Delve into the mind of Betsy DeVos.
She is the first Secretary of Education ever to address the American Legislative Exchange Council, the secretive far-right organization funded by the Koch brothers, the DeVos family, and major corporations, with the intent of getting rid of unions, standards for teachers, environmental regulations, and anything that gets in the way of corporations.
Here is the speech she delivered today, released by the U.S. Department of Education.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Wow. She isn’t fooling around. That’s a really hostile speech.
What sticks out for me is what always sticks out in ed reform- she pretends public schools don’t exist.
I think that’s a problem because 90% of kids attend the schools she demeans and denigrates.
Oh, well. As she has said those schools are “dead ends” anyway. No reason for anyone on the public payroll in DC to bother with them.
It’s funny how ed reformers always bash public schools as “from the 1800’s”
When do they think the religious schools they prefer started? 2015? We actually had a privatized system of schools BEFORE we had public schools. If anyone is going back to the 1800s it’s the anti-public school chorus in DC.
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Not one positive idea or plan or offer of support to the public schools 90% of US children attend. She offers absolutely nothing to 90% of students and families.
From the US Department of Education! A whole federal agency that somehow has decided their “mission” excludes 90% of children and families.
Ridiculous.
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Unfortunately Democrats are just as bad. They won very, very few state races the last 8 years. The two governor’s races they DID win centered on public education- Louisiana and Pennsylvania. Since the vast majority of children attend PUBLIC schools both governors (understandably) SUPPORT public schools.
They learned nothing from this- they’re pushing the same old privatization agenda they pushed the last decade when they lost and lost and lost.
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Could DeVos compile a list for public school parents on what exactly the thousands of federal employees in her employ have done for PUBLIC schools since January of this year?
I’ve heard plenty about charter and private schools. Maybe she could show her work on public schools.
Seems like someone should be working with the unfashionable public sector schools, considering they’re all paid by the public.
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Did the US Secretary of Education get applause from the lobbyists for this anti-public school diatribe she delivered?
This “movement” has gone completely off the rails. We somehow ended up with tens of thousands of public employees who are OPPOSED to 90% of US schools- the schools children actually attend.
They seem to support some theoretical system that doesn’t exist.
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After reading this speech – I am more enraged than ever at this “public servant.” She is a total sham masquerading as a “public servant” Chiara is right – she has nothing to offer our public schools – disgusting. To
say that her opponents care more about “the system” is an outright lie. I’m a proud 21 year public school teacher, and I won’t be accused of preferring a “system” to my precious students. Parents already have their “choice”
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Year not “treat” excuse me I’m on my phone is The Longacre Theatre waiting for A Bronx Tale to begin!
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She said exactly what I would expect a conservative to say: individual choice, make decisions as close to the level of those affected, get rid of regulations and red tape. I take that as a difference in philosophy, not necessarily an expression of hostility.
While I agree that regulations get excessive at times and that local people often know their needs better than those in a central government, we have also seen repeated examples of deregulation leading to fraud and financial crises, etc. We have also seen local control lead to racial segregation and discrimination.
I really hope that we can avoid hostility and debate honest differences with civility. Unfortunately the conservative media has rarely set a good example in this regards, especially exemplified by the constant attacks emanating from people like Limbaugh and Hannity.
That does not mean that we have to stoop to that level, though I am perfectly aware that there are many unscrupulous people out there who will try to take advantage of civility.
The other day I tried to react to Diane’s post about uncredentialed teachers in charter schools, and my short comment was immediately assumed by a reader to be prompted by hidden hedge fund support!!! When I explained my true situation as a retired teacher, there was no apology or follow-up comments to the additional important points that I tried to make regarding the black community and their debate about charter schools.
I am concerned at times, when I read this blog and continue to refer concerned parents who read my education blog to articles here, that these parents will be turned off by the highly partisan comments and almost preordained consensus.
I continue to have faith in the majority of the American public to make the right decision if they are presented with a reasonable, civil argument. One might disagree given the frightful results of the last election, but I attribute that outcome much more to Clinton’s unsavory series of mistakes regarding hiding her emails on a private server and giving high-priced speeches to Wall Street firms than to stupidity. Too many people reacted out of complete, but understandable, frustration to kick the status quo in the teeth after being repeatedly ignored and disadvantaged by a system from which politicians and corporations profited. The only other option offered was unfortunately worse, but I think many people felt that the mule had to be kicked in the head to get its attention. And, no, I did not vote for Trump. I voted for Clinton.
I suggest that it might help if we all acknowledged our weaknesses and tried to engage in an honest search for solutions to our many pressing problems. As I said elsewhere, I agree with Diane’s criticism’s of charters, and realize that opening the door a crack allows in a dangerous flood that the right wing will make every effort to exploit. At the same time these charter options did not always develop solely from greed and attempts by billionaires and corporations to demolish teachers’ unions.
If we honestly attempt to address the problems that parents have with public schools,
(see, for example, my articles at http://www.kristutoring.com/08_Never_Believe_Educational_Experts_or_Me.pdf and http://www.kristutoring.com/15_Why_Can_t_We_Teach_Mathematics_Properly.pdf )
I believe we will go a long way towards undermining the rationale behind this entire charter movement.
But then, I remain a naive optimist…
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David,
Thanks for your comments. I try to keep the tone civil. Some readers, parents and educators, are very angry about the attacks directed at their public schools. It started under Obama and has intensified to a crisis point under DeVos. Surely you can understand their frustration. This is one of the few places where they can safely vent it and find support.
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Yes, I understand the need for a place to vent. In my area parents are also supportive of public schools, but the issues that I described in my two links above are burning problems around here on the SF peninsula. Just the other day I had a mother talk to me almost in tears because her son fell victim to the local math curriculum experiment described in the second link. He now requires a couple hundred hours of tutoring (not through me) to try to catch up, something the mother can not afford due to their personal situation. These are children from upper middle class families with no poverty excuses, etc. These are the people who pay taxes to support our schools but failed to pass the latest elementary school bond issue by a narrow margin. I suggest that we ignore those concerns at our peril, but if we address them, we can undermine some of the support for public school alternatives.
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I can’t wait for Peter Greene’s analysis of this speech, but until then, here’s some interesting tidbits:
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BETSY DEVOS: “Through (ALEC’s) leadership, your respective states have truly become the laboratories of democracy our Founders intended. Thank you for putting their vision into practice.”
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Yeah let’s go back to the late 1700’s … “We really need our nation’s schools to be run by privately-managed, money-motivated business with no governmental oversight, or preferably no regulation whatsoever, where they will have carte blanche to steal and embezzle and line their pockets with public money.”
SAID NO FOUNDING FATHER EVER.
In fact, here’s what Founder Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to James Madison, another founder:
“The property of this country is absolutely concentrated in a very few hands, having revenues of from half a million of guineas a year downwards. These employ the flower of the country as servants, some of them having as many as 200 domestics, not laboring.
… the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children, or to all the brothers and sisters, or other relations in equal degree, is a politic measure and a practicable one.”
That’s not very ALEC-friendly rhetoric.
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BETSY DEVOS: “Parents have seen that defenders of the status quo don’t have their kids’ interests at heart.”
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That’s right.
A bunch of money-motivated billionaires and millionaires out to privatize public schools, and profit from that privatization supposedly care more about the education and well-being of children that the the teachers who are in the classroom several hours a day, every ding-dong day of the school year.
UTLA’s Randy Child’s put it best, “These (defenders of the status quo) allegations come straight from Bizarro World, where the richest and most powerful people in the U.S. are cast as a plucky band of selfless rebels fighting for the civil rights of poor children of color, while dedicated and overworked teachers who can’t afford a house or pay for their children’s college tuition are imagined to be the greedy overlords of the old order.”
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BETSY DEVOS: “I was reminded of something another secretary of education once said. Her name was Margaret. No, not Spellings – Thatcher. Lady Thatcher regretted that too many seem to blame all their problems on ‘society.’ But, ‘Who is society?’ she asked. ‘There is no such thing! There are individual men and women and there are families” – families, she said – “and no government can do anything except through people and people look to themselves first.’ ”
“The Iron Lady was right then, and she’s still right today!”
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That’s right. It’s every man(woman) for himself (herself.) It’s really easy to say that when you’re both born into a billionaire family, and then marry in to a different billionaire family.
Finland has the highest achieving school system on Planet Earth, and they do everything the exact opposite of what Devos recommends, and bases its system on the philosophical and political principles that are he diametric opposite of Devos’ / ALEC’s.
If, according to Devos and Maggie Thatcher, that’s such a wrong approach, why are the Finn’s doing so well?
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BETSY DEVOS: “This isn’t about school ‘systems.’ This is about individual students, parents, and families. Schools are at the service of students, not the other way around.”
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Yeah, that’s what public school teachers AND administrators think and say all the time:
“The students are here to service US the teachers and administrators, not the other way around,”
… SAID NO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER OR ADMINISTRATOR EVER.
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BETSY DEVOS: *”There are those who defend a system that by every account is failing too many kids…”
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Nope, nope, nope. Nope-ity nope, it’s not. When you break out data for the middle and upper classes, the U.S. system ranks at the top of the list.
“… by every account … ” Really, which “accounts” are you referring to.
All the polls indicate that parents’ satisfaction with their own individual children’s public schools is sky high.
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BETSY DEVOS: ” … there are those who know justice demands we give every parent the right to an equal opportunity to access the quality education that best fits their child’s unique, individual needs.”
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This is from a woman who backs the rights of charter schools and voucher-funded private schools to discriminate against, and bar from entry — or kick out AFTER entry — special ed children, second language learners, or whatever group is too costly and bothersome to educate, and will negatively impact the bottom line, whenever those school operators see fit.
Again, it’s every man for himself.
Indeed, as a condition of participating in her proposed voucher program, parents have to waive their rights to sue the charter or voucher-funded school if those operators later on fail to provide legally mandated services, and/or kick out those parents’ children.
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BETSY DEVOS: “That, of course, doesn’t always sit well with defenders of the status quo. But despite the teachers unions’ not-so-veiled threats and millions of dollars, can anybody name a single legislator who has lost a seat for voting to support parents and students?”
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That’s what they call a “loaded question”, in this case one where the premise is false. Their definition of “voting to support parents and students” is actually “voting to privatize and advance the interests of money-motivated privatizers.” When fully informed about this, there have been many occasions when voters threw out such people.
Just take a 30-minute drive from where Devos is giving her speech — to JeffCo (Jefferson County) Colorado — to see where this kicking out of corporate reformers is exactly what happened.
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BETSY DEVOS: “Without Congressional action or authorization, the last administration rushed a new Borrower Defense to Repayment rule into effect and put taxpayers on the hook for an estimated cost of up to 17 billion dollars. While students should have protection from predatory practices, schools should also be treated fairly.”
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No, no, no. The first part of that last sentence is a bald-faced lie. She’s offering ZERO — repeat — ZERO protection for students, and giving predatory schools free reign to prey upon those students.
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BETSY DEVOS: “We’ve pushed the pause button on both of these poorly written regulations. While they might have been well intentioned, they would cause more harm than good. Most importantly, they would fail to serve students, institutions and taxpayers well.”
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So all 19 of those attorneys general suing Devos and the U.S. Dept of Ed. over these actions are wrong, but Devos and her ALEC allies are right?
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BETSY DEVOS: “Our work will not be done until every child in America – every single child – has an equal opportunity to a world-class education. The rising generation is 100 percent of our future, so they deserve nothing less than 100 percent of our effort.”
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You can’t celebrate Maggie Thatcher’s every man for himself, dog-eat-dog, rat-eat-rat Survival of the Fittest political philosophy at the beginning of your speech, and then, at the end of that same speech, state that you’re goal is to make it so that “every child in America – every single child – has an equal opportunity to a world-class education.”
The former directly contradicts and is opposed by the latter. If there are gong to be X number of winners, that means that there are also going to be approximately the same X number of losers. Setting “dog eat dog” up as your political ideal is most definitely NOT consistent with the goal or an aspiration that “every” child must be provided for. Indeed, that is exactly the type of call for a collective well-being of the “society” as a whole that Devoss earlier pro-Thatcher statements condemned… the same “society” that Betsy and Maggie claim does not exist. There’s no such thing as society, just individuals.
Again, Finland is the tops in the world, AND THEIR POLITICAL AND EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY IS THE POLAR OPPOSITE OF THIS AYN RAND-IAN FOLLY. Shouldn’t there schools be dead last and total failure, if what Devos and ALEC claim to be true is true.
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Us Department of Education devotes themselves full-time to working to promote charters and vouchers with marketing of ALEC’s anti-public school agenda:
Back in reality-land, 90% of US students attend the public schools this federal agency opposes.
Do they know the kids are still IN the public schools they’re working to eradicate?
Maybe they should wait until our schools are “phased out” before attacking them?
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Attacks serve to expedite the phase out.
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“The Mind of Betsy DeVos”
Betsy’s mind’s expanding
Like interstellar space
Our current understanding
Of vacuum is the base
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It is clear from DeVos’ speech she does not understand the scope of the job. Not only is she untrained, she is wearing blinders so she is unable to see an value in public education. All she has to offer is her bias, and she is unfit to represent the interests of millions of public school students.
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Obviously she’s not interested in educating the masses. That’s just a smokescreen – keeping people ignorant except for her propaganda allows her more power. Allows rich people to control unquestioningly. So they can make more money and have more power. Makes me sick.
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Does she not realize that the complaints below are NOT the fault of principals, districts, and the supposedly 3-eyed monster teachers unions, but solely the result of “reform” policies from state governments?
DEVOS:Teachers are on the front lines, and they know how to best meet the needs of their students. Yet too often, their voices aren’t heard. Last week, I met with a number of teachers who no longer teach. I wanted to understand why they aren’t doing what they all professed to really love doing – teach. I heard from Matt, who was berated for not being on page 72 of the lesson plan along with everyone else, on a certain day on the calendar. And I heard from Jed, who was told to “keep it down” because his class was “too energetic” and “having too much fun.”
These talented ex-teachers expressed frustration that they weren’t entrusted with more responsibility, honored with more flexibility, and weren’t respected as professionals who know their students and what each of them needed to learn and achieve. Their “system” mandated that teachers follow the same written and unwritten rules, rather than do what is right for students.
I come back to the same simple philosophy: those closest to the students know best.
Parents know best what learning environment is right for their child. And teachers know best how kids will succeed in their classroom. But the bottom line is that neither our parents nor teachers are empowered.
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I read DeVoodoo’s speech and now I have to find a “bucket” to puke.
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