According to her press office, Betsy DeVos was supposed to visit the CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger charter school in Woodlands Hills in Los Angeles on May 1. But she canceled unexpectedly the day before, citing a schedule conflict.
I assumed she was called to meet with Trump or had a family emergency that kept her in D.C. Those things happen.
But according to the ED website, she was in Los Angeles on May 1.
Here is her schedule:
Monday, May, 1
12:15 p.m.
Secretary DeVos participates in the Lunch with Education Leaders at the Milken Institute Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA
Closed press
2:30 p.m.
Secretary DeVos participates in a conversation moderated by Lowell Milken at the Milken Institute Global Conference
Los Angeles, CA
Please contact the Milken Institute for additional guidance and access
Obviously she preferred to attend a closed door meeting with the billionaire Milkens, who started the failing K12 Inc. cyber charter chain.
Maybe she was afraid of protests. The word about her scheduled visit was spread to Indivisible groups on social media.
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/la-me-betsy-devos-visit-los-angeles-20170428-story.html
Too bad she didn’t visit the school. Its specialty is integrating children with special needs into all classrooms. DeVos had a chance to learn. Although she probably would have taken away confirmation of her prior belief that school choice is best for everyone, and remain unaware that many charters exclude children with disabilities and voucher schools are not required to abide by federal law protecting them.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Although she probably would have taken away confirmation of her prior belief…”
Has this ever not happened to her? (Or Duncan? Or King? Or Spellings? Or Paige?…)
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I’d support it, but can she even do that? Take away her own confirmation?
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She’s just another 1% er POS in the #45 WH.
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YEP!
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DeVoodoo is HOPELESS. I refuse to try to educate her. She’s a ditz. As my mother would say, “Save your spit. In the end, KARMA reigns.”
So, is this country experiencing its own KARMA for doing so much wrongs to Mother Nature?
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DeVoodoo. Nice! That’s what reforminess is.
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Pretty sure this is the same Milken conference where Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told elites in government and finance Monday morning (yesterday) “You should all thank me for your bank stocks doing better.” Since the election, a Standard and Poor’s index of shares in major financial institutions is up 18.6 percent. He’s another 1%er POS. These people are absolutely scurrilous.
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Eli Broad just named Betsy DeVos’ favorite charter school chain as a finalist for his extremely generous “Broad Prize”.
The “reformers” are desperate to reward DeVos’ favorites and signal to her that they want her friendship. However, they know that most of the public disagrees so they have to pretend they are not promoting policies that are no different from DeVos “survival of the fittest children” ideal of education.
So a meeting with her that the press starts to report on gets cancelled in the hopes that the public doesn’t notice. That way, when there is a school board election, the candidate they have spent so much money promoting won’t be associated with the pro-privatization ideas that are the very reason the billionaire reformers are underwriting them!
It’s the lies of the reforms that are so offensive. They are as dishonest as Trump and just as willing as he is to say anything to get what they want. Deep down they are thrilled DeVos wants to undermine public schools as much as they do, but that has to be kept secret in their massive PR attempt to pretend they are doing this all for the children.
The reformers are doing for the “right” children — just like Betsy DeVos believes some children are more worthy than others. DeVos is just willing to come out and state the things the reformers only dream of achieving by deception helped by billions of their ill-earned dollars. Why spend money on the worthless kids when there are rich taxpayers who need tax cuts?
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“DeVos had a chance to learn”, What makes us think she ever would want to take advantage of that opportunity?
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It is unusual to hear of a primary-level charter for kids w/ special needs. I would have liked hearing more about it (not from a school website, but from regular media that might have covered it, had she visited). Mainly to speculate on whether such an animal is feasible under the district umbrella.
We tried this in my med-sized town district 20 yrs ago– I believe it was a joint effort w/the next-door same-sized town– but it failed after two yrs, reportedly due to not enough enrollment. Since then, we have been doing well w/an in-district autistic primary program added 7 yrs ago, & the hisch has been succeeding w/a program for devptlly-delayed added 15 yrs ago– & continues to do well w/multiple supports for LD/ED IEPs (which 2 of my kids benefited from, 15 yrs ago).
But I see no changes in 20+ yrs in the gr 1-8 SpEd program, which always struck me as a bit spotty, haphazard, mediocre (more so in grades K-5). It looks like the larger the pool of students, the better one might succeed w/a special pull-out program w/n the bldg. For the LD/ED kids (i.e., those who do best w/a mix of mainstreaming & pull-out), you need that larger pool to let them mainstream where they are able.
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I do not like the idea of a separate school for students with special needs. Mainstreaming is important for students on both sides of the equation, and separate is never equal. Separate is not the society we want.
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Agree. I suspect the district charter idea failed mainly because it was in a separate (& off-campus) bldg. So right off the bat you do not have the flexibilty for partial mainstreaming, plus raise costs, & probably also create inflexibilities in SpEd staff assnts. And there is a huge advantage to all students in just having even the least-mainstreamed handicapped, autistic, devptlly-delayed kids there sharing common areas. So they are not some mysterious other.
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DeVos motto… “Why be humble… why be smart… why bother with reality”???? If Yahoo News is attacking her… that is pretty bad… BUT PRETTY DARN GOOD! 🙂 Here the article adresses the fact that DC Vouchers in the school system led to no improvement at all and yet DeVos is putting vouchers on steroids!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/congress-set-expand-school-voucher-155100524.html
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You know you are unpopular when even the bots are attacking you.
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Please note that DeVos did go, on April 28th, according to The Sun newspaper, to North Park Elementary School to offer condolances for the recent shooting that took place there. She ate lunch with students, read to a K class, met with school employees and then met privately with family and loved ones of Karen Smith, the special ed teacher killed in the shooting. She wanted to meet with the parents of students who were killed, but the families were in Mexico. She was invited to visit by district superintendent Dale Marsden. She praised the school’s resiliency and spirit.
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“condolences,” not “condolances.”
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She’s like Trump – won’t appear before a group that is not made up of adulating fans
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