Kristen Rizga of Mother Jones provides important detail about how Betsy DeVos might push charters and vouchers.
She also describes some of the beneficiaries of DeVos philanthropy.
Rizga previously wrote the single most in-depth about DeVos’ family, community, and tight-knit insular world.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When will the first charter school reinvent itself as a private school? With no tests, no oversight and religion coming out of its ears?
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CHOICE!
Ain’t it grand?!?!?
😡
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In September 2015 here in Michigan, after 13 years of being a private school, Light of the World Academy Christian Montessori School converted to a K-6 public charter school. It started the transition by taking down crosses in the building and eliminating teacher-led prayer from the curriculum. The school’s principal was quoted in a local newspaper explaining the transition: “We are excited to be able to offer a free Montessori education to the community. We’ve enjoyed the success as a private school, but we wanted to able to offer this type of education free of charge to a wider range of people.”
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DeVos 0, charter school 1
Interesting!
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It is not the job of the state to promote a child’s religious training. This is the job of the family, and public tax dollars should not be spent on this overreach of authority.
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See Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002). The Supreme Court settled the issue of parents using school-choice vouchers, and redeeming them at religiously operated schools.
As long as the voucher program is part of an overall school choice program, parents can opt to send their children to a religiously-operated school. Just like redeeming a Pell Grant at a religiously operated college. No problem.
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Charles,
You have posted this comment about 10 times. That’s it. Stop.
Many state constitutions have clauses forbidding the use of public funds for religious schools. The Supreme Court has not thrown them out. That’s why there are no vouchers in Michigan, despite DeVos best efforts. She put a referendum on the ballot in 2000 to strike that clause from the state constitution and voters said NO by 69-31%.
Whenever vouchers have been put to a vote, they have been overwhelmingly rejected.
Are you pretending not to understand or do you work for ALEC?
You are trolling and I’m very tired of answering the same comments repeatedly.
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Fair enough. I cannot understand why people, who should know about such things, have not understood that the matter was settled 15 years ago. Zelman v. Simmons-Harris is a landmark case. As to the state constitutions, the matter is not yet settled. The Supreme Court has granted certiorari, to a new case. Trinity Lutheran Church v. Pauley, which will probably be heard this spring. And with a new Trump appointee on the court (possibly), the outdated, bigoted Blaine Amendments in about 31 state constitutions, will be consigned to the ash-heap of history.
I promise to not post anymore about Zelman v. Simmons-Harris.
See:
Click to access Outlook412.pdf
School choice is coming down the tracks.
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You say that Q Whenever vouchers have been put to a vote, they have been overwhelmingly rejected. END Q.
I disagree. There are now 25 operating voucher programs operating in 14 states. More are on the way.
ALL of these programs were voted in, by the state legislatures in the respective states.
see
https://www.edchoice.org/resource-hub/fast-facts/
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No voucher referendum was ever passed by the public. Every single one was decisively defeated at the polls. Those enacted by legislatures were imposed by legislators purchased by ALEC, the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and others of the Dark Money set. The American people don’t want vouchers, and every opinion poll shows that. That’s why the bought legislators never use the V word but use euphemisms.
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Charles, are your paychecks signed by someone with the initials of W.T.? B.G.? B.D.? A.W.? or J.A.?
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Q Charles, are your paychecks signed by someone with the initials of W.T.? B.G.? B.D.? A.W.? or J.A.? END Q
No. I am a telecommunications engineer. My last paycheck was signed by Syneren Corporation.
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Q The American people don’t want vouchers, and every opinion poll shows that. END Q
I respectfully disagree. Many (not all) national and state polling results show a consistent and broad support for school choice/vouchers/ESAs. One poll shows a 61%/62%/60% support for vouchers/ESA/Tax credits.
Please see
https://www.edchoice.org/school_choice_faqs/do-americans-favor-school-choice-policies/
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Charles,
If you go to voucher advocates, you will find support for vouchers. Try finding a neutral source.
Try this:
DC has had vouchers since 2004. No difference in test scores.
Cleveland has had vouchers since 1995. No difference in test scores.
Milwaukee has had vouchers since 1990. No difference in test scores.
Go find another hobby.
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Poll after poll show that the American people want more “School choice”. Here is an interesting article from the Washington Examiner (a liberal publication)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/how-many-people-support-school-vouchers/article/2602069#!
The U.S. News and World Report (a magazine of impeccable reputation) reports the following:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2016-08-23/surprise-democrats-also-support-school-vouchers
Poll results often hinge on the phrasing of the questions, and other factors. BUT, the unmistakable fact, is that a majority of Americans are in favor of school choice.
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I think this is how the argument should always framed so that right-wing folks see the error of state-supported religious schools. Accepting government money (taxes) to pay for a religious school is wrong because the government now has control of your funding. A government that funds religious schools can also take away funding from religious schools.
The GOP especially dislikes government and doesn’t trust it. Why, then, do they want the “overreaching” government funding religious schools? At some point, that very government can decide to cut the funding because it’s not fiscally sound. Give that to conservatives and let them chew on that.
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Bilgewater, exactly right. Take government money and the mandates will follow, sooner or later
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Agreed, With the sheckels come shackles. When a non-profit entity like a school signs on for government cash, the regulations are not far behind.
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Bilgewater: the same thought occurred to me this morning…
But you have put it more sharply and succinctly that I could have.
Thank you.
😎
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Seems to me there might have been a royal family or two in history that wanted to control the Church, and vice versa. That was a problem. Might have been a war or two fought. Might wanna learn from the past, Republican kiddies.
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Ironically, public schools have served throughout history as one of the main avenues for immigrant families to learn about the best our nation has to offer.
Now, will any fringe group out there be able to open its own school, courtesy of taxpayer dollars? What happens when our public schools are not there anymore to bring people together?
Trump……destroying what made America great again.
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As a retired ESL teacher, my concern is that recent immigrants would languish in well intentioned, but ineffective religious schools under the guidance of people that would not really know how to help young foreigners with serious gaps in their formal education. There is something to be said for people that have specialized training and know what to do. Isn’t this how we choose a doctor, lawyer, electrician or carpenter? We want people that know what they are doing.
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I share your concerns. (My first wife was Chinese, my current wife is Russian). If parents of immigrant children, get choices in where to educate their children, I believe that the choices would include public schools, and private/parochial schools. These new immigrants would get advice, on where and how to see that their children received proper instruction in English as a second language.
It is ironic that citizens get to choose their doctor, lawyer, electrician and carpenter, and then get crammed into a public school with no choices at all?
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You need to look up the economics of Jean-Baptiste Say 1767-1832. He postulated that Supply creates its own demand. With a supply of children, needing education, and vouchers enabling parents to decide which school (public/private/parochial/home school) will receive the funding, the supply of education will follow.
I foresee a whole “rainbow” of schools, run by different entities ready to supply the education for American children.
This is an exciting time.
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Charles, you make me laugh out loud.
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Charles,
You say “supply creates its own demand”.
And the best way for supply to “create demand” is to destroy the supply that is already out there. Undermine it. Let it rot from disrepair.
Did you just build a new hospital to “compete” for patients with that government one? Good thing you have lots of rich people behind you to make sure that government hospital is starved of funds and left with few doctors and too many patients. Instant demand for your new “private” hospital and instant profits to you. Of course, some patients are a little too expensive so out they go to that rotting government hospital where they belong. After all, the government hospital HAS to take them on as “customers” in our new world order! And the more money the rotting hospital is required to spend on the expensive patients we don’t want, the faster it will rot! And more “demand” for our hospital there is!
Selling new cars? But the government already has free ones that people like? No problem! Just buy some politicians to make sure those free government cars are left unmaintained and intentionally given to the worst drivers who will treat them in the manner to best destroy them. Now your “customers” have the choice you want: your car business or the now run-down fleet the government has.
Oh, says Charles, no problem! We’ll have us some “competition” and another company and I can “compete” for your business. As long as we keep that free public car shop with the run-down fleet, we don’t mind. Just don’t you dare try to make that government fleet nice — that’s where we send the terrible drivers who we know will ruin our cars so we simply refuse to serve them! Why should we? Profits uber alles, right?
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A rainbow of opportunities… How poetic. Isn’t that exactly what happened in Chile and Sweden?
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One word Charles—Poverty. Let’s see how many of those children who live at the poverty level will be able to take advantage of the mechanisms DeVos wants to implement, then we’ll talk.
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Q Charles, you make me laugh out loud.END Q. I am glad that I can give you a chuckle. Economics is often called the “dismal science”. I am an engineer by profession, but I study economics as a diversion.
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Q One word Charles—Poverty. Let’s see how many of those children who live at the poverty level will be able to take advantage of the mechanisms DeVos wants to implement, then we’ll talk. END Q
Washington DC has poverty. I see it every day, when I ride the train through our nation’s capital. If you wish to see how parents and children are taking advantage of the choices currently available, please see
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/05/inside-dcs-preschool-lottery/430884/
(The Atlantic is a liberal publication)
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Charles,
Poverty causes low test scores.
Schools don’t cause low test scores.
DC has had a voucher program for 12 years. The kids who get vouchers do not get higher test scores than kids in public schools.
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Help me out here.
How is DeVos worse than Duncan?
Duncan was insidious. He was meant to be. Corporate reformers like Eli Broad worked hard to craft the narrative that CER was “all about the kids”, “the civil rights issue of our time.” They put themselves out there as liberals and Democrats, just like the folks who really care about public schools. They spent time, money, and political capital to create DINO organizations like DFER to stump for their schemes. They greatly increased the power of the Department of Education, and got one of their patsies (the weasel, Arne Duncan) to use that department to push their agenda for eight years.
Compared to Duncan, DeVos is a breath of fresh air. There is a reason that Eli Broad spoke out against her confirmation. He knows that CER DEPENDS on being insidious in order to stymie dissent and resistance, and if there is one thing DeVos is NOT, it is insidious. She is very open and honest about what she is and what she means to accomplish — and because of this, she will be fought tooth and nail every step of the way by all of the people who SHOULD have fought Duncan, but could not because he was Obama’s boy.
DeVos is a terrible choice, but there is just no way she will be able to do the same amount of damage that Duncan was able to do. She is a step up from Duncan.
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werebat,
Sorry I can’t help you out. You are way ahead of me. This is great news. I feel better than I have in days.
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One more thing — can you imagine the horror on the looks of the faces of Eli Broad and his kind, when they figured out that this woman meant to neuter and dismantle the Department of Education? The greatest weapon in their arsenal? Ha! I wish I could have seen that…
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Q Poverty causes low test scores.
Schools don’t cause low test scores.
DC has had a voucher program for 12 years. The kids who get vouchers do not get higher test scores than kids in public schools.END Q
I respectfully disagree. There are many causes as to why children in inner-city schools have lower achievement, that children in affluent suburban schools.
Poverty, fatherlessness, poor nutrition, crime, poor pre-natal care, etc. There is enough blame to go around.
I also disagree, with your contention that children enrolled in alternate schools in WashDC, do not achieve more than their public school counterparts.
I have lived in the WashDC metro area since 2002. (and before that). WashDC is a living example, as to what children can do, when school choice is in effect.
the US News and World report, is one of my favorite magazines, and it has an impeccable reputation.
Please see this article, and decide for yourself:
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/knowledge-bank/2015/10/05/washington-dc-shows-why-charter-schools-are-taking-off
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Charles,
I am relying on the Congressionall mandated evaluation of the DC voucher program, not US News.
The evaluation was done by Patrick Wolf, the School Choice chair at the University of Arkansas.
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