The website Chalkbeat posted an article about the sunny side of Secretary DeVos.
She likes really good programs!
Like Florida’s tax credit programs for vouchers! (Which sucks tax dollars away from public schools)
Like Milwaukee’s school choice programs! (Which have produced no positive results for students in 26 years)
Like Nevada’s Achievement School District (which does not yet exist and is modeled on Tennessee’s failed Achievement School District; unmentioned: most of Nevada’s charters are failing schools by the state’s metrics–Nevada needs an Achievement School District for failing charters)
She is cheerleader-in-chief for school choice. Given her deep-seated antagonism for the democratically-controlled community public schools that 90% of our nation’s children attend, we should expect a change of heart.
By we should expect unsentimental, critical reporting.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
and this is enough to make one sick…look who talks at Brookings, where she calls for more school choice, “Saying Money Isn’t the Answer” even as the states suck up the peoples taxes for vouchers.
In a speech at the Brookings Institution, the education secretary rejected the notion that money was a panacea for the challenges facing public schools.
It’s incredible how, when it comes to schools and social programs, people like De Vos, who have cash registers for brains, start saying, “It’s not about the money.”
That’s strange, because, when it comes to the Pentagon, or bailing out Wall Street, etc., it’s always about the money. Everywhere you look in this society, it’s about the money, and nothing else.
As for kicking down and sucking up, that’s what so-called reformers, and “Chalkbeat,” one of their house organs, specialize in.
I I subscribed from Chalkbeat two years ago. Despite occasionally good articles it exudes corporate reform ideology. I believe the usual suspects support it: Gates, Murdoch, etc.
Yes, Gates is one of the people who funds Chalkbeat.
How do you say it, Chalkbeat Schmalkbeat. School bashing with an endless “bad” teacher, “failing” school bent.
This is one of the reasons I rarely comment on or read any Chalkbeat articles anymore.
I just unsubscribed to Chalkbeat.
When I see a slam dunk article like this….the first thing I think is how much of it is DeVos predictable garbage, and how much of it is conveniently pushed to divert attention away from the huge damage already set in motion by Obama-Duncan-Gates.
Democrats need to have it pointed out…DeVos makes it easy to forget that.
You’re right, Joe.
They are of course funded by Walton, on whose reforms they also report “neutrally”. Although she has occasionally produced important stories, our local editor in Detroit, Erin Einhorn, has largely trumpeted the talking points of our local Walton-funded Excellent Schools Detroit, which came into existence seven years ago calling for abolishing the elected school board and for the opening of a recovery school district, which became the EAA. I sat down with Erin at her request when she first came to town a few years ago and warned her about the corporate players posing as grassroots organizations and educational experts. I wish I could warned her about the corporate players posing as grassroots organizations and educational experts. I wish I could say my advice was heeded.
Tom,
Erin was a crack reporter for the NY Daily News when Bloomberg was reforming the schools. She knows the score.
Diane,
PERFECT TITLE for this blog post. I too get Chalkbeat, and I have to admit, it makes me want to puke.
On the subjects of programs praised by Devos — and the media dropping the ball — it’s hard to beat this story about Devos’ visit and endorsement of the U.S. Dept. of Ed’s NASA education program, and its successful influence on women choosing STEM, with the event highlighting “Women’s History Month” in the process:
AFT teachers union president Randi Weingarten put out an angry press release, calling it “the height of chutzpah” for Secretary Devos and First Daughter Ivanka Trump to make a high-profile visit and glamorous photo op to a NASA education program —- during the day on Tuesday, and an accompanying film screening of “Hidden Figures” later that night.
Weingarten callied out the hypocrisy of Devos praising and celebrating the NASA “Get Excited About STEM” program as an effective vehicle whereby young students — females especially — “As a result, are now embracing STEM education and careers … blah-blah-blah … ”
… while Weingarted also pointed out that that same program has been slated for elimination by President Trump(!!!) as unnecessary in his draconian cuts to the federal Education budget:
http://www.aft.org/press-release/afts-weingarten-devos-and-ivanka-trumps-visit-space-museum-president-trumps
The Washington Post puts out two starkly different coverages of this event — a glowing account by print reporter Emma Heil:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/reliable-source/wp/2017/03/28/ivanka-trump-joins-betsy-devos-to-screen-hidden-figures-and-boost-girls-in-stem/?utm_term=.47eab34cb6cb
… and a critical report, echoing Weingarten’s press release, from on-line columnist Valerie Strauss, who says the whole debacle “is in the you-can’t-make-this-up category”:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/03/28/the-irony-in-ivanka-trumps-and-betsy-devoss-push-for-stem-education/?utm_term=.d23419704da0
None of the laudatory TV coverage of this publicity stunt even mentions that the very program that Betsy and Ivanka are celebrating IS ACTUALLY BEING AXED BY BETSY’S BOSS, AND IVANKA’S DAD:
http://www.cbs5az.com/story/35015031/ivanka-trump-education-secretary-devos-promote-stem-careers
Criticism of Chalkbeat: https://danielskatz.net/2014/04/24/chalkbeat-gets-a-letter-cogently-pointing-out-bias-in-reporting-responds-with-a-shrug/
I have a suggestion that will promote real choice in real public education. Dramatically shrink the size of public schools. Here are principles for real reform that I think would produce good results:
Make all schools k-12 unit schools that top out at about 1500 kids per school.
Locate alternative programs that are not disciplinary in nature, but are real alternatives to the traditional school format within a reasonable transportation range for students that do not succeed in the traditional schools.
Provide good technical training to students who want it in a place that is assessable to them.
Provide students who want college preparatory classes a way to be separated from students who do not wish to focus on learning in a classroom setting. Allow teachers a veto over students whose behavior does not conform to their expectations.
This will provide greater choice, more stability, and greater success.
I would fund it by taxing the people who can afford it, which is why it would be dead on arrival politically. We could save some money by eliminating testing, but that might enlarge he rolls of those looking for a job.
Devos family has businesses that will profit from charter. That should and I believe is against the law. They have business in student loans and she’s trying to raise the interest on these kids. What part of profiteering as a government official doesn’t she see? Religious schools should not get anything from any government.
Are you opposed to all religiously-operated schools getting government money? People attend Notre Dame, using BEOG’s. People attend Southern Methodist, on ROTC scholarships. People attend Ohio Wesleyan University, on the GI Bill.
Religiously-operated universities all over the USA, have students that are receiving tax dollars for their education. The Supreme Court has even ruled, unanimously, that a person can receive tax money, for religious education at a seminary.
see
https://www.oyez.org/cases/1985/84-1070
Love the headline. They’re linking to Breitbart in Rise and Shine now. They’ve really come a long way.