Jennifer Berkshire writes that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is visiting the Florida charter called SLAM started by misogynist rapper Pitbull. It is part of the controversial for-profit charter chain Academica, which was investigated last year by the UlS. Department of Education.
Berkshire interviews Preston Green about The problems of cronyism, conflicts of interest, and corruption that accompany deregulation.
Meanwhile, DeVos will bring the gospel of deregulation and choice without accountability to the converted.
A useful reminder: Join the Network for Public Education to fight DeVos’ efforts to destroy public education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She is also visiting the College of Nursing at Florida International University. Many faculty and students are gathering now to protest the visit.
LikeLike
Thanks, Hilary.
Florida is her model state. Surely can’t be her own state of Michigan, where her brand of “reform” has been a disaster.
LikeLike
The likely reason DeVos is at Florida International is that it is one of 31 schools in the Gates Foundation’s Frontier Set. The goal of the organization is “to create new instructional delivery methods”.
LikeLike
John Oliver did a feature on charter schools in which he skewered Mr. Bull as a subliterate opportunist.
LikeLike
He is also a retired drug dealer so the man knows how to exploit our ridiculous policies and make money, while he cares little about the people that get hurt in the process.
LikeLike
My AMWAY story…
When I was a classroom teacher in Michigan for the Lansing Public Schools (a long time ago), there was a BOMBARDMENT of DeVos’ AMWAY folks to get people to sign up to sell AMWAY products.
I was one of MANY who was bombarded. I refused, of course. How AMWAY got my name is beyond me.
And, believe me when I say: I WAS BADGERED. It was interesting to see how “SLICK” these AMWAY people are and the way they used words to disguise. When I said, “NO!” to signing up, this team told me that I would never be rich by being just a classroom teacher and if I sold AMWAY products I would earm more than what I made as a classroom teacher. Then this team degraded the teaching profession and basically told me that I was STUPID for not signing up to sell AMWAY. These AMWAY agents told me that I could get rich by signing up parents of my students and other teachers to be AMWAY agents. Isn’t this a CONFLICT of INTEREST? At that time, I was teaching in an inner city school where some of the students had a parent who was in jail.
LikeLike
And to add to your last sentence, Yvonne, “where the AMWAY founders should be.” As previously covered on yet another brilliant John Oliver show, AMWAY is nothing more than a pyramid scheme.
LikeLike
In her social set, DeVos is a dime a dozen. Author, Tana French, described them, “”half wit snob dyed a certain-age-blond, stitched into a frozen grin, running the school on big talk and hubby’s contacts.”
LikeLike