Betsy DeVos appeared at her second Congressional hearing to defend the Department’s budget priorities. At her first hearing, she said that schools might need guns to protect against grizzlies.
What she demonstrated was her masterful ability to evade and obfuscate questions, never giving a direct answer to inconvenient questions.
Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin tried to get her to respond to the failure of vouchers in Milwaukee, and DeVos ducked and bobbed skillfully.
“Pocan, from Wisconsin, said that the state’s pioneering work on taxpayer-funded private school vouchers was a “failed experiment” that resulted in lackluster test scores, unaccountability and the ability for private schools to exclude kids with disabilities.
“Pointing to a lawsuit by parents of kids at Right Step Inc., a Milwaukee voucher school, because only 7 percent of students were proficient in English and none were proficient in math, he asked DeVos, “Would you send you kid to a school where 93 percent of the students aren’t English proficient and 0 percent are math proficient?”
“DeVos thanked Pocan for the question, then launched into a history of vouchers in Wisconsin, dropping the name of Annette Polly Williams, the late Democratic state lawmaker from Milwaukee who was an early voucher advocate.
“Who now says it’s not lived up to its promise,” interjected Pocan, leaving him open to a technicality.
“And who’s no longer living,” DeVos pointed out.
“Williams, for the record, ended up disowning the choice program and accusing its supporters of exploiting black children.
“The pointed but unproductive questioning continued with DeVos pointing out at least three times that Milwaukee has 28,000 kids in voucher programs.
“For his part, Pocan pointed out that the last expansion of the choice program resulted in three-fourths of the public money going to parents whose kids were already enrolled in the private schools they were getting vouchers for, and two-thirds went to families making over $100,000 a year.
“Do you think your federal program will support this sort of thing, so it’s not to encourage new outlets in education, simply to give money to people who already attend those schools?” he asked.
“Well, I really applaud Milwaukee for empowering parents to make the decisions that they think are right for their students and children,” DeVos answered.”
Pecan must have forgotten that DeVos is not a numbers person. Also not a facts person or a research person.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Is not the radical, right-wing agenda to reverse the big government public service initiated by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s “New Deal.” Access to a quality, free, public education was a hallmark of FDR’s agenda to turn around a nations crippled by the Great Depression.
“One of the fascinating, yet unintended, consequences of the New Deal decision to help people rather than organizations was the discovery of the shocking state of education in 1930s America. There were massive numbers of individuals who were illiterate or did not possess even the most basic job skills.” http://rooseveltinstitute.org/new-deals-unintended-impact-education/
School choice has taken on a sort of “Hunger Games” mentality, survival of the fittest. If public money is going to be spent on education, let there be competition and attrition. Take away access to quality, accountable neighborhood public schools.
Deflect questions about your real agenda with talking points, the Republican think tank way. Betsy DeVos has, in a sense, mastered this art.
No more free handouts, no more freeloaders say the Republicans. After all, lowering taxes for the rich will stimulate the economy, so they say.
This mentality by the extreme right wing is at the heart of what we are facing today. School choice is only a part of this much larger agenda.
Looking forward to an informative, productive discussion here. There are truly brilliant minds who read and post on this blog.
“…the Republican think tank way….”
I agree with everything you say, but I do have to point out that that way is also the Democratic way and the left-leaning think tank way. Try talking to, say, Rahm Emanuel or Cory Booker or anyone at Brookings and you will see remarkably similar techniques. In reality, it’s the oligarch way.
Is part of the goal of the extreme right wing to have a less educated society, who will buy into simplistic talking points, rather than become informed, educated voters?
I would state that the left wants to keep black/brown children in poverty, and keep them in failing union-run public schools. A large welfare population is good for the government administrators (mostly leftist). Poorly educated people almost always vote democratic (WashDC went over 90% for Hillary).
Your ignorance is overwhelming but that shouldn’t surprise anyone since you cleary support most of Trump’s autocratic, fascist, fraudulent idiocy. The community-based, democratic, transparent, public schools are not run by teachers’ unions. They are run by local citizens elected to school boards. Teachers’ unions do not negotiate what teachers teach or what classes public schools offer – that is often set by state legislation voted on by elected representatives at the state level and signed into law by governors. Local teachers’ unions negotiate contracts that almost exclusively deal with salary and benefits. Teachers’ unions also offer legal support if a teacher’s U.S. Constitutional due process rights are allegedly violated but most local teachers’ unions will not offer legal support for alleged crimes like sexual misconduct. However, if a teacher is found innocent or the charges are dropped regarding allegations of sexual misconduct, teachers’ unions often offer legal support to get a teacher’s job back and lost earnings.
In addition, other than allegations of failure by frauds, liars, and idiots, the evidence is overwhelming that America’s public schools have been successful and not failures.
America’s public educated population supports the largest publishing industry in the world by having educated many of the nation’s children to enjoy reading. Those readers subscribe to magazines, newspapers and buy books.
The U.S. is also one of the top five most educated countries on the planet because more than 40 percent of the adult population over 25 have earned college degrees.
For convenience sake, BELOW is a YouTube of the exchange:
Pocan gives a great summary leading up to his question.
His question finishes at around, which is followed by Devos’ non-responsive answer:
( 01:56 – )
( 01:56 – )
Thanks, Jack. Mr. Pocan was my Dane County rep a bazillion years ago when I lived in Wisconsin. He was always available to his constituents, looked carefully at the issues and worked hard. I had no idea he was now in the House of Reps!
Oh, and one of my kid’s video games used to yell, “PAY ATTENTION TO THE QUESTION!”
Ideologues and True Believers are resistant, if not immune, to facts and logic. Most of Trump’s supporters still support him. When their naked greed for millions of dollars is at stake, their stubbornness gets even stronger.
And Representative Pocan is a Republican. There’s hope yet.
That would be nice but actually, he’s a very left Democrat.
Here is a fascinating article from NPR about Milwaukee, which has the oldest (modern) school choice/voucher program in the USA. Some say the program is bad, some say it is good.
School choice/voucher programs remind me of the Rorschach test. You see what you want to see
http://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2017/05/16/523612949/lessons-on-race-and-vouchers-from-milwaukee
“School choice/voucher programs remind me of the Rorschach test.”
Hmmm, as I contemplate those programs. . .
. . . I see a big rancid pile of shit.
Of course, DeVoodoo is a master at lying. She’s done it her entire life.
DeVoodoo is rotten to the core. She’s gotten HER way HER ENTIRE life because she’s got $$$$$$. She’s TRUMP, all dressed up as a female.
Have the citizens of this country gone DAFT?
“. . . because she’s got $$$$$$. She’s TRUMP. . .”
Well, . . . birds of a feather. . . .
Dime con quien andas y te diré quien eres.
Or that DeVox is even a member of the human species.
DeVos knows her talking points and cannot deviate from the script. She is a zealot who is tone deaf and blind to reality. What a pitiful “leader” of the DOE!
Here’s the thing. Many conservatives believe that the government should have NO role in education. Realizing that states and the country are too far deep into education now to totally abandon it, vouchers are almost like a settlement.
No, conservatives do not “believe that the government should have NO role in education.” Maybe the reactionary regressive (usually religious) right might think that but true conservatives believe in preserving the “good” of society.
The states are not “too far deep into education now”. Public education is one of the core functions of the state, mandated by each state’s constitution. There is no getting around that fact.
Your usage of the edudeformer and privateer language is either very disturbing or you attempting to make their agenda seem palatable-“vouchers are almost like a settlement”. Or I may have misread what you are trying to say.
What’s even scarier is Secertary Devos’ tacit claim that, when it comes to schools that receive government funding — charter schools, voucher-funded private schools, etc. — the U.S. Department of Ed.:
— HAS NO RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT STUDENTS FROM DISCRIMINATION — based on race, ethnicity, religion sexual preference, gender identity, etc. — AT THE HANDS OF THOSE RUNNING THOSE GOVERNMENT-FUNDED SCHOOLS.
— WILL DO NOTHING — provide NO protections, NO assistance in filing a grievance, or any help seeking a remedy (i.e. and amicus brief in any lawsuit) … NO NOTHING, brother — FOR ANY STUDENTS WHO ARE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST BY THOSE IN CHARGE OF CHARTER OR VOUCHER-FUNDED PRIVATE SCHOOLS THAT RECEIVE GOVERNMENT FUNDING. (again, this is discrimination based on race, ethnicity, religion, special ed disability, sexual preference, gender identity, etc.)
Watch this exchange here between Secretary Devos and Congresswoman Katherine Clark (MA-05):.
Secretary Devos is essentially sending a message to those in charge of those government-funded schools — charter schools, voucher-funded private schools, etc.
“Discriminate against any and all students, based on whatever criteria tbat you see fit, and do so to your heart’s content, and we at the U.S. Department of Ed. will back you all the way.
“What’s that? You say don’t want any blacks at your school? Just feel free to tell any who try to get in, ‘We don’t accept blacks here,’ and if and when those against whom you are discriminating try to fight back, the U.S. Department of Ed. and the Federal Government will just sit back, stay out of it, and do nothing to assist those against whom you are discriminating. We at the U.S. Department of Ed. are givin’ you The Green Light to go ahead with all this.”
“That same Green Light goes DITTO for any other group. race, ethnicity, religion, sexual preference, gender identity, etc.”
Question: why isn’t this on the cover of every newspaper in the country, the lead story in the network news, etc?
I mean, Sweet Jesus, the nation’s top Education official has — when it comes to schools getting government funding, such as charter schools and voucher-funded private schools — just announced the de facto reversal of Brown vs. Board of Education, and a century-and-a-half of anti-discrimination civil rights laws and activism.
Watch it again:
The Congresswoman is asking Devos if there’s any instance of discrimination that would merit the U..S Department stepping in to assist students who are victims of discrimination, and Devos, in effect, replies, “No, never. We ain’t doin’ jack for them.”
Secretary Devos’ logic is basically that “Choice trumps everything”, and by that, she means that a black-free school, or a LGBT-free school should be a “choice” that all parents should have, and that taxpayers’ money should be provided to those parents and to those schools to assist in exercising that choice.
Furthermore, Devos argues that anything that prevents such schools from having free reign to discriminate against certain students — i.e. a government compulsion to accept blacks, or Hispanics, or gays, or Special Ed. kids,or whomever, through, for example, a threatened loss of funding or vouchers — would also simultaneously deprive parents of that no-blacks-allowed, no-whomever-allowed school “choice” and again, “Choice trumps all.”
This confirms people’s worst fears about Trump — that yes, he is indeed working hand-in-hand with racist elements in the population, or with people who wish to discriminate against anyone for any reason whatsoever — and get taxpayers’ money to fund and carry out such discrimination.
DeVos, like most of Trump’s cabinet people, knows nothing of her departments and has been programmed to respond to all questions with the bromide, “States / parents / communities should have the right to choose …” This gets them to admit that they know nothing at times and to contradict federal law at other times but they are talking only to Trump’s base, who know even less and who only want to hear the bromides and buzz words: states rights, “choice,” parents, no federal government.
Well put
Sad news flash on unrelated topic: in Montana, Rob Quist just gave a concession speech. Greg Gianforte, whose support of public schools is in question and who recently body slammed a Guardian reporter, will be our next–and only–U.S. representative.
I was dismayed to read that Gianforte was elected. What does a far right politician have to do to these days to not get elected? [Body slamming a reporter doesn’t matter?]
Apparently respect and statesmanship have disappeared. Trump is the leader in that department.
What is wrong with voters?
Trump’s rudeness was filmed and shown on BBC.
………….
Trump pushes past Montenegro’s PM
US President Donald Trump has given Nato leaders a dressing down over not paying enough into the military alliance.
Ahead of his speech in Brussels, he was filmed apparently pushing the Montenegrin prime minister aside.
25 May
From the section US & Canada
Video: Shared from BBC News:
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-40050926/trump-pushes-past-montenegro-s-pm
I read that at least half of the votes had already been cast when the body-slamming incident took place. For sure, many of the far rights voters never read or heard about the incident because they only turn to the misleading, hate filled, Alt-Right media that only publishes lies and conspiracy theories as if they were real.
Indiana congress people (red state) recognize that there is a teacher shortage. Instead of accepting responsibility for the shortage (poor salary, bad working conditions, over standardized testing, underfunding of schools, etc.), they go for this approach: offering scholarships for anyone in high school who will teach in Indiana schools for five years.
This message just came in from Senator Niemeyer:
Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarships Awarded
The Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship recipients have been selected following a competitive selection process based on academic achievement, teacher nomination and an in-person interview.
Created by the Indiana General Assembly in 2016, the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship program establishes 200 scholarships that pay up to $7,500 annually for top-performing students who commit to teaching in Indiana for five years after their college graduation.
A total of 642 students applied for the scholarship with applications coming from 274 high schools in 85 of Indiana’s 92 counties.
Kentucky has a program, where individuals with a 4-year degree, can get a LOAN to attend graduate school. The condition is that the participants have to accept a teaching assignment in a school of the state’s choice, for a minimum of three years. If the participant serves the three years, then the loan is forgiven. If the participant fails to complete the three years, then the loan must be re-paid (It is pro-rated. )
My sister got one of the loans, and served the conditions.