When the Trump administration put out the news that DeVos and Sessions disagreed on protecting the rights of transgender students, some were skeptical in light of the well-known DeVos family history of finding anti-LGBT organizations.
The blog poet wrote:
“DeV[i]o[u]s”
It really is quite devious
Omitting “I” and “u”
It’s absolutely mischievous
DeVos knows what to do
Diane Ravitch's blog 
someDAMPoet. is so attentive to possibilities in word and alphabet play. Thanks someDAMPoet.
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DeVos’ job is to scold public schools until they surrender and close. She provides nothing of value to any kid in an existing public school. She doesn’t even pretend to.
I have no idea why anyone in a public school would listen to her at all, unless they’re wholly committed to transferring to a charter or private school. I don’t know any public school parents who would go out of their way to listen to Betsy DeVos’ opinions on public schools. What, exactly, are we supposed to do with it? Immediately withdraw from public schools and start lobbying for private school vouchers? Why would I joint her anti-public school political campaign and why in God’s name would I want the private school cheerleader conducting photo ops at my son’s public school? Shouldn’t she just go to the private school for that and leave us out of this completely? We’re left out anyway. This would just make it official and then she wouldn’t get her feelings hurt.
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You have to love how Congress and the US Department of Education got together and decided that what public schools need is more publicly-paid critics.
The private sector wasn’t providing enough of those, I guess. They felt they had to create a public sector corps to deliver scolding lectures.
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Betsy is the symptom the problem is where the American democracy is at .
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You are so cleveRous
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Amway or the Highway …
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nice
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Completely off Topic , but this post from EPI , “Robots, or automation are not the problem” borders on several other items we have discussed. Among them how media group think frames an issue and the political mess we find our selves in. In part due to failed trade policy. Again the travesty is that Trump has stolen this issue . It does no good for progressives to bend over backwards making up stories , to try excuse away the disaster that Clinton/ Obama neo liberal Democrats helped create . No it was not the Robots. it was policy that diverted wealth from the working class to the 1% . although it was Republican Policy it will always bear the name of the Democratic Presidents who signed it.
From the EPI today
http://www.epi.org/publication/robots-or-automation-are-not-the-problem-too-little-worker-power-is/?mc_cid=2850b1cb4c&mc_eid=a20f783394
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Or should she have been educated at a public school instead of where she was educated.
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:0)
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Good one. It’s entirely possible that Betsy DeVos will be the best thing that ever happened to public schools. Having an incompetent lawyer makes it more likely you’ll lose your case; having a top educator who can’t spell makes it more likely she’ll lose her fight to bring vouchers-for-all programs to America.
Look, public schools have some really big guns, now locked away in gun cabinets, and those guns (metaphorically) are useful not only against grizzlies but against the diversion of tax dollars, paid by us all for the common good, to tax-exempt organizations like church schools.
Get those arguments ready, and focus. DeVos isn’t the problem; she just opened the gates and sent us going into the woods looking for bears. I mean, when private schools didn’t get my tax dollars, I really didn’t care what they did, because I had no skin in the game. If the feds are going to send my tax dollars to private schools, especially if those schools aren’t equally accountable, I’m like a momma bear protecting her cubs. Bring it on, Betsy!
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Clever, but — she is nowhere NEAR is devious as Arne Duncan was!
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No kidding:
http://turtleboysports.com/betsy-devos-is-the-biggest-joke-weve-ever-seen-but-shes-really-no-different-than-arne-duncan-and-obama-so-stop-pretending-you-suddenly-care-about-education/
(WARNING! The above is NOT in any way a politically correct blog! And they STILL think Duncan was worse than DeVos!)
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Thanks for the link werebat73!
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So now that we’ve called out Betsy, it’s time to call out all the frauds on Turtleboy’s Facebook roster who are railing against her. My question for you people is, where the hell have you been the last eight years? Where were you when this dip**** was ****ing over teachers and doing every single thing that you’re critical of Betsy DeVos about?
His name is Arne Duncan. And if you’re not just as fired up at him and Obama as you are about DeVos and Trump, then you’re a gigantic hypocrite. During Duncan’s tenure in office:
He used his control of billions of dollars to promote a dual school system of privately managed charter schools operating alongside public schools; (just like Betsy DeVos)
He has done nothing to call attention to the fraud and corruption in the charter sector or to curb charters run by non-educators for profit or to insist on charter school accountability or to require charters to enroll the neediest children; (just like Betsy DeVos)
He pushed to require states to evaluate teachers by the test scores of their students, which has caused massive demoralization among teachers, raised the stakes attached to testing, and produced no positive results; (just like Betsy DeVos)
He has been silent as state after state has attacked collective bargaining and due process for teachers; (just like Betsy DeVos)
He has done nothing in response to the explosion of voucher programs that transfer public funds to religious schools; (just like Betsy DeVos)
He has unleashed a mad frenzy of testing in classrooms across the country, treating standardized test scores as the goal of all education, rather than as a measure; (just like Betsy DeVos)
His tenure has been marked by the rise of an aggressive privatization movement, which seeks to eliminate public education in urban districts, where residents have the least political power; (just like Betsy DeVos)
Duncan has regularly accused parents and teachers of “lying” to students. For reasons that are unclear, he wants everyone to believe that our public schools are terrible, our students are lazy, not too bright, and lacking ambition. If he were a basketball coach, he would have been encouraging the team to try harder and to reach for greater accomplishment, but instead he took every opportunity to run down the team and repeat how dreadful they are. He spoke of “respect” but he never showed it. (Betsy DeVos hasn’t done this….yet)
So yea, where you people been at for the last eight years? Or do you only give a **** about education when Trump is in office? Frauds.
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werebat73: You must not read this blog which has harshly critiqued Arne, Obama, RTTT and their educational policies for years. DeVos happens to be the current Sec. of Ed and Obama is no longer president.
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I so agree. Arne set us back in so many ways. …and because it was under a democratic administration, not enough was done or said. So many teachers worked to get Obama elected. …and then to get screwed over by Arnie who really was a hack and did not know enough or care enough about public school students and teachers. It is also hard for me to hear people rail against DeVos, which of course they should, but where were these voices the last eight years? These changes under the guise of reform have not been good for teachers or students. Teachers are under a huge amount of pressure now and it is not good.
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Joe,
Werebat73 was referring to the commentators on the turtle boys blog.
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Duane
I was sure werebat was referring to you, knowing how much you love and respect Duncan (as shown by your nickname for him: The Dunkster)
Why, i’d venture to say that the only thing you think more highly of than the Dunkster is standardized testing to “measure” educational progress.
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I don’t think it is any secret that Diane and many of the folks who comment on this blog don’t have a particularly high opinion of Arne Duncan. Many of them have been extremely critical of pretty much everything Duncan did and said.
But I agree that millions of Democrats let Duncan and more critically, Obama get away with what they were doing (and not just on education)
Had it been a Republican who was incessantly bashing teachers and parents, subjecting millions of students to hour after hour of unfunded, abusive drilling and testing on material based on hack standards Common Core), firing and shaming teachers based on essentially random evaluations (VAM) and throwing communities and entire cities into turmoil by firing teachers and closing down schools, the push-back would have been considerably larger and more concerted.
Even the Democratic union heads like Weingarten and Eskelson-Garcia not only went along with but actively aided and abetted Duncan and and Obama — and, of course, Bill Gates. These people sold teachers and schools down the river to advance their own careers. Utterly disgusting — to say nothing of pathetic.
And make no mistake. Duncan was basically Obama’s water boy (and lunchtime basketball partner, of course).Obama supported every one of the policies — many of which actually originated from outside his administration, eg, Common Core coming from David Coleman and Bill Gates.
As I stated on another thread, I never really understood the almost rabid contempt that Obama and Duncan showed toward public schools, teachers and even parents.
But for whatever reason, in a very real sense Duncan and Obama set the stage for what is sure to follow. Unfortunately, Obama’s only lasting legacy will be in areas where he differed little from Republicans — and specifically his predecessor, George W. Bush. Education is certainly one of those areas.
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Indeed. I know that Diane and many here had been sounding the alarm about Duncan for years — but too may people who should have been opposing Duncan kept silent (or aided him) during his term.
DeVos has been great for me in the sense that several people in my life who previously thought I was some kind of a conspiracy crackpot have broken down and admitted that I was right the whole time about where we were headed. She makes it very hard to see otherwise. And of course she is a Republican appointee so she is “safe” to criticize.
As horrid as she is, she will never, ever get away with half of the mischief Arne Duncan did. Part of it is that she is a Republican appointee. Part of it is that she lacks the finesse that Duncan (or at least Duncan’s masters) did. She relying too much on the power game and not enough on the deception game, and that is good for us.
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Heavens to Betsy, what’s in a name?
Unquiet DeVosion, What will we teach? DeVolution, DeVoid of scientific fact. DeVios! (Rhymes with DeVos)
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, in earth as it is in Heaven,
Move back. We’re expanding the Kingdom everybody. Move back, keep moving. Would somebody get rid of that wall, please?!
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Divorce DeVos!
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Now, where the heck is the “Like Enthusiastically” button? Thanks, SomeDAMPoet: you’ve done it again!
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I’ve been using DeVious since I first saw it in the comments. (Poet, sorry I stopped giving you credit for it (and bothering to place the parentheses) after the first time.) Duncan and Devious come together, as they belong together, as Devious Rheeformers. D-formers. Great thanks to Poet for, not only the name plays, but for breaking apart so many of the misnomers the Devious Rheeformers use to sell their insidious wares. You are the beautiful, mathematical inverse of fake D-form, Some Devalue Added Method Poet, the DAM opposition to the VAM.
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