Media Matters has issued a call for an investigation of the staffing of the U.S. Department of Education. The call is directed at reporters, since there is little likelihood that either house of Congress would investigate one of its major donors.
Some of the staffers working directly for DeVos are known to have posted racist or homophobic remarks. Several have conflicts of interest. Several are imported from Jeb Bush’s team at his Foundation for Education Excellence. All seem to be from the rightwing “echo chamber” that DeVos and her fellow crusaders inhabit.
None has any known qualifications for working in the Department of Education.
Most major positions remain vacant, other than the appointment of an anti-Clinton lawyer with no relevant experience to run the Office of Civil Rights.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Awesome!
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The first problem is to find any competent journalists. Outside of those linked in this blog, it’s a wasteland out there.
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May the mess being made by inexperienced chaos in Wash DC bring more and more journalists to the recognition that an increasingly anxious populace will reward actual JOURNALISM.
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Well, except for Brian Williams. Those breath-taking (literally) rockets in Syria!
Since his daughter, Allison, will be done with Girls, perhaps she could anchor The 11th Hour. I think she’d do a better job.
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(sarcastic tone) Why should anyone working at the DOE have educational experience? The past leadership never had any. The closest Duncan got was his mother was a librarian. King just happen to be there and was an easy temp pick.
The requirement to land a job at any DOE happens to be hating teachers, teacher unions, and public schools in general. No experience in the classroom necessary.
Notice the job titles ‘special assistant to the secretary’. DT has no one who could pass muster in the Senate approval so they created special assistant positions. Many of the appointed positions will go unfilled. Remember the main policy of DT is to dismantle the DOE and get rid of ‘government schools’.
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Awesome idea. I hope they can make this happen. But isn’t it a sad thing that we can’t depend on our elected officials to so something like this. Thank goodness for educated investigative journalists.
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Diane
Calling Media Matters nonpartisan is fake news.
Abe
Sent from my iPhone
On Apr 11, 2017, at 1:03 PM, Diane Ravitch’s blog wrote:
WordPress.com dianeravitch posted: “The nonpartisan group Media Matters has issued a call for an investigation of the staffing of the U.S. Department of Education. The call is directed at reporters, since there is little likelihood that either house of Congress would investigate one of its “
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There is not one scintilla of “unbiased reporting” in Media Matters. George Soros funnels money to them because they promote his radically progressive one world government mantra. With their help and the help of similar groups he sends money to (Black Lives Matters, Occupy, etc) he has managed to destabilize the economies in over seventy countries around the world. Here in America he is funding movements to cause as much chaos as possible. He has dreamed of destroying America for decades. He almost had it, until Hillary failed to get elected by the electoral college. There is an excellent time lapse map just created demonstrating how much “blue” has been lost to “red” over the last ten years. You can find it on the web.
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George Soros is a wonderful philanthropist who supports democracy around the world and uses his money for good purposes, unlike the DeVos and Walton Family, which use their vast wealth to undermine public education.
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Linda Giffin, which oligarch, from the political right, is working to salvage a government, of the people, by the people and for the people, from the ashes of the American democracy?
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Really? Why should USDOE employees have relevant experience? The Secretary of State has no relevant experience. The Ambassador to the United Nations has no relevant experience. Ivanka and Jared have the relevant experience of being born to real estate empire families.
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Um, Media Matters can hardly be considered “nonpartisan”. It’s run by David Brock, who was behind “Revise the Record”, er, I mean, “Correct the Record”, an army of paid online trolls who spent their days attacking “BernieBros”. Brock is fiercely pro-Hillary.
And, lest I be accused of being a Trump troll, the above is not to say that DeVos shouldn’t be investigated. Of course she should, as should probably everyone in the Trump administration, right down to the janitors. The question there, though, is who do we think is going to do the investigating?
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Any journalist.
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This is DeVos’ schedule:
https://www2.ed.gov/news/events/calendars/secschedule.html
If she meets with charter advocates and voucher advocates, shouldn’t she also meet with advocates for public schools?
This is why I find the “agnostic” claim so dishonest. The charter and voucher advocates aren’t “agnostics”. They’re not in there lobbying for public schools.
Why don’t public schools have an advocate in DC? Charters do. Vouchers do.
Why don’t public schools count in ed reform? Can they credibly claim to be “education advocates” if NO ONE speaks on behalf of public schools?
No wonder our schools get screwed in ed reform schemes.
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I see all events but one say, “Closed press”. The other says press “to be determined by the White House.”
Cowardly.
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That stuck out for me as well. Transparency is not abundant in family run businesses (or in organized crime) or this WH for that matter.
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The DeVos dept of ed is completely irrelevant to public schools anyway.
Can any parent of a public school student point to one thing ed reformers have done to “improve” an ordinary public school?
I’ve been watching this “movement” dominate Ohio for 15 years and I can’t think of a single thing of value any of them have done for son’s public school.
All ed reform means to public schools is budget cuts and testing. They’re a net detriment to kids in public schools.
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David Brock’s “Media Matters” would recommend (a) Laurene Jobs (b) Hanna Skandera, or (c) other, as DeVos’ replacement?
What is the prospective date of publication, for a Media Matters article, detailing what Congressional Democrats have done, since the presidential election, to thwart contractor schools in their states?
I don’t know who msm listens to but, Diane Ravitch commands and deserves respect. David Brock, John Podesto, DFER, the Walton’s, Bill Gates, CAP?
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Ugh. I’m afraid Congressional Democrats are already making deals and preparing to throw public school students under the bus.
They’d all trade charter school funding for public school funding in a minute, and they probably are.
Congress is anti-public school. It’s a lost cause. Very few of them attended public schools or send their children to public schools. They just don’t care what happens to our schools. If they had their druthers they’d replace them all with charters anyway.
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The DEMS have already thrown teachers, students, and parents in our public school systems UNDER THE BUS! SAD. All I want to do is vomit all over the deformers. They don’t care one stitch; they have theirs and want MORE. Will the DNC admit that they are at fault for that dump as potus?
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Public school parents would do well to find out who their state lawmakers are listening to when they draft these ESSA plans.
If the same 150 national ed reformers write your states’s ESSA plan, your child’s school will be dominated by the same testing and privatization mantra these folks have peddled for 20 years.
Ed reform has a huge impact on kids in public schools, but public schools are never consulted when ed reformers are making plans. Make sure there is at least one public school advocate at the table, or public schools will be the last priority.
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I agree. I predict there will be a feeding frenzy of all types of tech products, especially CBE, more tech products designed to provide poor students with boring reductionist stimulus-response protocols. The goal will be to sell more products and ooze into public schools ever so sneakily. They will then want CBE for all; no need for pesky teachers and unions; game over. What they won’t notice will be the failure. They won’t notice anything other than the money to be made. They will buy all the representatives to ensure schools need more and more tech products. This will happen unless parents, teachers and social justice groups stop them.
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if ed reformers actually care about public school students, they will stop pushing online learning and blended learning like it is some magical formula.
Just stop. Public schools are being pressured into over-investing in this stuff and they will regret that decision.
Lay off the hard sales pitch on ed tech. Stop hyping it. It’s reckless and stupid for schools to spend tons of money on this stuff.
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YES, Chiara.
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It would certainly take a team of journalists to follow all the threads leading to DeVos. One goes back to her brother, the paramilitary schemer of Blackwater fame. An apt name for a black heart. Clearly, one reason she was chosen was as a favor to him.
As for the fate of public schools, states still have leeway in how they apply these laws. Heaven only knows if DeVos can get away with withholding funds. It might end up in court.
Re privatization, several years ago I watched the Senate Education Committee listen to teachers describe the damage caused by over-testing, when one senator said dismissively, “Aren’t we just going to privatize schools anyway?” Another agreed and not one disagreed.
What you can do is contact your federal and state congress people about these issues. The Senate Switchboard is 202-324-2121.
Then put the numbers of your state or federal legislators into your phone’s contact list to make it easy to leave a message with their secretary. On the phone, leave a one or two sentences message, but use email if it’s longer.
Share your concerns and knowledge with friends, family and neighbors. Attend a board or PTA meeting. Listen and ask questions. Our board didn’t know about HB 610, so I filled them in.
It really helps to join forces with groups like BATS, PAA, SOS or OPT-OUT. They tend to follow legislation and can help you in your local fight.
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Delete this one, please.
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The NPE – Network for Public Education – has a great toolkit for explaining privatization, etc. I just downloaded the handouts to take to the print shop. They’re for the school board, etc.
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All the more reason, that the Dept of Ed should be abolished. Some of its tasks can be returned to the old Dept of Health, Education, and Welfare. Since 90+% of education is state/municipal anyway, the loss of this department could be managed.
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As the mouthpiece of men like Gates and the Koch’s, who plot to destroy America”s vital common goods, Charles, your loss, (Rick Berman’s, too) could not only be managed, it would benefit the citizens of the U.S.A. and, honor those who sacrificed for a democratic government of the people, by the people and for the people.
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Cross posted the article at
https://www.opednews.com/Quicklink/Reporters-It-s-Time-To-In-in-Best_Web_OpEds-Congress_Department-Of-Education_Educational-Crisis_Qualifications-170412-444.html
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