Michael Busch reflects on Betsy DeVos’ lack of knowledge of federal policy, federal laws, and federal programs and wonders if she will be a fish out of water in her new post?
http://www.warscapes.com/opinion/whats-store-betsy-devos
He recalls when New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg brought in a novice to run the school system. She had no experience with public schools; she had been a magazine publishing executive. She didn’t know the lingo or the issues. She made gaffe after gaffe in public meetings. She depressed the mayor’s poll ratings. She didn’t last 100 days.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
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It will depend upon how much DeVos embarrasses Trump, in regards to whether she is shown the door or not, like Cathie Black.
Yes, Michael Flynn resigned (and I’m sure he was “encouraged” to do so), but I seriously doubt that Trump cares nearly as much about education as he does about looking strong on National Security, and not like someone who is kowtowing to the Russians.
If you haven’t done so already, call, write, email the White House and your Congressional representatives. Let them know that public schools are vital and need our support. We need to overwhelm them with our opposition.
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I teach in New York City, and was here for Cathie Black’s misrule, so I’ve heard this question several times. To my mind, Cathie Black looks like Marie Curie compared to Betsy DeVos, and I certainly don’t mean that as a compliment to either of them. I believe the expression is “damning with faint praise.”
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Yes, to praise these klutzy deformers causes sane people to faint on the spot.
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Well, it’s damning with faint praise. “Which would you rather have, sepsis or cancer?”
Ugh. Is it too early for a Jack Daniels on the rocks? Yes, probably.
😦
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Zorba,
Go for it. Jack Daniels is brewed in US, right? Trumpster can have new slogan, Drink American, as he drives people to drink.
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Hee, hee, booklady!
Yes, Jack Daniels is a Tennessee whiskey. We also like Tito’s Handmade Vodka (made in Texas) and Woodford Bourbon, Knob Creek Bourbon, and Bulleit’s Rye Whiskey (all made in Kentucky).
OTOH, we also appreciate a really good, single malt Scotch. As well as French, Alsatian, and California wines.
Oh, my, maybe it’s time for me to crack open a bottle of….something. 😀
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Don’t forget Bar Hill gin, made in Vermont.
Personally, I favor Tito’s (from Texas) and Scotch (Johnnie Walker Double Black is good).
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Diane, you have to try some of the single-malt Scotches. (Even single barrel, although those are pretty expensive).
When we visited Scotland a year or so ago, we got to visit some Scotch distilleries, and sample a whole bunch of single-malt Scotch, there, and in the bars dedicated to Scotch whiskey. They are a totally different animal than any of the blended Scotch whiskeys.
We will have to try Bar Hill gin, I’ve never had it. 😀
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LIke! (for booklady)
MAD HA!
Make Amurika Drink Hard Again!
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Jack Daniels is made in Lynchburg, Tennessee. Beautiful part of the country near where I live.
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It’s Barr Hill gin from Caledonia Spirits in Hardwick, VT. I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know they existed, but will try it next summer. I have a son who lives near there and my family has been connected with the area for generations. Talk about poor rural areas…
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Maybe something lighter this early? Perhaps a small bottle of Crême Brulée by Southern Tier Brewing, from Lakewood village n beautiful Chatauqua county NY. Strong, black, & sweet.
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Yes yes I remember Kathy Black trying to play NYC chancellor of schools with her high heels and lack of any education experience. However, town meetings proved to be a disaster for Ms. Black as her final straw was the now infamous statement made by Ms. Black to a parent. Ms. Black told the parent to practice safe sex in order to control the population in the inner city……OMG that was her last straw. Even midget mike bloomberg had to get rid of her after that famous moment. Also, Devos will be following in the foot steps of Ms. Black after she gets chased out of a few more “visits” to public schools with an agenda to take away their funds for private schools with neophyte teachers making a buck tree eighty a year.
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OMG! I hadn’t heard this one! What an incredibly clueless and worse, racist, thing to say.
Too bad Black’s mother didn’t practice birth control. Betsy’s mother as well.
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Yes, she was actually down here in the Financial District, where I teach. She was meeting with a group of parents who were concerned about overcrowding in the schools in this neighborhood. She infamously–http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Cathie-Black-Regrets-Birth-Control-Joke-113634144.html–“joked” with these parents that if she could “have some more birth control” school overcrowding could be brought under control. The parents in attendance were not amused, and shortly thereafter she was cashiered.
I admit I was glad to see her go.
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That was such a disgusting thing for her to say, and I am glad that Bloomberg finally saw the light.
Although, if he had known anything about public schools or supported them in any way, he would not have appointed her in the first place.
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Mike Bloomberg, like Eli Broad, thought the problem with public schools was managerial and any good manager could fix it.
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Despite their wealth, they are idiots.
Just because they have a lot of money does not make them “the world’s greatest experts on absolutely everything.”
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My favorite Cathie Black story was when parents complained about overcrowding at a public meeting, and she heckled them with a loud “Ahhhhhh.” As in “too bad!”
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Believe me, as a Michigan resident, DeVoss is even worse than you can imagine.
She owns stock in the charter school industry and has fought and won the battle to keep accountability out of that system. We have spent over a Bi$$ion on charter schools and corruption is rampant.
She has spent her life trying to destroy public education and she will do just that if the country isn’t careful.
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What a (fill in the blanks).
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If DeVos has violated any laws in Michigan in her quest to privatize, I hope someone can find where the bodies are buried. We need more of the cabinet of deplorables to fall, and public schools need a break from the insanity of “reform.”
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Why would any public school want to have Ms. Devos visit their school? A visit to a school to let them know how much you love charter schools and voucher schools?? Or that the funding for your public school will be sucked away like they did in Detroit?? Ms. Devos, please with your record and lack of, please resign because its a matter of time before we the people will demand your resignation. Come on man, look at the city of Detroit schools and you can see a blue print of the Devos strategy of creating for profit charter schools, with no over sight to take over our darling public schools with tons of over sight I might add……just say no to Devos.,
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Again, I don’t agree with what I see of people refusing to let her into the schools. Let her hang herself. If anything you want people to see what sort of incompetent buffoon is running the Department of Education.
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I think parents argue, at least in part in this situation, is that they don’t care to have Betsy DeVos exploiting their children as props in her political crusade. I don’t have a horse in this race, as an apple grower I worked for in Vermont used to say, but I think there is a case to be made for ignoring her.
Because it would not allow her to gain legitimacy of any sort–which in my mind she’ll never have in any case.
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I have said it before and will say it again — any way you slice it, this woman is a step up from the conniving, insidious weasel, Arne Duncan. She hasn’t even DONE anything yet and look at the outrage and resistance! Where was ANY of that when the Dunkster worked all of his dark magic?
It never happened, in part because Duncan was working for a cabal of smarter, more deceptive rascals like Eli Broad — people who probably loathe DeVos because she is too stupid to play the game the way they have been playing it for years, too witless to avoid tipping her hand and allowing the people who would resist her nonsense to look like something more credible than crazy conspiracy theorists.
And also in part because Democrats and many liberals were just not equipped to step to an Obama-appointed Secretary of Education. Even those with the intelligence and fortitude to allow themselves to see through the smoke and mirrors, there was not much they could do other than cough uncomfortably and shift from foot to foot while Duncan did his thing.
DeVos? She is quite up front and refreshingly honest about her intentions. This is a good thing for us, as is the simple fact that she was appointed by Trump.
May she remain in office long enough to crash and burn many of the plans of Eli Broad and his like — smarter, more patient, and ultimately more dangerous adversaries.
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Agree with all you say werebat73. . .
. . . except your demeaning of weasels by equating the Dunkster with them. Please leave such nasty comments about weasels out the next time!
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LOL you are correct, I should have been much more sensitive to actual weasels, who have done nothing to deserve being equated with the likes of Arne Duncan!
I have been teaching in an urban public school for the last 20 years, and I caught wind of corporate education reform and what it was doing well over a decade ago, before I even knew who Diane Ravitch was. I tried to sound the alarm all those years ago and was thought of as something of a crank and a conspiracy theorist by many colleagues and family members — even through most of Duncan’s term.
DeVos has moved more than one of these people to admit to me that they were wrong, that I was “right all along”. She has given me that, and for that I am thankful. It has been nice to hear.
She is a terrible choice, but in a way, she is a good choice.
Just look what they are saying about her on the conservative Scragged blog:
http://www.scragged.com/articles/the-devos-dilemma
They are afraid she will ramp up the power of the office of Secretary of Education and that the Left will use it as a powerful tool. Talk about closing the barn door after the horse is already out…
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You are lucky. As a female “conspiracy theorist,” I have had a family member figuratively pat me on the head and tell me to do what I am good at and forget being a political activist. While I admit I would much rather be teaching kids, I really wanted to perform some physical action related to a bodily region “where the sun don’t shine.”
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I say let DeVos come to Brooklyn for a Town Hall. We’ll give her a Brooklyn welcome and chase her out as we did Black.
Ed Notes Online: Must See Video: Brooklyn Principal Challenges …
ednotesonline.blogspot.com/…/brooklyn-must-see-video-principal.html
Must See Video: Brooklyn Principal Challenges Cathie Black Face to Face on Unions … Black came to a Williamsburg District 14 Community Education Council … Posted by Norm @ ed notes online at 9:07 AM …. It’s 3 against 1 · Cathie Black District 14 Town Hall: No Sex, but Pl.. …… By Norm Scott, in the Jun 2, 2010 issue.
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Go, Brooklyn! Go Brooklyn parents! (Daughter Zorba and family live in Brooklyn.)
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Reblogged this on Network Schools – Wayne Gersen and commented:
Mayor Bloomberg’s rationale in support of Cathie Black as NYC Chancellor was that she had successful experience as a businesswoman… a claim that could not be made about Betsy DeVos but a claim that DOES have an eerie resemblance to the one being made by Governor Chris Sununu in support of Frank Edelbllut, his nominee for Commissioner of Education in NH…
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