In a large waste of paper, time, and energy, Betsy DeVos proposed a new $5 billion federal program of tax credits for charter schools, vouchers, cybercharters, and home schooling.
This is a big decrease in her ambitions. Two years ago, when Republicans controlled both houses of Congress, DeVos wanted to shift $20 billion from Title 1 and other programs to fund school choice.
Her fellow Republicans didn’t pass it.
With Democrats now in charge of the House, her proposal is Dead Before Arrival.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Di,
I have to say, it seems to me, in a weird irony, that there’s a silver lining to Betsy DeVos’ position as Ed Dept. head: it feels, it seems, as if more and more everyday people are waking up to what education privatization entails with vouchers, charters, etc. that siphon away those hard-earned taxpayer dollars to the grab bags of executive corporate management with little going to students, teachers and schools themselves. I can’t recall if there was just talk or if, indeed, Randi Weingarten actually would’ve become Ed Dept. head if Ms. Clinton became president. But I definitely remember, Obama’s election was a Trojan horse for the ed reformers and the neoliberalization of public education, which shattered any and all remaining slivers of trust or hope I had for the Democratic Party. With more people aware of DeVos’ hyperprivleged existence, her boneheaded public statements, supplemented by the main tent of the circus called President Donald J. Trump, the spotlight on mass education– public, private, public-run-private, privately-run-with-public–appears to me more focused and intense, resulting in people inquiring more about i.
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I liked Obama, but was in disagreement with his education policy and ‘race to the top.’ I do support the Dems but put my faith in the people and feel that every effort should be made to inform them. Simply looking to Democrats to solve the problem is not enough. Teachers have taken the first step -striking – in the right direction and should not stop. Pressing for more autonomy and less student load should continue, so both parties should know what teachers want and need.
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Anything that can check DeVos’ radical right wing plan is great news. Her proposal is more unregulated individualism. The lack of oversight would certainly lead to rampant abuse by opportunists looking to grab free public money. There is not a shred of evidence that supports the use of public money for her reckless agenda. All public money should come with oversight and accountability.
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From this point on, hopefully, all of Betsy DeVos’s policies will be null and void. And as the privatization and “school choice” arguments continue to be exposed for the theft of public life, we must beware of the “corporate” self-called Democrats who envision the White House…Cory Booker and Betsy DeVos are on the same team when it comes to education policies.
Cory Booker…
Looking to the American people with rallies, cheers, and promises,
while looking back at the billionaires for profits and power…
The Janus Candidate
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Cory Booker is the favorite candidate of the establishment Dems (DINOS) at CAP. The head of CAP criticized Bernie recently because
he recommended that politicians be judged by what they have done not by their race or gender. Identity politics is CAP’s stock and trade.
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I have been thinking and reading about ABUSIVE people and ABUSIVE relationships.
My take: DPT is an ABUSER and he is ABUSING the people of this country. and elsewhere, because he can. Everywhere he goes, he abuses people and takes delight in his ABUSE of others.
Dpt is a symptom of what is wrong with America … ABUSE, ABUSE, ABUSE others then BLAME the victims.
So, we have to learn how to deal with that total abuser, DPT? He is making this country even sicker. I see it everywhere.
We have a “mental health” crisis in this country, and promoting GRIT will only make it okay to be ABUSIVE to our young even more.
“Donald Trump Is Devastating Our Mental Health With His Policies and Rhetoric
How sick is this administration making us? Let’s see.”
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/donald-trump-devastating-mental-health-policies-rhetoric?verso=true
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How sick?…rigor in kindergarten…tests designed to fail students…teachers locked up for 7 years with RICO crimes for filling in boxes so urban kids could graduate…One in 5 American kids living in poverty…the most incarcerated population in the world…Bill Gates’ paying for the Senior Congressional Education Staff Network’s “safe space” for policy development, away from the public…
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Linda,
Don’t forget that every member of the education committees in House and Senate has an intern paid for by TFA via the generosity of California billionaire Arthur Rock.
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Outrageous!!!!
The information warrants a stand alone post.
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Gates also funds the Senior Congressional Education Staff Network, which provides a “safe space” for policy development which I interpret to mean, away from the public.
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DeVos is a detriment to public education.
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Even DeVos’s native Michigan is not buying the load of odious gargage she is peddling. In 1970 Michigan voters approved an amendment to the state constitution (which I helped draft) by 57% to 43% to bar all diversion of public funds to private schools. In 1978 they voted down vouchers by 74% to 26%, and again in 2000 by 69% to 31%. The Wicked Witch of Western Michigan should just retire to one of her several yachts.
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Edd,
I believe Betsy has ten yachts.
Is that too much for one family?
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This proposal will never get past Nancy Pelosi’s house of representatives. It has no more chance than a kerosene cat in hell, with gasoline britches on.
BUT- It will get some air play. The proposal will be discussed. The idea will be “kicked around”. Trump/DeVos will be able to tell school choice supporters, “We tried”.
Politics is like that. Part show, part fake.
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Charles,
The proposal won’t get past the GOP Senate either.
The Republicans had total control of both houses for two years and let DeVos’s proposals die.
Maybe the Senate will pass it now, since they can count on the House to kill it.
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Possibly. There are some elements in the proposal, that even some repubs do not like. If the proposal is drafted into a bill in the House of representatives, it will die, and not even be sent to the Senate for consideration.
If the proposal is drafted into a bill in the Senate, it will face scrutiny, and some of it will be amended or deleted. If by some miracle, an amended bill is sent to the HR for consideration, it will never get past Nancy Pelosi’s Democrats.
Either way, the proposal is “showboating” for the pro-choice constituency.
This entire exercise, is more fake than pro wrestling.
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RetiredTeacher wrote: “Anything that can check DeVos’ radical right wing plan is great news.”
Actually, the best thing is devos like the rest of appointees are either idiots or puppets or both.
Plan? What plan?
She – like her boss – does not “plan” anything. They react, pontificate, play to the angry mob, and use words they hear others say and try to put them into sentences.
They play to the one word headline and rally-chants their billionaire and racist crowds love to hear (I doubt they read) “the wall” “choice” “voucher” (make America the ’50s again)
Fortunately – the presidents appointees are either in jail, about to go to jail, or so inadequate to lead (devos) nothing will get accomplished.
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The choice bill may be dead at the federal level, but it is alive and well at the state level. In 2017-2018 the big promoter of choice schemes, the American Federation for Children, boasted that about 7,000 private schools in twenty-six states receive public funds under four major choice plans: Scholarship Tax Credits (18 states), Vouchers (D.C. and 13 states), Special Needs Programs/Individual Tax Credits (13 states), Education Savings Accounts (six states).
You will not find “choice” advocates publicizing the following facts. Of the private schools that receive tax subsidies, 76% are religious schools, and 14% exclude students and staff who identify as gender non-conforming.
In other words, choice policies and budgets are designed to support overt and covert discrimination in defiance of hard-won civil rights protections and quests for greater equity in education. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/discrimination-lgbt-private-religious-schools_us_5a32a45de4b00dbbcb5ba0be
In addition, parents who enroll their children who have special needs, protected under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, lose those IDEA protections if they elect a choice program for private schooling. http://edlawcenter.org/news/archives/national/gao-report-take-a-voucher-and-forfeit-special-education-rights.html
The Alliance for School Choice is a “non-profit” that functions as a lobby. It receives money from The Alliance For School Choice FUND created as a depository for undisclosed donors. The money laundering is aided and abetted by a one-person “consultant” in Brookfield WI, operating as Chartwell Strategic Advisors.
If you want to know more about the Alliance for School Choice and its FUND take a look at this:
Click to access Afc-2016-17-Yearbook-Final.Pdf
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Never charter schools. Never DeVos or her family.
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A billionaire owner of an NFL team was charged recently with soliciting sex acts from Chinese women described as victims of sex trafficking. The women were sleeping on massage tables and cooking on hot plates in the “spa” where rich men paid less than $100 to have the women demeaned.
The same guy backed school choice with millions. Cruelty is the only description that can apply.
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Bald Piano Guy:
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