John Merrow hears that the Department of Education in a state of confusion.
“From one perspective, these are the worst of times for American public education. In his inaugural address, President Trump told the nation that we have an “education system flush with cash but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of all knowledge.” His proposed budget acts on his words, cutting federal education dollars by 13.55, or nearly $9 billion. His Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, has called public education a disgrace and a disaster. Openly hostile to traditional public schools (which serve 90% of children) she plans to use the levers of power available to her to support vouchers, home schooling, on-line for-profit charter schools, and other alternatives.
“Basically, it’s open warfare against public education in Washington.
“However, it’s also chaotic, because Trump’s White House does not trust any of the Cabinet departments and has installed ‘spies’ in all of them, including Education. These Trump loyalists, often called ‘Special Assistants to the Secretary,’ report to the White House, not to the Secretary of the department they’re assigned to. So, things have to be beyond weird at 400 Maryland Avenue SW, the home of the Department of Education. One can imagine these ‘Special Assistants’ going from office to office, looking over shoulders and grilling confused bureaucrats. “What do you do?” Why does what you do matter?” And so on… I hear that morale is plummeting at the Department.
“I just came from Washington, where some Republicans and Democrats told me that “Lamar Alexander is really in charge.” Mr. Alexander is the Republic Senator from Tennessee and a former Secretary of Education who, as Chair of the Committee that approved DeVos, pushed through her nomination even though her statements revealed her lack of qualifications and understanding. They seemed to be expressing the hope that Senator Alexander could and would rein in DeVos if she really got crazy.
“So, it’s bad, but it would be worse if Trump’s anti-public school people had their act together, which they do not.”
The only solace he sees in the current situation is that Hillary would have stayed on the same Republican-designed test-and-punishe regime so beloved by Teach for America and DFER.
So, it was a Hobson’s choice, between more of the same (Hillary) and a willful, ignorant billionaire intent on destroying public schools.
Where do we go from here? We have to fight back, resist, ptotest, or watch the privatization movement steal a democratic institution.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When I read the bit below I stopped cold. This is exactly the administrative set up I encountered on my trip to China a few years ago.
“However, it’s also chaotic, because Trump’s White House does not trust any of the Cabinet departments and has installed ‘spies’ in all of them, including Education. These Trump loyalists, often called ‘Special Assistants to the Secretary,’ report to the White House, not to the Secretary of the department they’re assigned to.”
Upon entering a university’s music school one afternoon we saw several name signs on offices that seemed confusing; Assistant to the Dean for Governmental Affairs, Assistant Director for the Party, etc.
When we asked about these offices we were told there was an entire layer of administrative positions installed by the Communist Party that monitored the activities of the school’s administrators and reported directly back to the party’s leadership. A “shadow administration” if you will, reporting directly to the Communist Party.
Which it appears is exactly what Trump (i.e., Bannon) is doing now…
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Same tactics in the old Soviet Union and East Germany where the Stasi “hired” insiders in nearly even department of govt, right down to the local level. Trouble is, Betsy’s (AFC/ALEC/ExeclinEd et al) agenda is very predictable, it’s 20+ year old, but Bannon folks add a whole new level of unpredictable “chaos”. So far 33 names of the US Dept of Ed staff have been identified, but only US ED insiders may be able to know who these “minders” (Cold War term) are, and what they are up to next. What is known is that Betsy’s first choice to actually “run” ED was rejected by Bannon. Important observations made by Mr. Merrow, we need to pay close attention.
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what really matters…..more indications that Hillary lacked the courage to back teachers….DeVos will probably cause more damage for the reformers than almost anyone…..DEMOCRATS NEED A DIVORCE FROM OBAMA-GATES-HILLARY to rebuild the party, and it needs to be a noisy one.
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Seconded.
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Hillary would have continued the same corporate plodding as Obama, and progressives would have been reluctant to challenge her. Hillary never would have promoted vouchers, nor would she have written policy to support their expansion. With Trump and DeVos their scorched earth policy is impossible to ignore. Unlike the prevaricating Democrats, the Republicans put all their cards on the table. In a strange way it may be a opportunity to mobilize more people to fight without apology or restraint, no more slow bleeding and excuses. The overt hostility toward public education may wake up the sleeping public and sound the alarm about what is at stake. Our public schools are on the chopping block, and all people that respect the amazing work our schools have done must run to their defense.
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Diane,
Thank you. You sure got this one right:
“The only solace he sees in the current situation is that Hillary would have stayed on the same Republican-designed test-and-punishe regime so beloved by Teach for America and DFER.”
“So, it was a Hobson’s choice, between more of the same (Hillary) and a willful, ignorant billionaire intent on destroying public schools.”
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I have been trying to find out who is probably running the show at USDE. Here is a reasonably current list with the GS grade for the appointment. GS-07 means at minimum a bachelor’s degree. I have no idea what the post “Confidential Assistant” means, but it is certainly not a hallmark of transparency in governance. These seeme to be the “crony” positions.
Derrick Bolen-Confidential Assistant to the Secretary-GS-07 Liberty University graduate, BS in Political Science and government. 2016. Trump campaign regional field director for Virginia’s Roanoke and New River Valley region. Tweets offensive but who cares, not the President.http://www.politico.com/story/2017/01/trump-appointees-minorities-women-234315
Michael Oberlies-Confidential Assistant to the Secretary-GS-11 No information
Patrick Shaheen-Confidential Assistant to the Secretary-GS-11 Field director for both the NH Republican State Committee and Americans for Prosperity.
Gillum Ferguson-Confidential Assistant to the Secretary-GS-12 Former staffer for Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas, 4th)
Beatriz Ramos-Confidential Assistant to Secretary-GS-12 Florida’s “coalitions director” for the Trump campaign
Alexandra Hudson-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-13 Lead Education Policy Analyst at Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty … Sales Associate at Kohl’s Department Stores, Tutor of political science, graduate of the London School of Economics. Writer for the Federalist.
Deborah Cox-Roush-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Trump Inaugural committee. Owner of DCR Creative Solutions of Florida, “an advocacy consulting and events Management Company.” Florida Grassroots Director for the Trump campaign (she previously worked for Rubio). Graduate of Georgetown College, BA in History/Education, 1976.
Kevin Eck-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Former director of operations for the Indiana Public Charter Schools Association.
Holly Ham-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Former sales executive at Hewlett Packard and Program Advisor to the Trump presidential campaign.
Ronald Holden-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Assistant Dean of Students/Director of Diversity and Inclusion at University of Mount Union.
Amy Jones-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Former CEO of Professional Development and Accountability at NYC Department of Education.
Andrew Kossack-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Former commissioner, Indiana Department of Revenue, was Policy Director for the Foundation for Excellence in Education, prior staff for Governor Mike Pence.
Cody Reynolds-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Former Trump campaign staffer
Eric Ventimiglia-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15 Legislative aid and constituents relations manager for the Michigan House of Representatives. Oakland University, BA in Political Science in 2007.
Jerry Ward-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15—Former Alaska state Senator
Patrick Young-Special Assistant to the Secretary-GS-15- No information
Here are the official at USDE posted on website as of March 24, 2017. This list is quite different from the cronies list above.
Betsy DeVos, Secretary of Education
Kathleen S. Tighe, Inspector General, Office of Inspector General
Jason K. Gray, Chief Information Officer, Office of the Chief Information Officer
Tim Soltis, Deputy Chief Financial Officer, Delegated the Duties of the Chief Financial Officer
Phil Maestri, Director, Risk Management Service
Janet Scott, Director, Office for Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization
James W. Runcie, Chief Operating Officer, Federal Student Aid
All of the following positions at USDE are listed as vacant.
Deputy Secretary
Under Secretary
General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel
Assistant Deputy Secretary and Director, Office of English Language Acquisition
Assistant Deputy Secretary, Office of Innovation and Improvement
Assistant Secretary, Office for Civil Rights
Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education
Assistant Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Assistant Secretary, Office of Legislation and Congressional Affairs
Assistant Secretary, Office of Management
Assistant Secretary, Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development
Assistant Secretary, Office of Postsecondary Education
Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
Director, Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships
Director, Educational Technology
Director, Institute of Education Sciences
Director, International Affairs Office
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on American Indian and Alaska Native Education
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans
Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Performance Improvement Officer
On April 3, 2014 about twenty states will be submitting to USDE their ESSA compliance plans. I think these will probably be unopened and just sit “somewhere” because nobody seems to be in charge of Elementary and Secondary Education. These plans run 150 pages or more and are supposed to be “approved” by someone at USDE after they are thoroughly reviewed.
It is Amateur Hour and “Ask a Trump Crony” time in this and other administative offices. These are the components of the “administrative state” that Steve Bannon and Trump intend to “deconstruct.” That destruction appears to be the job of the cronies, not people competent to make reasoned judgments.
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Confusion (or even chaos) is not always bad
“Expected Cost”
To find “expected cost”
You times “potential harm”
By likelihood of loss
Of animals and farm
expected cost/damage/harm = potential damage X probability of damage
In this case, “potential harm” is great but that may be mitigated by a lower probability of loss than under Duncan since 1) DOE under Betsy may be disorganized in comparison to that under Duncan 2) ESSA has curtailed the power of the Sec of Ed somewhat and 3) there is significant push back from Democrats which was almost entirely absent under Duncan’s reign.
What this means is that, ironically, there is some reason to believe that “damage” under DeVos may actually turn out to be smaller than the damage (wreckage?) realized under Duncan, who virtually ensured that his policies of test and punish would be implemented on a National scale.
Small consolation, I know, but sometimes you have to take reasons for hope wherever you find them, however small they may be.
It’s rather unfortunate, but we seem to be stuck with judging DOE by how much damage it causes.
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Media reported the Center for American Progress was among the top players in Hillary’s campaign. CAP not only got $2.2 mil., directly, from the Gates Foundation (2013-15), members of CAP’s current education policy staff, were formerly with foundations funded by Gates. Distinguished Senior Fellows of CAP include controversial Lawrence Summers and neoliberal, economist Austin Goolsbee.
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2013 tax returns posted at the Fordham Institute website showed a sizable grant labeled, Center for American Progress.
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The same dept of ed that obama turned over to the worst people who executed race to the top. Good for them. Better not to be able to function at all.
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The malignant narcissist in the White House is out to destroy the federal government and every agency except the DOD and the VA (for now). The VA will probably be on the auction block later.
Even though he is also out to destroy the Justice Department through his attorney general, he probably wasn’t ready for the attorney generals of several states that are going after him in court.
For instance, “The filing is signed by 16 attorneys general from California, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia — all Democrats.”
http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/318144-over-a-dozen-attorneys-general-support-lawsuit-against-trump-ban
How Attorney General Became Democrats’ Bulwark Against Trump
About teamwork between the Attorney Generals of New York, Pennsylvania and California.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/06/us/attorneys-general-democrats-trump-travel-ban.html?_r=0
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If Lamar Alexander is in charge, he is no friend of public education. His involvement in Tennessee has been to try and fail to institute a merit pay system and to open schools to advertisement on the part of a friend who started a thing called channel 1.
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Sometimes political gridlock is the best you can expect.
This is one of those times.
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It worked for Trumpcare.
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This sounds like schools (esp. Success Academy-types, but public, too) where adminimals (as Duane would call them) come to classrooms only to harass teachers.
There could be a silver lining to the departmental chaos, however, in that none of the administration puppets would probably be aware enough (or smart enough) to fend off a pro-children, public education-friendly DoEd employee who is, actually, the fly on the wall.
In these circumstances, it’s really easy for such people to slip in & to shake things up, successfully thwarting any evil plans. The results are beautiful & beneficial.
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