Danny Feingold writes in Capitol & Main about Betsy DeVos’ hardline education ideology and the ruthless way she uses her family money to smash those who don’t go along with her wishes.
How Betsy DeVos Ignored and Targeted Michigan Republicans to Advance Her Hardline Education Ideology
DeVos wants choice. She loves vouchers but thus far has been able to impose them in Michigan because the state constitution prohibits spending public money for religious schools.
So charters are her favorite route to a free market of schooling in Michigan. When s bipartisan coalition tried to pass a bill to impose accountability on charters, the DeVos money machine went into high gear to block it.
Contrary to what DeVos told the Senate HELP Committee, she believes in accountability for public schools but not for charter schools. She certainly opposes accountability for religious schools that accept vouchers.
She doesn’t believe in separation of church and state, nor does she think that public schools have a greater claim on public dollars than for-profit charters or backwoods one-room schools run by uneducated preachers without certified teachers.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if DeVos gets her way, sends federal funds to church schools, and a future Secretary of Education and Congress declares that all schools receiving federal funds are subject to the same tests, the same mandates, and the same regulations as public schools?
Religious leaders will regret that they mingled church and state.
Some religious leaders recognize the importance of separating church and state and are fighting against privatization, such as Pastors for Texas Children and Pastors for Oklahoma Kids. May their movement spread across the land.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
If I’m counting correctly, there are 21 women in the US Senate. 4 of those 21 will vote for DeVos.
Seems hard to argue the opposition is based on gender unless Senate women are much more sexist than Senate men which would be rather surprising! 🙂
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With the charter school industry that’s 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 fund people the main backers of the private charter school industry? After all, hedge funds are not known for a selfless 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.
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Goldman Sachs is riding the unregulated charter gravy train all the way to the bank. In addition to being heavily invested in charters, they are also invested in the social impact bonds. If we consider that Bannon and Mnuchin are both from Goldman Sachs as well as some other support personnel from Trump’s plunder team, with DeVos in charge of education, it creates a perfect storm for exploitation and access to public money.
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I live in Michigan in an area where we are lucky enough to have outstanding public schools. I’ve followed Betsy DeVos for awhile. She has been quoted as saying: “Public Schools are a moral cesspool”. Remember, the west side of Michigan is famously Dutch Reformed Protestant. This woman is a religious nutball, that’s all she is. There is nothing else. And she uses her substantial fortune to force everyone else to live like she wants them to live.
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Here is an excellent source of information on church state issues and recent legislative moves bearing on public schools. Archive goes way back.
January 2017
S.C. Bill Would Allow Teachers To Pray With Students
A bill filed in the South Carolina legislature would allow public school teachers in the state to … Stephen Long, states that the bill would “promote academic freedom for public school teachers.” But … would allow public school teachers to endorse a specific religion and impose their personal religious … Read »
February 2017
We’re Fighting A Wave Of Private School Voucher Bills Across The Country. Read »
January 2017
Don’t Spend Spring Break With ‘Christian Nation’ Propagandist David Barton
home base in Aledo, Texas.. Read »
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Sorry, here is the link https://www.au.org/search/site/public%20school
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Please circulate this petition. Even if these Senators do not listen, it will tell them we know they are in Betsy Devos’ pocket: Rootstrikers | Petition to the U.S. Senate: If you took money from Betsy DeVos, recuse yourself from her confirmation vote.
http://act.demandprogress.org/sign/petition-senate-if-you-took-money-betsy-devos-recuse-yourself-her-confirmation-vote/?source=rs-kick&t=1&akid=5164.1519689.3i3dT2
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One thing I noticed is that the reformers want hard data to judge the quality of a public school, which is usually the state standardized test. However, when it comes to the performance of a charter or private school, the only metric that matters is the parents’ opinion of the school. That’s why when they are pressed on whether they want charter/private schools to be held accountable, their knee-jerk response is always, “parents know what is best for their children.”
By the way, I’m a theological the conservative Christian, and I am against vouchers.
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By the way, I’m a theologically conservative Christian, and I am against vouchers.
I sit “post” too soon. 🙂
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Haha. I give up.
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This has always been our question in Michigan as well: how much of the motivation for charter schools comes from wanting to improve educational outcomes, and how much comes from wanting to generate private revenue from real estate deals? About 80% of Michigan charters are managed by for-profit companies (including Leona Group), which usually took the lead in creating the schools in the first place. They often own the buildings the charters use, and typically pay above-market rents to the management company. The fact that they usually recruit the charter’s board as well makes things very cozy.
Detroit Free Press: “Cozy charter-school tie-ups bring risk of fraud, federal audit finds” http://on.freep.com/2e5TbZm
When people in the charter and voucher lobbies talk about the need to prioritize the needs of kids over the desires of adults, all I can do is laugh, bitterly.
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