We know that Trump likes to get away to the golf course every weekend, preferably at one of his own resorts. He is not used to working long days, every day.
Neither does Betsy DeVos. Probably, when people are so rich that money is never an issue, they fail to develop the habits and grit needed to put in a full day’s work, every day.
Matthew Chapman, a video game designer and science fiction writer from Texas, discovered that Betsy doesn’t like to work very hard. It is just not her thing.
He writes:
“In her short tenure of office, DeVos has dismantled protections for campus rape survivors, rolled back support for students with disabilities, and gutted relief programs for victims of for-profit student loan scams.
“However, while not rolling back important civil rights policies, it seems that what DeVos enjoys doing most in her day-to-day duties is … absolutely nothing.
“A FOIA request and subsequent report by the watchdog group American Oversight, aptly titled “Unexcused Absences,” revealed some startling numbers on how often DeVos simply doesn’t show up for work:
An analysis by American Oversight found that during that period — which stretches from February 8th to July 19th — DeVos only completed a full day of work 67% of the time.
“The report found that over those five and a half months, DeVos took 15 days off, 21 half days off, and 11 long weekends — during a time period that included 113 federally mandated work days.”
What kind of a message is DeVos sending to students and teachers? A large part of the job is showing up. Although considering what she does when she shows up, maybe she should stay home more often.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Your last sentence says it all, Diane.
Let her stay home every single day before she does any more damage to education.
She should stay home every day. Fewer debacles. She should let her million dollar, publicly funded security detail do something useful with her time off. She should also stay off Twitter. Fewer errors.
She should resign and then stay home.
You know what the uber rich, like Trump and DeVos, do to “earn” their wealth?
Nothing.
How dare you?
They earned their wealth the old-fashioned way: they inherited it, and since life is about making good choices, they should be commended, and further rewarded for choosing such wealthy parents.
If only poor children had the same self-discipline and good judgement in choosing their parents…
Darn! I choose poor parents. Next time around I’ll make myself do better. (Hope you made a good choice.)
It’s easy to become rich as rich can be. Just get high scores on standardized tests two years in a row, and your financial trajectory is set in stone as a straight line. For the rest of your life. Totally awesome.
Just imagine how well Trump would do on a standardized test!! That would prove your theory to be correct. He would do ‘totally awesome’. He’s honing his reading scores by watching Fox.
According to some, that’s no different than honing reading scores reading Mother Jones. Is there much of a difference between propaganda designed to get us to vote for right wing Republicans and those that is designed to get us to vote for right wing neoliberals who call themselves democrats?
It looks like the next atrocity (after getting rid of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security) is working to gut teacher pensions and switch to 401 (k) plans. Since our salaries are not good, I see this as a route to poverty forever.
……………………………….
Teacher pensions—the most important tool for keeping and retaining good teachers
…Attacks on teacher pensions may not rank with global warming or mass shootings on the list of things keeping us awake at night, but they deserve way more attention than they get. Teacher pensions are the single most important tool for recruiting and retaining good teachers, and good teachers are the key to our future in a knowledge economy. Yet Aldeman is trying to mislead people into supporting Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin and others around the country who want to switch teachers to 401(k)-style plans.
Aldeman claims that “most teachers get a bad deal from teacher pensions.” Though my research, and earlier research from UC Berkeley, showed that the vast majority of teachers are well-served by their pensions, this recycled claim appears impervious to counter-evidence. As long as a billionaire with an agenda keeps funding the research, we’ll continue see elaborate variations on the same theme, all of which rely on the same statistical sleight-of-hand.
http://www.epi.org/blog/teacher-pensions-the-most-important-tool-for-keeping-and-retaining-good-teachers/
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If you haven’t it’s well worth reading – or listening to – Jennifer Berkshire’s interview with Gordon Lafer (who presented at an NPE workshop during the Oakland conference). Lafer makes the point that going after teachers and their benefits serve two goals: destroying public unions, which tend to lean Democratic and lowering expectations overall for all workers.
https://www.salon.com/2017/11/18/why-are-corporations-undermining-public-education_partner/
Betsy needs her rest for the next assualt.
It’s in keeping with her contempt for education.
Minor correction:
“It’s in keeping with her contempt for PUBLIC education.”
She loves herself some private xtian fundie “education” (sic).
Just wondering — what do you expect her to do. If she spent more time working she’d make more changes. Just as Congress makes more laws. Do you realize that there are somewhere around 3 million federal laws and counting? Congress was supposed to be a part time job. I am not sure about Cabinet officials. She as given at least 4 speeches around the country. I am not justifying lack of work hours. Secretary of Education should not exist. So, the less she does the more I like it.
How many hours do other Cabinet people put in and from other administrations?
Why should The Secretary of Education not exist?
Because it should be done at the state level. Why would one send money to the feds, they do nothing except to tell you what to do and send back a little bit of that money. Duplicate government department that does nothing but waste taxpayer money on a large scale.
Schiltz3,
I worked in the first Bush administration as Assistant Secretary of Educarion in Charge of The Office of Education Research and Improvement. I never took time off. I worked five days a week. I was at my desk at 9 am and usually worked past 5. When I had evening events, I worked until 7,I, or 9, whatever was required. I was not paid overtime. I never took a three-day weekend.
I would say the same thing was true of e erroneous I knew in Government.
This whole corrupt POS administration is all alike. And congress and the Feds are doing nothing to stop the rape of the country.
Isn’t she supposed to be a big Dutch Calvinist?
So much for the Protestant Work Ethic….
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Education.
She should just go back to Michigan. I hear there are still some public schools there that are actually functioning. Her work of destroying them is not complete. Go home, Betsy.