of Education. I am from Illinois. Our children are counting on you.
Beverley, I’m sorry to inform you that Senator Fischer announced yesterday that she is voting for DeVos
It’s strange to me. Seems like the most important issue, in her explanation, is that DeVos is promising not to infringe on the states’ right to make it’s own decisions on education. But this was, legally, the case during Duncan and King’s tenure at the position, and they rammed CCSS down our throats like nobody’s business.
Why does she think that DeVos will be any different?