When Betsy DeVos spoke in Indianapolis, she took aim at critics of her desire to turn public dollars over to a free market of private and religious schools. The critics, she said, have “chilled creativity.”
Education secretary: School choice opponents have ‘chilled creativity’ – CNN
https://apple.news/A834kMwEdTieEqmzkXofF1Q
If anyone knows of any creativity that has emanated from religious schools, charter schools, cybercharters, or for-profit schools, could they inform us?
Is she not aware of the heightened segregation, stratification, and corruption that accompanies unregulated school choice? Is she unfamiliar with research?
Does this woman ever speak without insulting the democratically controlled public schools that educate nearly 90% of our nation’s youth? How did our nation get to be the most powerful in the world? Why doesn’t Secretary DeVos visit the schools of Finland, which are all public schools, where creativity and play and the arts are treasured. Does she think that other public services, like firefighting, law enforcement, parks, libraries, highways, beaches, etc. should be privatized?
Diane Ravitch's blog 
You’re damn right she wants everything privatized.
Here in Michigan she and her fellow outlaws have been privitizing every publically owned entity they can. They are after our state parks now and they don’t even try to hide it much.
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Heads they win. Tails we lose.
What chills creativity more than the standardized test score obsession?
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Nothing!
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Decades of test based accountability and punishment are the leading cause for the decline of creativity in teaching and learning. Oh that’s right, charters and private schools don’t have to meet the same accountability standards so they aren’t punished for spending time to enhance student creativity. If DeVos wants to remove controls and permit teacher creativity, all she need do is support the end of test and punish. Talk about a budget saving action!
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She would privatize all public services n there would be no public pensions. Her billionaire friends would pay less taxes. They could care less if the middle class of America disappeared.
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Those maniacs would privatize anything that would put more money in their pockets!
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This heiress is unqualified to venture any meaningful comment. She will stick to her game plan, total annihilation of public education. We need to resist, block and fight her. We will put our creative side into our resistance.
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All the comments so far pretty much sum it up!
Thanks to all!
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Beside all of your points, she is just making that stuff up. How the heck would she know that creativity had been “chilled.” She is about as out of touch with what is going on in public schools as a person could be. Did she supply research references to back up her assertion? (Yeah, right.)
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Steve,
DeVos said she is “not a numbers person.”
She is also “not a research person.”
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She’s the superficial rich, by birth and marriage.
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She’s not only not a research person.
She’s not even a search person.
I doubt she even knows how to use Google.
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She is probably one of the few who isn’t helped by GEI (Google Enhanced Intelligence)
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You think, she can’t even use a browser to shop for carpet?
It’d be fun to see the search history on the DeVos family computer.
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Browsing for the floor
Is really just a bitch
So browsing’s for the poor
It isn’t for the rich
I know, cuz I have been doing it lately to get laminate flooring for a room and, believe me, if I could afford to have someone do it for me, I would.
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Here is the transcript of that speech:
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-secretary-education-betsy-devos-american-federation-childrens-national-policy-summit
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So much garbage and not enough energy at the moment to dissect it all. She always starts with examples of students who have succeeded after attending a “choice” school. And then follows it up with comments about the millions that are suffering in public schools. Prevaricating princess is she. Formulaic, eh!
And then this: “Education should measure actual mastery of subject matter. . . Education should reward outcomes, not inputs.”
Gag, puke, let me wash out my mouth.
Aren’t those student outcomes determined by student inputs?
What? You are saying she means that we should reward student input that turns into outputs in the form of answers on a standardized test?
A hundred ay ay ays!
What? The inputs to which she refers are the resources, time, monies, infrastructure, etc. . . that go into the teaching and learning process. And those shouldn’t be considered when we assess a teacher, school or district??
A thousand ay ay ays!
Stupid sultana, yes stupid because she willingly only sees her own viewpoint and can only follow her script.
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Chilled the creativity of those who want to loot taxpayer dollars earmarked for education without accountability for results.
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Definitely yes for the libraries. I’m sure she’s one of those who resent paying for access to books and information at a location she avoids. Let them buy their own books! And Not on my dime!
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Supporters of charter schools and vouchers, all examples of faux “school choice” (an Orwellian term), have “Chilled Democracy”.
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I can’t begin to comprehend how folks fall for this anti-expert crap. In the end, that’s what this is, ignorant people who think they can do better at something they don’t understand than the professionals who have devoted there lives to something. We see in in the Anti-Vax hysterics–I read the internet so I know more than doctors. We see it in government–Trump, Teabaggers. Hell, we see it in comments section of sports pages, with armchair general managers foaming at the mouth over the stupid coaches and front office staff who clearly don’t know the first thing about (fill in the blank). DeVos is a mediocre mind wrapped in country club arrogance who thinks, because someone in her family developed Amway, (a pyramid marketing scheme, BTW) and made a buttload of cash, that she is uniquely possessed with innate insight and god-given (literally) wisdom. DeVos is a fool with her Randian faith that the free market is the optimal solution of everything, when the whole idea of the free market is to extract as much profit for as little product as possible. What DeVos ultimately brings to education is the solution that the food industry used to deal with the recession–don’t raise prices, but make portions smaller. A two buck bottle of Ragu still costs two bucks, but that bottle dropped from 28oz to 24oz. America’s kids deserve better than a downsized education.
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You know, that’s not a bad line to use when writing and speaking about the education deformers.
They want to “downsize” education.
Downsize budgets, downsize qualifications, downsize curriculum, downsize the authority of elected school boards…the list is endless.
It fits on a protest sign, it makes a good soundbite…
I’m going to start using it extensively.
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I listened to the C-Span broadcast of DeVos answering questions that members of Congress posed about the Trump DeVos budget for Education. She implied that the proposals from her offices were modified when they were incorporated in the “omnibus” budget, and would probably be modified again by Congress. Otherwise, DeVos’ all purpose answers to questions in this brief hearing were as predicted–The problem can be solved by parental choice.
She was paralyzed by a direct question about the status of IDEA and whether students who attend private schools with a voucher or equivalent have legal recourse to special education services. She first said that ESSA delegated most decisions to states, and then implied everything about serving students in need of special education was decided when parents made a choice.
The run around was all too politely tolerated by Democrats who had some decent questions, but could not get a straight answer. DeVos has also learned how to run out the clock on an answer by throwing out a single long-winded story about one parent.
She was clear in her denunciation of “people” who had questions about cuts in funds from public schools serving low-income students. She does not tolerate talk about schools and programs because, ya know, it’s all about parents choosing what is best for individual students.
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It’s time for the Democrats, Obama, Duncan, etc. who keep pushing this poison privatization to own up to their mistake and set the record straight.
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I’ll send them over to you to help them “set the record straight”. Right after their checks clear the bank from buying some of my great white sand beach ocean front property over at Lake of the Ozarks in Central Missouri. If you’d like to get a piece of the action, oops I mean land from the heavens call 888 Suc Kers now. Operators standing by!!
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Maybe Betsy DeVos could try real hard at some point and come up with something positive to say about any public school, public school student, or public school supporter, anywhere.
I guess I’m baffled why the public is paying this political operative to conduct a campaign against public schools. Is this supposed to be somehow beneficial to kids in public schools? How?
Will it be like this for the next 4 years? Every speech and interview will consist of Betsy DeVos’ litany of complaints against public schools?
Your tax dollars at work, folks. We’re all paying for this political operative to scold us on public schools, a subject she knows nothing about and schools she doesn’t support anyway.
I would literally rather pay a really stand-out school custodian her salary. He or she adds more value.
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I’m not in the ed tech industry but if I were I would put as much distance as I could between my company and ed reformers.
The biggest buyers of these products will be public schools.
Probably not a great idea to ally with people who have spent whole careers bashing public schools.
I saw Zuckerberg was promoting ed tech in a public school yesterday. He probably figured out alienating public schools isn’t a great idea if his goal is to put his product in every public school.
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Betsy DeVos is an ignorant, biased, idiot, an elitist, and from the mouths of idiots comes idiocy.
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Here’s a great article written by Diane about this DeVOODOO phonomenon. And Diane is right. The Bilaries and Obama are as much to blame. I gave up on the Billaries. When Obama got elected, I did have some hope. Then he named his cabinet and the writing was on the wall. The DNC loves charter schools and dissed public schools with their standards and testing, both BAD.
https://www.commondreams.org/views/2017/05/24/dont-betsy-devos-blame-democrats
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There is a definite shift here to demonize the public education system in an effort to break it down into small enough bits so that it can be taken over and reimagined for capitalism. There are a few systems in the American democratic society that should not be privatized and the education system is certainly top on the list.
The idea that the American education system is failing is unfounded. Perhaps it needs restructuring and reimagining, however, dismantling it in a sort of bankrupt state in an attempt to reconstruct it to serve those who can access financial gain as a result of the restructuring seems like it does not serve the public.
I am sick of buying every new tech and curriculum product to ‘fix’ our students. In a capitalistic society we think purchasing power will fix things, but that is a misguided notion in every aspect of the idea. Investment should be in the people and the community, not in the products that are purchased.
I recently read some good articles about how the public may go about ‘choosing’ what they deem a high performing school, and there is already research being conducted on the ways to lure parents in with data and graphics. It is not a place where our best energies and creativity should exist as a country. There should be more value placed on the unification of families, neighborhoods, communities, and towns. That will reduce all sorts of social problems that are costing billions. Although, I don’t think decreasing cost is the desired effect. Increasing cost and funneling the money into a small number of pockets seems to be the ultimate goal.
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“The idea that the American education system is failing is unfounded”
What is unfounded is the meme that their even is an “American education system”. There is no coherent system. There are roughly 14,000 separate school districts, the vast majority run by elected school boards.
We need to quit using the edudeformer and privateer false talking points and language when we speak of our community public schools.
And, NO!, That “system is not ‘failing'”. It has produced some of world’s best ideas and products and has done so on the back of a diverse and non-standardized arrangement and implementation of those community public schools.
Again, We need to quit using the edudeformer and privateer false talking points and language when we speak of our community public schools.
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Have you seen the documentary 13? ALEC was behind the privatization of the prisoners b system via lies and innuendos. Now they ate doing the same about education. Devos, however, takes it to a whole new level.
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Good point about the lack of a system due to the seemingly, localized control that splinters the cohesion. The societal values are splintered as well, and it is definitely difficult to come to some semblance of agreement as to how children should be educated and what success looks like, particularly when those in power have their own self interests invested in failure.
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Has DR been to Finland? Has she read any of sir Ken Robinson’s books or listened to his TED talks? Has she studied all the trends. How many Christian or other private schools has DR actually visited? Would DR take the tiem to sit down with DeVos for a constructive and open-minded discussion? I think not.
How does one conclude an opinion about creativity is to be extrapolated to infer that all public services should be privatized? I fail to see the connection.
How about an article or message discussing the need for many types of schools, private, public, charter, religious to serve the various communities? What about schools like Sudbury Valley schools that serve a very narrow niche. Should they be changed to public schools also? Entrepreneurship and passion can produce excellent education in all areas.
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DM, yes, I have been to Finland.
Yes, I would be happy to meet with Secretary DeVos.
I believe in choice. If you choose a private or religious school, pay for it yourself.
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Amen, sistah Diane on those last two sentences.
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Why the reference to Finland, DM? What’s your point?
Regarding choice: one thing to consider is money. Education costs money. There’s only so much of it to go around. When we talk vouchers we’re talking about taking money from public schools (which rely exclusively on taxpayer dollars) and giving it to private institutions, which often charge more after the initial outlay of the voucher.
The private schools profit at the expense of
the public schools.
I don’t think that’s the model that you’ll find in Finland.
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It isn’t the model we will find in Finland.
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What, pray tell, could Betsy DeVos know about creativity?
Or let me ask this question in a snarkier, skeptical tone: what has fate ever required this callow heiress to create? A foundation, funded with her family’s ill-gotten gains (Amway is, after all, basically a scam), which she developed to fulfill her own ideological fantasies?
Color me nauseated.
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I think The Success Academy network has taken creativity to an entirely new level, with their “little test takers” leading the way.
Ms DeVos: “Chilled Creativity” is a remarkably refreshing dish, best served during the warmer to hot months of the year. I thank you for the nod towards this avenue of expression for the kids (it was their idea, btw) and hope you’ll come to my site to view some of our hot and heartier dishes once the weather begins to cool, again.
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“with their “little test takers”
I thought they were “little scholars”.
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Actually, the director of testing at Success Academy called the children “little test taking machines”
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Sick, very sick!
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“Little scrollers”
Little scrollers
In the schools
Wholey rollers
Techy tools
Scrolling pages
Every day
Little sages
Born to pay
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btw: I know so many teachers who have found remarkable avenues of creativity DESPITE the test and punish regime that’s been in charge, going on two decades. This, for me, is a testament to the resilience of those who are actually doing the work in the classroom.
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Creativity isn’t lacking in charter schools…. the 70% of cyber school students who are truant in Ohio, must creatively fill their time. And, there’s lots of creativity in the defense of taxpayer fleecing in the court cases involving charter schools.
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“Creative Thinking”
Betsy thinks outside the box —
The skull that holds her brain —
She leaves her thinking up to Fox
To wit, it is insane
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Another treat from the pen of the resident poet. Adding- inane and insane.
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George Will described Trump. His description fits DeVos. Betsy gathers “factoids like lint on the brain”.
Hechinger Report recently published a piece with effusive praise for charter schools (I infer the author wants the public to believe contractor schools are public) and, damnation for the “factories” of public education. In flowing verbiage, the article expounds on the topic of wondrous creativity.
I presume Betsy picked up the “creativity” factoids while eagerly falling for a well-honed P.R. strategy, which the Koch’s invented and perfected. (1) Create a crisis. Gates drove the testing mandate that crowded out subjects other than those tested (2) Develop a false narrative of public institution failure and foist it on the public using media. “Assembly line education deprives students of creativity” (but, oddly, not the Gates’ for-profit schools-in-a-box) and (3) Promote an “innovative” option that happens to allow for money-taking, from students and communities. “Contractor schools walk along the side of God” (sarcasm).
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“God likes vouchers”
God helps those
Who help themselves
The folks who chose
The voucher shelves
She doesn’t help
The helpless fools
Who yip and yelp
For public schools
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