Peter Greene warns that it is a mistake to think that Betsy DeVos is a dope. She is not. She doesn’t really care about educating all children, although she thinks she should pretend to. Her thinking is in a different place, shaped by her fundamentalist, evangelical views.
“Here’s another theory. Let’s assume that getting a good education to every child is not a goal. Let’s assume instead that the goal is to have education functioning on the free market, free of public institutions and government meddling. Let’s assume that seeing some businesses prosper and profit is further proof that the market is working properly. Let’s assume that directing public money to religious schools at the expense of government programs is a desirable and commendable outcome. In fact, let’s assume that in such a system, having some schools and students sink to the bottom is a desirable outcome, because the free market is supposed to reward the deserving and allow the undeserving to sink to the low level where they belong. And if gutting public education has the effect of gutting unions and taking power away from those damn Godless Democrats, well, that’s only right, too…
”Looking at that smile, I was reminded of an old Christian admonition- “Be in this world, but not of this world.”
“It’s a view that people of faith, people who have been elevated by a relationship with a personal Lord and Savior, do not actually belong in this dirty, debased world. The rules of this world cannot be their rules. To achieve Godly goals, they may have to use worldy tools, even pretend to go along with worldly rules, but this is stooping to achieve a higher purpose. God will even give His chosen tools (like earthly wealth and political power), but they must avoid being seduced by worldly things, including a desire for worldly acclaim and recognition. That means, among other things, that the Chosen don’t owe these earthly, debased, going-to-hell persons an explanation. You can be in the world with these people, and maybe feel sorry for them, but there is no need to connect with them– you are almost like two separate species, passing each other for a brief moment as you travel to two separate destinations, you to eternal glory in Heaven, and they to endless damnation in Hell.
“So you smile. You smile hard, because it shows that you’re still better than they are, and that you haven’t stooped to their level. You smile even as they say mean things about you, because if the people of this world mount powerful forces against you, it’s just further proof that you are right (and they are wrong). In fact, you are so right, and so sure of it, that real conversations with them aren’t necessary because what could you learn from people who are so low and earthly and wrong? But you go through the motions to show that you’re the bigger person, and because sometimes worldly tools must be used to achieve divine goals. You smile.
“Betsy DeVos’s smile is the smile of Dolores Umbrage or the Church Lady. It’s an angry, flinty smile, a smile that says, “I am in this world, but I am not of it, and some day I will rise above it and leave you behind.”
Not having Peter’s insight into fundamentalist theology, I tend to think of that perpetual smile as a smirk. I call it the billionaire’s smirk: “I am very, very, very rich, and you are not. Nothing you say can diminish my wealth and power.” It is a smirk of smugness and condescension.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
BDV is a DOPE (Destroyer Of Public Education)
IMHO, Peter Greene’s excellent piece makes a more general point as well: why those leading the charge for corporate education reform and the destruction of public education consciously avoid “saying what they mean and meaning what they say.”
In pursuit of what they consider higher and more important goals, they use words and catchphrases in a way that deliberately mislead the general public and their clients/customers. But in their minds, calling it “lying” and “scamming” etc. is not so much wrong as beside the point. Just like some insufferably smug holier-than-thou religious leaders have given the current president a mulligan for anything he has said and done, and will say and do—no matter how this eviscerates their own moral standards—these DOPES [thank you, Jon Awbrey!] give themselves a pass for whatever they will say or do because it’s all in the service of a greater cause. They have more important fish to fry, even if they have to suffer the arrows and slings of the hewers of wood and drawers of water…
And forget the political and/or religious coloration. This is, with a vengeance, the Queen of Mean, Leona Helmsley, when it comes to rules and standards: “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” [quoted by a former employee at her tax evasion trial]
Hence the importance of the Network for Public Education [give generously, please!] and the W VA teachers: make them say what they really think and take responsibility for what they have really done and are doing.
I leave with one last suggestion: don’t be surprised at their shameless hypocrisy. For example, the mind-blowing cognitive dissonance involved in sternly criticizing others for “moral relativity” while excusing political/religious allies of any and all faults [no matter how severe and creepy] because some omnipotent deity works through “imperfect instruments.”
As I see it, the KISS [KeepItSimpleStupid] principle works well here: tell the truth, don’t lie, and do unto others as you would have others do unto you.
Jon Awbrey: thanks for keeping it real and avoiding Rheeality Distortion Fields…
😎
It is fascinating that Christians can take what the New Testament says about the wealthy people (it is not good, it also recommends they give away their wealth) and turn it into a “wealth is a sign of their god’s favor.” Denial isn’t even close to being a river in Egypt anymore. There is a river of it running through this country.
Calvinism at its best (worst).
She’s pretty much a one-person counter-enlightenment project.
“The Endarkenment”
Endarkenment is Betsy
Where ignorance is bliss
If darkness is your fancy
DeVoid is where it is
Thanks to Diane for ” DeVoid”
Yes!
on a related note …
Max Weber (1904/1930), The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Talcott Parsons & Anthony Giddens (trans.), Unwin Hyman, London & Boston.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/WEBER/cover.html
In DeVos’s case maybe the smugness of wealth and religion are the same, since wealth in her view is a sign of God’s preference.
Arthur, that is what I have always said about the DeVos smirk. “I am rich, and you are not. God has chosen me to be very rich; he did not choose you.”
If you watch the Televangelists on late night TV, there is a common theme
“God helps those who help themselves.”
It’s the “bounteous buffet” interpretation of Christianity.
Which is the exact opposite of the message of the Bible. “Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” –Matthew 6:26
I have a feeling that a lot of these xtians are going to be very surprised to find themselves among the goats at the final reckoning.
I think we are the real goats for letting their rapacious greed go unchecked.
Those of us who do not believe in an afterlife can’t console ourselves with the belief that the greedy will get their due in the hereafter.
”Looking at that smile, I was reminded of an old Christian admonition- “Be in this world, but not of this world.” The famous smirk could be the result of faulty programming. Maybe DeVos is the result of an alien invasion, and it is time to call in Mulder and Scully.
DeVoid’s spokesperson said that 60 Minutes had “selectively edited” the tape to make her look bad. Really? Was there a good part where she was knowledgeable and empathetic?
There is actually another possibility.
There is a hypothesis in physics called the “many world’s hypothesis” which holds that the universe is constantly branching into parallel universes where different things happen.
So, perhaps there is a parallel “world” in which she actually said intelligent things on 60 Minutes.
Of course, we can never know for sure because once the branching occurs, there is no contact between the parallel world’s, but perhaps we should give Betsy the benefit of the doubt.
She fails in the empathy department. She went to Stoneman Douglas for a staged photo op and didn’t console anyone.
Betsy excels in the “empty department.”
DeVos is clearly smarter than all of us combined. She heads the USDOE. She has hordes of money. Her god is leading the pack. I was a teacher in a high poverty urban district working with children facing multiple barriers. Charter schools are rapidly overtaking the public schools thereby furthering impoverishing the most needy students. It is a win-win for DeVos and a lose-lose for those on the bottom rungs of the societal ladder.
Abigail! DeVos thinks she is leading a civil rights crusade!
No she doesn’t. She doesn’t give a ____ about civil rights. She just knows that co-opting the language is an effective rhetorical trick – it’s taught in xtian homeschooling “debate” classes (again, no offense meant to actual Christians). Saying “if you oppose choice, you must want poor black kids to be “stuck” in “failing” schools” is so much more effective than saying, “get rid of gubmint schools so all that money can rightfully flow to private pockets.”
Betsy is leading a “civil whites” crusade.
Let’s also not falsely assume that the elegant, beautifully-tailored, yet unprepared to serve Betsy DeVos is despised by everyone in our land. At the risk of being arrogant, I re-submit my reflection about her posted here in January 2017:
Betsy DeVos
Whenever Betsy DeVos came to town,
We ordinary people felt her eyes:
A golden god-blessed woman of renown,
Bejeweled, dressed in wealth beyond all size.
For riches were the robes she always wore,
And we mere humble always feared to delve
Too deeply ‘neath the smile and crown she bore,
Whose mission was to save us from ourselves.
We did not know what darkness might belie
Such crafted goodness she put on display;
How many she had buried or could buy,
When anybody dared stand in her way.
And one day, as if queens could know the poor,
When asked what she would do to lift all schools,
She deigned not say, but that cold smile we saw
Said “One thing I know: Money sets the rules.”
Bravo! You revealed the truth beneath the less then Mona Lisa smile. Our children deserve better but this regime is steeped in its smugness and resolve to have a class closer to slavery for the wealthy then to crown our brotherhood with good.
Excellent!
Reference to Richard Cory? Or did it just start off that way.
Yes, Thank you SD P.
And my submission last year paid homage to EA Robinson and my high school English teacher.
I recall Richard Cory going home and doing violence to himself. How appropriate that your modern Ms Cory does violence to others. We live in a different age.
I wish Betsy DeVos had had the opportunity to attend Teacher Tom’s school. http://teachertomsblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/to-wonder-about-giants.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TeacherTom+%28Teacher+Tom%29
Wonderful link. I like his point that each of us has strongly-held core beliefs developed early on based on individual experience, & one individual cannot ‘change’ another’s. In the age of internet, reading a wide spectrum of commentary, I have come to suspect that tho I consider myself open-minded, I too probably round up the facts that support my core beliefs & dismiss/ don’t register/ twist those that don’t. Or go out of my way not to see them, as DeVos goes out of her way to avoid visiting ‘low-performing’ schools [Stahl pointed out].
Underscores my sense that folks like BDeV are not necessarily dumb, nor even hypocritical, just deeply rooted in a philosophy that is blind/ inimical to the collective good – & thus singularly ill-suited to governing. We can’t change them, but we can avoid voting for such folk.
They gave her an impossible job. DeVos was asked whether her policies had improved public schools in Michigan.
They haven’t, so she had to say “I don’t know” and muddy the waters further by turning it into a question on charters in Detroit.
They can dodge this for a while longer but these people insisted that their policies would improve public schools. At some point someone will insist they show that. If they dodge the question when Stahl asks it someone else will ask it later.
They have utterly dominated education policy for 20 years. People have an absolute right to insist they show what they have accomplished.
We know they can bash public schools. We know they’re good at that. The question is what value have they added over the last 20 years?
She had to say “I don’t know” because she knew “I don’t care” wouldn’t go over so well.
Michigan’s scores on NAEP declined precipitously since 2003.
Surely she knows that. But it would not be convenient to say so. It is simpler to say “I don’t know” rather than admit that her ideas have been tried and failed.
Stahl isn’t in the echo chamber so she asked the question an ordinary member of the public would ask- she asked DeVos to show her how public education has improved.
DeVos, a wholly captured individual took that broad question and MADE IT about charters.
Michigan is a big state! There are lots and lots of public schools in Michigan! DeVos literally doesn’t see or hear those schools, which is why she misunderstood the question.
In a way it doesn’t matter. Michiganders will either figure out these people don’t support the 90% of kids who attend public schools in that state or they won’t. If they figure it out they’ll change STATE government- the US Department of Ed is all but irrelevant to public school families now anyway.
I’m a public school parent and I no longer care if people in DC “support” my son’s school. They offer absolutely nothing of value to public school families anyway. We’re literally stronger without them.
“Stahl isn’t in the echo chamber. . .”
Yes, Stahl very much is in the echo chamber of the main stream media. Listen carefully to her questions as they are full of edudeformer talking points and the questions were about as soft as they could be.
I agree Duane.
An adversarial interviewer would have pushed much harder.
There is a “mainstream frame” in which the American mainstream media operate which colors everything they say and affects even the questions they ask (and do not ask).
And that “do not ask” is the really important part. My guestimate is that if one only gets one’s information/news (yes information goes first) from the lame main stream media then one is missing out on 90% of what one needs to know.
Here’s another theory:
This means, among other things, that educators don’t owe these earthly, debased, going-to-hell persons an explanation. You can be in the world with these people, and maybe feel sorry for them, but there is no need to connect with them.
You are almost like two separate species, passing each other for a brief moment as you travel to two separate destinations.
If the people of this world mount powerful forces against you, it’s just further proof that you are right (and they are wrong). In fact, you are so right, and so sure of it, that real conversations with them aren’t necessary because what could you learn from people who are so low and earthly and wrong?
It’s a view that people of education, people who have been elevated by a relationship with an institution of education, have access to a truth that others fail to discern.
Besty just has no idea . I love the expalnation of the Smile.. Well said..
Help our childrena in schools out if this mess.!!
Thank you to all the wonderful teachers and staff of every school that work hard everyday to teach our children and young adults. Go Team !!!
Here are some facts of the matter about private and religious schools from the National Center on Education Statistics, reported for 2015-2016.
I doubt if many many people have looked at the stats.
There were 34,576 private elementary and secondary schools with 4,903,596 students enrolled.
Sixty-seven percent of private schools, enrolling 78 percent of private school students had a religious orientation or purpose, 20% were Catholic schools, 12% were “Conservative Christian.”
Sixty-nine percent of private school students in 2015–16 were White non-Hispanic;
About 33% of private schools were in the South, 26% in the Midwest.
Forty-six percent of all private schools in 2015–16 enrolled less than 50 students.
More private schools were in the suburbs than the city, but more students attended private schools in the city than in the suburbs.
These and other stats are available for public view. A finer grain report on the range of religious school is available if you have special access to the data (e.g., are a statistician). I do not have that.
The stats generally align with an agenda favored by Devos and supporters wherein public funds will be channeled to support entrenched segregation of students in private religious schools.
https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2017/2017073.pdf Broughman, S.P., Rettig, A., and Peterson, J. (2017). Characteristics of Private Schools in the United States: Results From the 2015–16 Private School Universe Survey First Look (NCES 2017-073). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved [date] from http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.
Thanks for the research which confirms what most of us already understand that so called “choice” has a racist past. Choice is a means to exclude others. Do they realize this in California where they pride themselves on being a sanctuary state?
The stat that sticks out to me is 4.9 million kids enrolled in privates – as of quite recently. >Whew< (relief) – 10 times as many are enrolled in our public schools. Let’s keep it that way by exposing & publicizing against voucher schemes everywhere, they are a tool of teeny spurious minority dictating to the masses. How the h do we wind up w/a priv-sch-on-public-dime “choice” advocate as Secy of Ed? Tail wags dog.
You don’t have to watch 60 Minutes to know that DeVos has contempt for public schools and public school families.
https://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/prepared-remarks-us-secretary-education-betsy-devos-foundation-excellence-education-national-summit-education-reform
That’s a speech she gave to the echo chamber. Most of the speech consists of portraying public schools as terrible, scary places filled with bullying, violent low achievers. She then lavishes praise on charters and private schools.
Ed reformers gave her FOUR standing ovations for this speech. They agree with her. They may be mad she’s a lousy salesperson, but they agree with her every word.
I sort of almost felt sorry for devos after the debacle 60 minutes interview… However, after reading this speech she gave a while back regarding our schools I can honestly say that devos deserves all the lashings she has taken.
This woman is so out of touch but one thing she knows is the public schools are no good. Devos is not sure why because she has never visited a public school but she knows they are bad.
It struck me today while I was teaching that history is hamstrung by not being able to tell the whole truth. When things happen, in this case a 60 minutes interview, we cannot even tell the whole story accurately minutes after it happened. The reason we cannot is that we cannot understand the mindset of the participants in the making of that history. History being the complex interaction between intention and occurrence, we are forced to tell partial stories with incomplete conclusions.
Peter Greene’s attempt to analyze the mind of DeVos is a fascinating thesis. I think rather that her answers are a simplistic diversion from the reality of her policy. In short, she is just a dodger.
Roy,
I think I agree with you. Betsy did the same thing during her confirmation hearing. When she knew her answer would displease, she said “I don’t know.” She knows very well that test scores in Michigan plummeted after the widespread imposition of choice. Rather than admit the truth, she covered and said, “I don’t know.”
Just out of curiosity, how do we know that the scores plummeted on account of “the imposition of choice?” Might they not also have plummeted for the same reason that some NAEP scores are rising in Tennessee? Nonwithstanding the assertion on the part of the political regime that the appreciation in score here are due to our paying pedagogical attention to the talking heads from the state reformers, it is pretty obvious that our scores have gotten a bit better because of an improved demographic. How often have you suggested that the strongest correlation to anyone is to socioeconomic factors? The great Michigan education system is being ridden hard. DeVos will put it up wet. The more who are poor, the more the scores lower. If you say that with a southern accent, it sounds like an SDP poem.
Roy,
The scores in Michigan on NAEP went down for every demographic.
http://www.bridgemi.com/talent-education/betsy-devos-cheat-sheet-next-60-minutes-interview-michigan-schools
On the state’s own test, the same trends appear:
“Third-grade reading proficiency as measured by the state’s standardized test, the M-STEP, is trending downward in rich and poor school districts, and among every student demographic:
“White students: 58 percent proficient in 2014-15 to 52 percent last year.
“Black students: 23 percent to 19 percent.
“Hispanic students: 37 percent to 32 percent.
“Economically disadvantaged: 35 percent to 29 percent.
“Non-economically disadvantaged: 66 percent to 60 percent.”
Spot on, actually. I just wish that in Connection with devos “religious” was consistently replaced by “evangelical” or “fundamentalist” or at least “Christian”. She couldn’t care less about other religions and I think the framing should reflect that.
As KrazyTA would undoubtedly say, “Betsy is Rheeligious. Rheeally Rheeligious!”