Politico reports that the offices of Republican Senators are overwhelmed with letters, emails, and faxes opposing Betsy DeVos, according to Politico. She is the most controversial and unpopular cabinet choice of Trump, and Senators have been overwhelmed by negative comments. Most of them have gone into hiding. Their phone lines are jammed or off the hook.
The reasons for the avalanche of opposition:
1. She is unqualified, having no experience as a parent, student, teacher, or local board member in a public school, which 85% of American students attend 10% in private schools and 5% in privately owned charter schools).
2. She is a lobbyist for privatization of public schools.
3. As she demonstrated in her Senate hearings, she is ignorant of federal law and policy.
4. She is hostile to public schools.
5. If appointed, she will transfer federal funds from public schools to non-public schools.
6. She uses her vast fortune to buy votes of Republican senators.
Parents care about their children and their schools and communities. They object to a Secretary of Education who doesn’t care about their public schools and will hurt their children and their communities while prattling about “great schools.” Indeeed, they may even be aware of the damage DeVos has already done to the public schools of Michigan.
If no Republican breaks ranks, voters must remember in November: 2018, 2020, and 2022. Actions have consequences.
Why in the world does the GOP stand fast behind a nominee who is so clearly uninformed? Could it be the millions she and her family have given them? As DeVos once said, we do expect something in return for our money. Payback day arrived and she is getting what she paid for.
Trump has nominated many people who were unfitted to the mission of their Department, like Dr. Carson for HUD, Scott Pruitt for EPA. But DeVos! Our public schools are at risk.
It is not the grizzly bears that are alarmed by DeVos. It’s the Mama Bears. They protect their cubs.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Those astute political people manning CAP, couldn’t anticipate the opportunity, we see playing out in the DeVos battle?
The Democratic party better find high ground by closing ranks against the Walton/Gates privatization of America’s most important common good.
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CAP = ???
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Duane,
CAP=Center for American Progress, a centrist Democratic think tank that supported the Obama agenda, including test-based accountability, VAM, and charters.
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Thanks. Too many times we use acronyms without clarifying what they mean.
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CAP and Podesto worked together on Hillary’s campaign. Last year, CAP’s, “Progressive Party” had, as keynote speaker, Corey Booker,
Donors to CAP, include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ($800,000), Jamie Dimon, and Walmart,
Even in defeat, CAP is intransigent with regard to its position on the privatization of public education, which drives a wage between two Party factions, one that serves the richest 0.1% and, the other, that works for the people.
Russia and the extreme religious right, capitalized on the polarization and, America got Trump.
Politico recently had an interview with CAP’s president. The reporter concluded from the interview that the Democratic Party is going to “once again” be the opposition party, which begs the question, when did it stop.
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They won’t.
The vast bulk of the serious players in the Democratic Party, the DNC, and the Democratic Parties within the states are all reform-minded,
The opposition to DeVos hinges mainly on her “competence,” which is obviously thin, and of course non-Ivy. Sure, there is some lip service to “protecting public education” but that is easy and opportunistic for the Dems in the House and Senate. (Where was their desire to “protect public education” under Duncan, etc?)
The Democrats simply would prefer THEIR type of Ed reformer/privatizer: one who invokes the language of liberation and civil rights and who has a résumé that is sufficiently Ivy and with sufficient artificial wallpapering of time working in schools etc (think John King.)
The Democrats are not on our side because they have not been FORCED to choose out side. Their opposition to DeVos does not represent a changing thinking or positioning. Until they feel that there is NO CHOICE but to support public education and teachers, they will be reformers. As yet, they have not even approached reaching that fork in the road.
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The Grim Truther
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“Our” side has neither the money nor access of Jamie Dimon, the Walton’s and the Gates Foundation (CAP donors).
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“Why in the world does the GOP stand fast behind a nominee who is so clearly uninformed? ”
To think that this is over a few thousand in donations is naive. These guys receive hundreds of thousands from lobbyists like Big Pharma , Insurance or Wall Street (Pat Toomey, Securities & Investment $2,146,487 vs 60,000 from Devos ). .
To think that she is is misinformed is naive . She and the right-wing marginal party of wing nuts known as Republicans , know exactly what the facts are. Ideology trumps(not intentional but it works) truth and facts. .
They support her because they are 100% in lock step with her goals.
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It’s both, Joel, monies and idiology*.
*Idiology (n.) An ideology based on error and falsehood. The ideology of idiots.
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Ambrose Bierce from “The Devil’s Dictionary”: Idiot, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.
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Good ol Brother Ambrose!!
Any one not familiar with him should take it upon themselves to become informed: http://www.alcyone.com/max/lit/devils/
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Just wanted to properly reference your definition, Duane!
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Union-busting.
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If I may be presumptuous to offer advice to capitalize on this—I am under no illusion that she won’t be confirmed, although I would be happy to be wrong—I hope everyone will consider drafting letters to the editor, op-eds, and social media comments focused on your particular states immediately.
If you live in Maine (Collins) or Alaska (Murkowski), emphasize that if they were truly opposed to DeVos, either or both should have voted against her as members of the committee which sent her nomination to the full Senate. That would have been that. Point out the cynical game they played of being allowed a “free” vote by McConnell because the votes had been whipped and counted. In essence, their “no” votes were part of an extensive ruse designed to fool their constituents into giving them credit for fighting a fight in which the result was already decided.
If you live in Tennessee (Alexander), Wyoming (Enzi), North Carolina (Burr), Kentucky (Paul), Kansas (Roberts), or Utah (Hatch), specifically mention the senators on the committee who like to consider themselves moderate Republicans and point out the radical agenda they have just voted to empower.
If you live in Louisiana (Cassidy), Indiana (Young), or South Carolina (Scott), do all of the above and specifically point out how much money DeVos and her family have contributed to each and include the phrase “pay to play” and the words “bought” or “purchased” in your text.
If you live in any other state with a Republican senator, spill your guts about what you think about their votes and how they have betrayed the public schools in your states. See advice in third paragraph above if your senator likes to portray him or herself as moderate.
Lastly, if anything is printed, send copies to NPE, BATS and any other education organization you may belong to or follow. They will be able to use these in their advocacy. Then, in 3 to 6 months, be sure to send follow up letters, op-eds, etc. to the sources that published your thoughts, write an update of what has transpired in the intervening time, and quote some parts of what your wrote to underscore how you saw what was coming.
This will be a long, hard political slog. It is important to take the first step and continue to take many more, especially when things seem darkest.
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No question DeVos is bad for Public Education. BUT, she may be worse for Education Reform. What if her single minded agenda and bulldozer methods shine a national spotlight on the realities of Education Reform? Until DeVos’s nomination there was little to no mainstream media coverage on the destructive, stark realities of vouchers and school choice. We are finally hearing our Democratic representatives in support of Public Education where they have been either silent or fence straddling in the past.
Perhaps The Koch brothers and Eli Broad are opposed to Devos because they fear she would bring too much national attention and unite strong opposition not just to her, but to their Education Reform Agenda. Devos may provide the spotlight Public Education needs. What if Devos is voted down and Trump picks someone more adapt at keeping appearances of good faith while continually undermining Public Education?
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Mary Gotham,
DeVos has done more to discredit education “reform” than any of its critics. She is a leading “reformer” who wants to take over public schools and hand out government vouchers for religious schools
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Yes! Isn’t it great to see her strategies backfire!
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No question DeVos is bad for Public Education. BUT, she may be worse for Education Reform. What if her single minded agenda and bulldozer methods shine a national spotlight on the realities of Education Reform? Until DeVos’s nomination there was little to no mainstream media coverage on the destructive, stark realities of vouchers and school choice. We are finally hearing our Democratic representatives in support of Public Education where they have been either silent or fence straddling in the past.
Perhaps The Koch brothers and Eli Broad are opposed to Devos because they fear she would bring too much national attention and unite strong opposition not just to her, but to their Education Reform Agenda. Devos may provide the spotlight Public Education needs. What if Devos is voted down and Trump picks someone more adapt at keeping appearances of good faith while continually undermining Public Education?
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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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“If no Republican breaks ranks, voters must remember in November: 2018, 2020, and 2022. Actions have consequences.” Diane, this is Perfect – resend and tweet it to us every day.
Flood them ALL with calls. Senate vote is critical but let the HOUSE MEMBERS know we’re watching them, too! They don’t vote on confirmations but they do have microphones in their face and should be asked if they support the confirmation – and every other issue that connects them to this president.
House of Representative election cycle for 2018 has already begun – make them state their allegiance right now and on every issue to either the president or what is right and good.
Devos should be their first test. She disrespected every parent with kids with disabilities. That’s comes close to 1/5 of every parent in the U.S. and they are in red states and congressional districts.
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“It is not the grizzly bears that are alarmed by DeVos. It’s the Mama Bears. They protect their cubs.”
That is a great line.
But then there are the Tiger Moms too.
I have become a reader the free Wall Street Journal at my favorite place to have breakfast. It is wake-me-upper with some predictable and usually worrisome editorial opinions. Right now they are champions of the incompetent Devos (as are Republicans who have already moved her nomination forward).
Among many other union-bashing media, the WSJ cannot refer to anything about public education without blaming teacher unions.
The WSJ editors cannot conceive of teachers who are not in unions or who question their union representatives.
The WSJ editors cannot imagine that there are Mama Bears (Tiger Mom’s yes).
The WSJ editors will never acknowledge that many citizens care about public education even if they are not parents, even if they do not have kith and kin in public schools.
The WSJ editors will never acknowledge that anyone working in and on behalf of public education has more expertise than members of the billionaire class with DeVos their current heroine.
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Don’t forget Rick Perry for Department of Energy. Not only did he want to eliminate it; he didn’t even know what it did!
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The reason , my Dear Diane, is YOU, Carol, the NPE and the many educators who read here, who got busy and DIALED.
The question is WHETHER we can annoy them to death but do nothing to deter them is the question.
I loved your post where we crowd source a bribe and make it worth the while the weasels who are on the confirmation committee.
If despite the out cry, they confirm her, may I suggest and ORGANIZED CAMPAIGN TO TELL THESE CONGRESSPEOPLE THAT THEY NEED TO PACK THIER BELONGINGS AND TAKE THE DIPLOMAS AND PHOTOS DOWN FROM THEIR WALLS, because they DO NOT REPRESENT US,a nd come next election, if they DON’T TURN AROUND AND END TRUMP’S EFFORT TO DELEGITIMIZE OUR COUNTRY, we will VOTE THEM OUT!
@WeaselsWontWIN
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Susan,
If she is confirmed, then parents and educators must meet her wherever she goes in hopes of changing her views.
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