Billionaire Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who never worked a day in her life for pay until she was named Secretary of Education by Trump and who never had to worry about paying a mortgage or a meeting a car payment, lashed into Oklahoma teachers for their failure to end their strike and get back to work “serving the kids.”
No doubt her butler and her chauffeur are paid more than the average teacher in Oklahoma, even without a college degree.
Her criticism will likely stiffen the spines of striking teachers.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
As a long time activist in L.A., I’ve heard a version of that every single time there was any kind of job action. They never stop to think that we are fighting FOR the kids – to ensure not only salaries decent enough to attract good people to the field, but to demand funding so the kids are in reasonable class sizes, with up to date books, and safe, pleasant learning environments. If they REALLY put the kids first, those basic needs would be a given.
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Betsy Devos continues her wondering around playing secretary of education while knowing absolutely nothing. I am sad for this country in that we have people like Devos in position of power simply because of her $$ and political donations.
I say sad because suddenly this country has turned itself into what we see around the world with corrupt societies and fake governments that punish its people for the power of being in charge of humanity. Devos deep down knows she is against a big opponent however and that is people like us and this site…Diane Ravitch Blog is the winner in the end as I am sure that when the end for Devos comes as education sec, whenever it may be, its not going to be pretty.
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she is an idiot….that’s all one can say. The TV news today showed DeVos with Melania Trump making a surprise visit to a Detroit Michigan middle school, looking to steer teens away from bullying. DeVos made me nauseous when she said we are excited to talk about some of the wonderful programs that have been going on here in Michigan! Fake news!
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Schools should really stop letting her in.
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Yes, this, because it’s not going to accomplish anything. She’s not going to walk into a public school, see all the wonderful work going on and change her mind and suddenly start supporting public schools. That’s not what she’s there to do.
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Melania knows something about steering teens away from bullying? She should look closer at her home environment and start there. When she has accomplished keeping her Orange Hair Monster from bullying everyone who disagrees with him, then she is qualified to start talking about helping others.
DeVos has no business being anywhere near any school.
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DeVos is not an idiot and it’s dangerous to believe that. While she certainly isn’t intellectually curious, she’s extremely canny. She knows what she wants because that’s what her god tells her. Evidence is not going to persuade her, but that’s not because she’s too stupid to understand the evidence.
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Dienne,
Agreed. DeVos doesn’t care about evidence. She is a religious zealot, and evidence plays no role in religious zealotry. Evidence is for scientists and mathematicians and historians. Don’t underestimate her. She knows exactly what she is doing.
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Yes! I see so many comments online saying she is “unqualified,” etc. But that’s not the real issue. We need to spread the word of her real purpose. She is there to dismantle public schools and push privatization so she and her billionaire friends can make money. She is a sly, cunning vulture capitalist and that’s what really matters!
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Casual arrogance and a sense of entitlement are at the very core of her being.
Sadly, all too common amongst the movers and shakers of the corporate education reform crowd.
😠
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She’s such a creep.
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Bingo
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I think her remarks are useful: she draws attention to the OK strike, and people know whose side to take: opposite from devos.
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Indeed, now it’s time for Devos to step down. An education leader at the Federal level should always support the lowest level, the lowest paid of any classroom teacher anywhere in the United States of America!
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It’s hard for selfish, “I’ve got mine, get your own,” anti-common-good, no-more-taxers (on the rich) to understand that there are reasons for the current teacher actions that go beyond teacher salaries.
DeVos understands this, and is playing self-defense. Improvements in public education would sabotage her efforts to have all public schools labeled as “failing” which would, in turn, sabotage her dream of nation-wide school privatization.
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It’s bad enough when the Overclass, as represented so perfectly by De Vos, says, “I’ve got mine, you get yours.”
The problem now is that she and they have gone way beyond that, and in effect say, “To get mine, I’ll take yours.”
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There are a couple of phrases that come to mind in this situation:
Don’t poke the bear.
Don’t stir up the hornet’s nest
Don’t open that can of worms.
There are probably more that I can’t think of at this moment.
My point is she should have just stayed out of this, she is only making it worse.
She needs to crawl back to her multi-million dollar hole in Michigan.
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Don’t make me open up a can of whoop-ass.
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Oklahoma Girl Gets Textbook Once Used by Blake Shelton
A 7-year-old is excited she has a textbook that was used by country singer Blake Shelton, but her mom is embarrassed the book is nearly 40 years old.
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/oklahoma/articles/2018-04-09/oklahoma-girl-gets-textbook-once-used-by-blake-shelton
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Yup!
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Like DeVos serves kids? NOPE! DeVos is taking her lines from the “BLAME Public School Teachers” playbook.
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indeed, she serves them every day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
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What else would one expect? Trump appointed her!
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Yes, but, look who Obama appointed. At least DeVos is honest about her agenda.
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Dienne,
I agree. I don’t want Betsy to resign. She is just the person to represent the GOP agenda. She is what she is. The face of privatization. The only pretense is pretending to care about civil rights. That’s a good one!
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dienne77,
I thought Arne Duncan was pretty honest about his agenda. Give lots and lots of money to charter schools and testing uber alles. Call parents who don’t like testing insecure moms who are afraid that their child isn’t good enough.
How is DeVos “honest”? Did you hear her saying during her testimony that she wanted to destroy public schools so that the Christian Right could run schools with public funding? I must have missed that.
There is something really off when the very worst people (like Trump) who lie all the time are considered more “honest” by self-described progressives than most Democrats.
I despise Andrew Cuomo but I’d never claim that Trump or DeVos is more “honest” than he is.
Stop pretending there is any “honesty” in the right wing agenda. Why in the world would you claim that when nearly every word out of their politicians’ mouths are lies? And I include Betsy DeVos among them despise the fact you seem to admire her “honesty”.
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She, of all people, should just keep her mouth shut about teachers and anything else related to education.
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DeVos is no fool. Rather, she is a calculating ideologue who doesn’t believe in transparency or accountability for her actions, and who has the means and connections to carry out her agenda. Her sense of religious entitlement and privilege boils down to an “ends justifies the means” mentality because she is going to “save” the children. Translation? I can do whatever I want so long as I couch it in terms of the Lord’s work, even if it means destruction and harm to the unbelievers…
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I posted an online comment on the “DeVos rips Oklahoma teachers over strike: ‘Serve the students’” site and got a response back saying everything I posted was wrong. [I’m known as orangputeh on that site.] This person sent me the following bunch of trash. It tells everything that is right about choice. I’m appalled at such garbage that is being written and the people believe it. Faux news isn’t only for TV. It’s worth reading if you like throwing up.
………….
Myths about School Choice and Betsy DeVos
…According to the latest available data, the average spending per student in private K-12 schools during the 2011-12 school year was about $6,762. In the same year, the average spending per student in public schools was $13,398, or about twice as much. These figures exclude state administration spending, unfunded pension liabilities, and post-employment benefits like healthcare—all of which are common in public schools and rare in private ones.
Certain school costs like building maintenance are fixed in the short term, and thus, the savings of educating fewer students occurs in steps. This means that private school choice can temporarily decrease the funding per student in some public schools, but this is brief and slight, because only 8% of public school spending is for operations and maintenance.
Second, school choice provides the most direct form of accountability, which is accountability to students and parents. With school choice, if parents are unhappy with any school, they have the ability to send their children to other schools. This means that every school is accountable to every parent.
Under the current public education system, schools are accountable to government officials, not students and parents. Again, Hassan knows this, because her son has severe disabilities, and Hassan used her influence as a lawyer to get her son’s public elementary school to “accommodate his needs.”
Unlike Hassan, people without a law degree, extra time on their hands, or ample financial resources are at the mercy of politicians and government employees. Short of legal action or changing an election outcome, most children and parents are stuck with their public schools, regardless of whether they are effective or safe. That is precisely the situation that DeVos would like to fix through school choice, but Hassan talks as if DeVos were trying to do the opposite…
Link: https://www.justfactsdaily.com/myths-about-school-choice-and-betsy-devos/?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email
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So disgusting.
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BD is a POS*
Piece of Sh#t.
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You are being much too kind!
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bd is a criminal, and she would be treated as such in many other countries. Freedom of religion is one thing, and the allowing religious zealots to roam is another.
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‘NAEP Results: Scores Mostly Flat, Gaps Widen »
Billionaire Secretary DeVos Rips Poorly Paid Oklahoma Teachers for Failure to “Serve the Kids” ‘
It’s a COOKBOOK!!
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“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
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Aide: Ma’am, the teachers are revolting!
Secretary DeVos: I know.
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