“The Demolition of American Education,” By Trump and DeVos

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1. Devos KIcked OUt of Detroit says:

   June 6, 2017 at 9:11 am

   Interesting to note and amazingly so, in Detroit and surrounding areas throughout the state of Michigan most people and politicians are glad that Devos is out of the way as quotes such as thank God Devos is now in Washington, DC!! Imagine, the entire state is soooo happy to rid Devos out of the state and out of decision making regarding education. So now we all here who are left in the rest of the country can now have the Devos bull crap in that I know everything because I am wealthy….aka…mike bloomberg, donald trump, etc…Get the point?

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2. Yvonne Siu-Runyan says:

   June 6, 2017 at 9:31 am

   Thank you, Diane.

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3. GregB says:

   June 6, 2017 at 9:35 am

   What’s better than excellent? That final paragraph will become an important part of my personal stump speech…with attribution, of course.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     June 6, 2017 at 10:43 am

     Thank you, Greg!

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4. retired teacher says:

   June 6, 2017 at 10:00 am

   If Trump and DeVos were committed to academic improvement, charters and vouchers would be on his chopping block along with several other more worthy efforts such as after school programs. Charters and vouchers have failed to deliver. Their actual objective is privatization and the mass transfer of public taxpayer funds into private hands, all to the detriment of the middle income and poor. Choice is a red herring of ideological baloney. Trump and DeVos’ goal is privatization, union busting and redistribution of tax dollars to the wealthy from the middle and working class.

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5. Laura H. Chapman says:

   June 6, 2017 at 10:12 am

   Now on C-Span, Devos is to discuss the budget. Patty Murry is really takingon DeVos.

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   • Catherine Blanche King says:

     June 6, 2017 at 11:37 am

     Thanks, Laura.

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   • retired teacher says:

     June 6, 2017 at 12:30 pm

     I’ve been watching the hearing. DeVos just stated than any school that receives federal funding will have to abide by federal law. She evaded any attempts to further define her comment. She parroted that same response repeatedly. I wonder if they are looking to change IDEA.

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     • Catherine Blanche King says:

       June 6, 2017 at 1:07 pm

       retired teacher: Yes, her canned answer avoided the question of whether charters would ACCEPT any voucher from any student, like public schools must accept students, and then the hidden question: would they keep the voucher and then find ways to get the student to leave or just expel the student outright.

       DeVos is a perfect example of what happens when you are talking to a disingenuous ideologically-saturated person. It’s like playing whack-a-mole with meaning. Every response evades or infers a different meaning than the person asking the question actually means.

       When the fox is in the chicken house, you need a guard for each and every chicken.

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     • dianeravitch says:

       June 6, 2017 at 1:41 pm

       She has appointed a person as acting head of civil rights who doesn’t believe in civil rights.

       Watch for forked tongue

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     • Laura H. Chapman says:

       June 7, 2017 at 8:32 am

       I think the answer DeVos gave on a school’s receipt of federal money means “the school must comply with federal law was doublespeak.”
       If money flows to parents for choice, it is decoupled from the federal and state architecture and laws. I believe this was the finding in one of the first voucher cases in Cleveland Ohio. In that case, 98% of the vouchers were used to enroll students in Catholic schools.

       I did not hear anyone press Devos on this matter. Her questioners seemed to assume that federal money would flow directly to a school and therefore would oblige the school to follow federal law.

       When money. follows the child, it is not just federal funds. Parents can spend their choice money on almost anything marketed to them as educational. Whether there are ” approved” products and services seems to be up to the states and districts who pass along the pot of money.

       I think that a strictly ” federal” voucher would require compliance with federal and a lot of staff to push money out of USDE. I do not see evidence of that in the budget.

       Also note that Devos kept referring to another budget. In effect the budget she was being grilled about was not necessarily the one that would be acted upon. Will there be another hearing? Who knows.

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6. Gordon Wilder says:

   June 6, 2017 at 12:04 pm

   Again, I wonder how many teachers who were so disgruntled that Bernie was not on the ticket that they would not vote for Hillary, how they feel now.
   The whole Trump era is one of devastation. The environment, education, – where do I stop. An embarrassment to the U. S. A tragedy for everyone.
   BUT
   it was known that he was a liar, a cheat, a bully, ad nauseum before he was elected. He promised jobs, promised being the operative word, so our heritage was sold for a “MESS” of pottage.

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   • dianeravitch says:

     June 6, 2017 at 12:22 pm

     The big leaking story today was that a government contractor leaked information to The Intercept about Russian hacking of election machines in states.

     Maybe Trump was not elected at all.

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     • homelesseducator says:

       June 6, 2017 at 2:15 pm

       Right, Diane. This seems to be really HUGE!

       Here is the paper that was leaked, with some redacting: https://theintercept.com/2017/06/05/top-secret-nsa-report-details-russian-hacking-effort-days-before-2016-election/

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     • Catherine Blanche King says:

       June 6, 2017 at 2:18 pm

       Diane and all: Just out from EdWeek about the hearings this morning with DeVos:

       http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2017/06/betsy_devos_senate_budget_committee_spending_vouchers.html?cmp=soceml-twfdbltz-ewnow

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7. Mary DeFalco says:

   June 6, 2017 at 5:23 pm

   We have a problem for sure but what is the biggest problem?

   “Long Island High School Students Participate In Scavenger Hunt With Illegal Activities” – headlines of our local paper. The Scavenger Hunt required breaking many laws -physically abusing themselves and others, robbing, and performing sex acts. So appauling!!!!!!!! These are the type of kids who try to get into college. Just this past week we were told of the graduates that were accepted into Harvard but right after the acceptance letter was sent out, Harvard had to rescind because of such depraved minds.

   In the same time span we hear these headline:

   “Harvard Rescinds Acceptances for At Least Ten Students for Obscene Memes”

   “Harvard College rescinded admissions offers to at least ten prospective members of the Class of 2021 after the students traded sexually explicit memes and messages that sometimes targeted minority groups in a private Facebook group chat.”

   “In the group, students sent each other memes and other images mocking sexual assault, the Holocaust, and the deaths of children, according to screenshots of the chat obtained by The Crimson. Some of the messages joked that abusing children was sexually arousing, while others had punch lines directed at specific ethnic or racial groups. One called the hypothetical hanging of a Mexican child “piñata time.”

   What parent want their child to be associated with such depraved kids? Parents who don’t want their children to be exposed to such depravity, spend a good sum of money to have their children taught the basics of morality and values. Parents should have a right to send their children to a safe environment and not have to pay double to do so. Teaching values in schools is important and the Catholic schools are a good example of teaching values and morality.

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   • NYC public school parent says:

     June 7, 2017 at 1:55 am

     For all you know every single Harvard applicant whose admission was rescinded was educated at a private or parochial school. Your certainty that there is some special morality and values taught at Catholic schools should have ended after all the Boston Catholic priests scandals.

     http://www.cbsnews.com/news/sexual-abuse-scandal-rocks-long-island-catholic-school/

     https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/a-new-sex-abuse-scandal-in-the-spotlight/2016/04/01/4a1747fa-f76e-11e5-8b23-538270a1ca31_story.html?utm_term=.9dcc061a140d

     People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. There are people without values in public and parochial schools. And students learn good values at all schools, too.

     But your innuendo that the kids with bad values are from public schools and not parochial or private schools is outrageous and an insult to public school parents. And the articles above should tell you how offensive your comments are.

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     • Mary DeFalco says:

       June 7, 2017 at 10:24 pm

       “Your innuendo that the kids with bad values are from public schools and not parochial or private schools is outrageous and an insult to public school parents. And the articles above should tell you how offensive your comments are…”

       Your are missing the point. I am not indicting public schools which you are misreading. LI has some of the best schools in the nation staffed with phenomenal teachers. It is not the teachers fault that there are depraved students in the school. But that does not negate the fact that we have some depraved kids on LI.

       It is public knowledge the some seniors have Senior Scaverger Hunts which require illegal and immoral activities. The latest in Farmingdale was most appalling.

       Headline: “Long Island High School Students Participate In Scavenger Hunt With”
       https://patch.com/new-york/farmingdale/farmingdale-high-school-students-participate-scavenger-hunt-illegal-activities

       e.g.”Participants then received points for doing things such as “break a windshield,” “knock on someone’s door naked” and “take 5 shots in 10 seconds.”
       The list includes unsavory, unsafe and illegal activities.
       Another:

       Headline: “Scavenger Hunt List for High School Shocks Community”
       https://patch.com/new-york/sachem/sachem-east-senior-scavenger-hunt-list-shocks-community-0
       The list includes unsavory, unsafe and illegal activities.

       Then there are the gangs:
       MS-13 Gang Members Arrested In Connection With Brentwood Teen Murders
       http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2017/03/02/brentwood-teen-murder-arrest/

       Who is to blame for such depraved actions? For sure not the teachers. So back to my initial statement: Parents should have a right to send their children to a safe environment and taught the basics of morality and values which the parents hold and not have to pay double to do so.

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   • Linda says:

     June 7, 2017 at 8:31 am

     Wherever selectivity in social contact is involved, by wealth, religion, race,… the seeds of the destruction of democracy are sown.

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