Valerie Strauss reviews Betsy DeVos’s cringeworthy appearance on 60 Minutes.
She clearly has strong opinions but lacks knowledge, the same vacuousness she demonstrated at her embarrassing confirmation hearings.
Most striking is when Leslie Stahl asks if she ever has visited a low performing school to find out what’s going wrong, and DeVos admits that she has not.
The bottom line is that has no interest in helping struggling schools, just urging flight.
As the saying goes, you wouldn’t want to be in a foxhole with her. She would be the first to flee and abandon you.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
She doesn’t care because she just wants to direct all dollars to religious schools.
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Do you have a source for this statement? I believe that the secretary has voiced support for other types of non-public schools, as well.
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The Secretary supports every kind of non-public school.
It is public schools that she loathes.
She has spent 30 years trying to get rid of public schools.
Judge her by her actions, not her words.
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This is just wacky:
“I hesitate to talk about all schools in general because schools are made up of individual students attending them.”
I understand that she follows a rigid ideological script but in a country where 90% of kids attend public schools and schools ARE systems it’s just crazy to continue to recite this.
She realizes that even if she gets her wish and all schools are privatized and everyone gets a 5000 dollar voucher schools in a given geographical area will still be “a system”, right? That is has to be a system with universal enrollment? That her dream of privatization will be a chaotic mess without some sense of what “system” means and how they operate?
It’s not just that she opposes public systems. She refuses to admit they exist.
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Someone should ask her to define “system”.
Here’s the definition:
sys·tem
ˈsistəm/Submit
noun
1.
a set of connected things or parts forming a complex whole, in particular.
Betsy DeVos doesn’t believe this concept exists. I mean, I’ve seen ideological capture but this is ridiculous. She’s thrown out entire broad concepts as violating the Rules Of Ed Reform.
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Does Betsy believe in our democratic “system” of government, or does she think it’s everyone for him/herself?
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She thinks that God’s law (her interpretation thereof, of course) should reign supreme. God gives to the deserving and takes away from the undeserving. What does democracy have to do with it when God (her God) is in charge?
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And she thinks that she is her god’s top-ranked spokesperson in the universe.
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Charters, particularly the chains, are systems. Even private schools represent a particular philosophy or system. Our democratic republic is also a system. Systems at their best promote efficiency and provide some level of expectation to stakeholders. DeVos is a like a Chatty Cathy doll. Pull the string, and the prerecorded message babbles on. Individuals on their own doing the own thing without regard to others is called anarchy.
The common good is an investment we all make to create a better future for all. Billionaires have no need for the common good, and common people have no need for people like DeVos.
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Her brother wants (or wanted) to replace the U.S. military in Afghanistan with his own mercenary army with no rules of engagement or oversight. If that happened, we’d witness the end of international treaties on the laws of war.
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Before Betsy’s “dream” of privatizing all of our schools with bull crap vouchers and charters, private and the like,,,good ole Ms. Betsy will be long gone and long forgotten. Here in NYC we had someone very similar in Ms. Kathy Black – NYC chancellor who lasted a few months because all of her appearance similar to Ms. Devos’s appearance were a constant joke.
Sorry Ms. Devos, is there something else you can do with your time? Playing with the future of this countries youth is surely not what God had in store for you. Maybe you can work on some good ideas for your home state of Michigan as this state has become the face of school reform and vouchers however the entire states students now rank near the bottom of all students in the US!!! Cannot make it up people.
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This is for retired teacher. Devos is like the Betsy Wetsy doll of my childhood. Feed it and it always peed, blank eyes and one plasticized facial expression, eyes closed or eyes open staring into space.
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Maybe if she knocked off the Botox we could get some facial clues
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Nah…I was thinking it was her tea party face. A lady never shows strong emotion!
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“Betsy DeVos
Verified account
@BetsyDeVosED
Follow Follow @BetsyDeVosED
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I love great public schools, and l love great teachers. Public schools will always be a critical part of the mix in American education. I don’t care where you go to school, as long as where you go to school works for you. ”
Baloney. Read any of her speeches. She doesn’t just bash public schools. She bashes public school students. She portrays them all as low achieving violent thugs and bullies.
Every single one of her well-worn anecdotes promoting charters and vouchers portray a “good” student escaping from a public school to a charter or private school. The reason they’re leaving is always that the school is “dangerous”.
This is deliberate. She’s willing to smear every public school kid in the country to promote her ideology. She’s a political operative. That’s all she was in Michigan and it’s all she does in DC.
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DeVos is a terrible, awful, no good Secretary of Education. So, was Arne Duncan–only way more articulate. We’ve had bipartisan awfulness. To Republicans there is nothing for which the free market is not the answer. For Democrats it’s not so clear. How about a clear comment to democracy and the common good for starters. That means ending funding inequity. That means no more funding for charter schools and vouchers. That means no more mayoral control. That means funding learning instead of over-testing for punishment and humiliation. That means giving educators a voice in their own professional practice.
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Duncan articulate?
I will never forget when he visited a public school in NTC and said he wanted to be able to look into the eyes of second graders and know that they were on track for college or career. Unlike Betsy, he occasionally visited a public schools although he clearly preferred charter schools and thought they were miraculous.
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Here’s one of the Obama privatizers giving DeVos messenging tips:
“Peter Cunningham
Even in your wildest dreams, charters/private schools will serve just a sliver of kids. You need to over-message your commitment to all kids in traditional public schools instead of always talking about your choice agenda. Choice is only part of the solution. It’s about quality.”
They don’t object to her ideology. They object to the fact that she’s a lousy salesperson.
The trick is to pretend you support public schools so the dopes in the cheap seats will support you. DeVos won’t even pretend. That’s what ed reformers object to. Every time she opens her mouth she reveals the truth about “the movement”.
I actually prefer openly anti-public school ed reformers. It’s a more honest position.
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Well, point taken. Maybe…. DeVos’s transparent idiocy exposes, a bit more than Duncan’s craven use of terms terms like, “civil rights issue of our times,” to promote segregationalist and anti-union policies.
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Chiara,
Great catch! Peter Cunningham wants Betsy DeVos to be more palatable to the vast majority of affluent and middle class parents outside of urban areas who don’t like seeing Betsy DeVos telling them how bad their suburban publics school that they — in their ignorance — didn’t realize were as terrible as Cunningham and DeVos believe.
Peter Cunningham has often said that the charter leaders we should listen to — because her judgement is so keen and their knowledge of what is best for kids is never wrong — is Eva Moskowitz.
Moskowitz told us that Betsy DeVos HAD to be confirmed for the good of children everywhere. She stands by that and Peter Cunningham stands by Moskowitz.
That’s why Cunningham is desperate to give DeVos some propaganda tips. Deep down, he understands that the people who pay his overpaid salary like what she does just as much as Eva Moskowitz likes what DeVos does. And Peter’s job is to make sure that DeVos and her biggest cheerleaders seem like something other than what their own public statements make clear what they are.
It must be pretty embarrassing for Cunningham that he is relegated to defending both Betsy DeVos and her biggest cheerleaders in the charter industry because he insists that anyone who would endorse DeVos must be doing it “for the kids” just like DeVos is. They are just getting bad press. Cunningham still believes with all his heart that DeVo just needs better PR. No doubt that if someone offers enough money, Cunningham will happily provide it to her.
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Sad but true. Corey Booker gave a speech at Betsy DeVos’ lobbying outfit in 2016 where he parroted the DeVos/Bush ed reform mantra line by line.
DeVos is ed reform. There isn’t a dime’s worth of difference between them. They’re slightly better marketers than she is but it’s the same stuff.
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“Articulate Arne”
If Duncan was articulate
Then black is clearly white
And waves are quite particulate
And day is really night
And taking tests is really fun
And moms are not distressed
To learn about their stupid son
Who failed the Common test
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It’s not knowledge Betsy lacks. It’s a worldview compatible with that of the majority of Americans. Read Peter Greene’s current article about her. Her “lack of knowledge” is just a lack of “being of this world” as Peter puts it because this world is not her world. Her world is “God’s world” and she cannot stoop from that world to comprehend the needs of this world. As the Blues Brothers would say, she’s on a mission from God.
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LIKE! & YEP!
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It’s really unfair that public school students don’t get a high profile advocate out of DC.
DeVos is a lousy advocate so in a way I’m glad she pretends public schools don’t exist, but we should have ONE for 50 million families.
People shouldn’t wonder why national politicians don’t do anything for public schools. They don’t do anything for public schools because we’re not even at the table. They’ve effectively disappeared 90% of families both in Congress and at the executive level.
There are about 45 million people on Medicare. They have political advocates. Why don’t 50 million public school families have a high profile advocate in DC? How did this happen?
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What amazes me about xtians like DeVos (no disrespect intended to actual Christians), is how little faith they have. I mean, if God wants free market education, doesn’t Devos think He could pull that off on His own? It’s astounding how much help this “God” needs from mere humans.
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Betsy’s a Puritan. God helpf thofe who help themfelvef.
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If Betsy DeVos was in a foxhole in combat, she should be the one afraid. In combat, the “friendly fire” gets rid of incompetent, know nothing idiots like her, because fools like her put everyone at risk. They get others killed.
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I didn’t see DeVos on the show, but read a report of her answers and found it horrifying to know that she is in charge of education.
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Look Trump/ DeVos are great. They have succeeded in getting the media to actually ask questions about reform . This morning I was pleasantly surprised to see Ali Velshi doing a critical piece on DeVos and privatization. Who knows by tonight you might find a few more. Maybe Rachel will interrupt Russia-gate for a few minutes to discus the failures of privatization . A discussion that was hardly allowed when Obama was in office.
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Joel,
Exactly right!
Betsy reveals the face behind the mask. Obama and Duncan were just a veneer. Betsy and Koch brothers are the real thing.
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I think Rachel is pro-charter.
(Let the attacks on Rachel’s character begin….)
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https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/03/many-democrats-would-agree-with-ideas-in-betsy-devos-60-minutes-clip.html?via=homepage_taps_top
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I kind of agree with Joel’s point above. Isn’t the gruesomely plastic surgeried reporter asking in that knowing way about “underperforming” schools (performing for whom?) just as loathsome, or more? can’t we get reporters to stop accepting testing as a measure of anything?
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“can’t we get reporters to stop accepting testing as a measure of anything?”
Can I get an amen?
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Whether you use testing or not as a metric is only one factor . The question is what the tests actually reveal . The correlation between zip codes and census bureau data on incomes should tell you all you need to know. In fact here is novel thought, skip the test and make reforms on the basis of income data . I would bet the results are pretty much the same and I bet the reforms don’t work.
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Teachers and students are supposed to perform like dancing bears and elephants at the circus, doncha know.
The underperforming ones are those where the teachers and students refuse to perform as expected.
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Who is this “gruesomely plastic surgeried reporter,” and what does that have to do with anything?
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Yes, I too was put off by the wording of Stahl’s questions. Pure edudeformer claptrap.
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I am waiting to see how long it will take her to start spouting off about arming teachers in those wicked, worthless public schools (her charters won’t need them since they are guided by God). Then she’ll be spouting off about training opps for armed teachers, with a thinly veiled plug for her brother’s latest Blackwater mercenary organization. Hammering away at public education, one large nail at a time…
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DeVos and Erik Prince. He leads a mercenary army. Does anyone believe that she will speak out against arming teachers?
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And the reward for suffering the arrows and slings of outrageous fortune on behalf of the orange-haired one?
This appears on YAHOO. Link: https://www.yahoo.com/news/devos-gets-cold-shoulder-white-house-interviews-222638667–politics.html
Title: DeVos gets cold shoulder from White House after interviews. It begins:
[start]
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos got a less than ringing endorsement from the White House on Monday after a pair of uncomfortable television interviews raised questions about her commitment to help underperforming schools and support for President Donald Trump’s proposal to curb school violence.
[end]
But leave it to Mr. Michael J Petrilli, the alpha and omega of the hard-headed business-minded thinking that animates the corporate reform crowd—the “magic of competition” will “lift all boats”—to come to her defense at the end of the article—
[start]
But Mike Petrilli, president of the conservative Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said the criticism was unfair and that the questions and the tone of the interview were tough. He added that he is not sure that DeVos’ predecessors in the Obama administration would have done a better job in a similar interview.
“She is facing the glare of the spotlight much more than they did and the press is much less friendly to her,” Petrilli said.
[end]
With a defense like that…
😎
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Here’s the blog I wrote after reading Valerie Strauss’s article. Maybe it’s of interest.
http://schoollawpro.com/cry-the-beloved-country/
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Definitely of interest. I can’t access the Washington Post online but I can imagine what was written in response. We are mostly civil here, and yet still get caught up in unnecessary infighting and name calling. It’s pretty sad when all we can think to do is yell,”Poopy head!” at each other.
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