Education Week reported that Betsy DeVos visited a public school in Poway, California, and the school was asked to keep the visit a secret so that the Secretary would not encounter hostile crowds of protesters, which might endanger the lives of students or staff or DeVos herself. Of course, DeVos was well guarded. She came with her special retinue of U.S. Marshals to protect her. NBC has estimated that her security team will have cost $20 million by September of 2019.
Parents and members of the public didn’t learn of the secretary’s two-hour visit to the district’s Design 39 Campus until after, when Kim-Phelps shared photos taken by Poway Unified communications staff on her Facebook page. A stream of critical comments followed, many slamming DeVos’ support of private school choice.
The big news here is that DeVos actually visited a public school, not a charter school or a religious school.
I don’t think that’s a hopeful sign because she never modifies her views.
But next time she is interviewed, she can say that she has visited a public school and there were no protestors.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Bubblegirl
LikeLike
LOL. Exactly.
LikeLike
This just in:
Secretary of the Department for the Privatization of US Education DItzy DeVoid visited a public school in Poway, California today. Shocked, she turned to her 480-person security detail and said, “You can’t even get the address right?” She then ordered that the school be razed and the Earth salted where the building once stood so that the ground would be be uninhabitable for centuries to come.
LikeLike
“But Madam Secretary, we don’t have the authority to raze the building and salt the earth” said one member of her 480-person detail.
“Just you wait,” she said, smiling demurely. “And call the EPA. They’ll be fine with the salting.”
LikeLike
“People think I’m AGAINST public schools,” Secretary DeVoid told reporters. “I’m not. I’m FOR children. We will need to leave SOME public schools open for the inferior children kicked out of or not accepted by charters.” No word as yet on whether Secretary DeVoid’s title will be officially changed to Reichsminister für Volksbildung.
LikeLike
Why raze the building when it would make a perfect home for a charter school?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Well, she does go a bit overboard in her zeal sometimes, but rest assured that she has the interests of other oligarchs at heart.
LikeLike
I don’t think she should bring her negativity and grim message to public school students.
Did she tell them their school is a “factory” where they’re all bored and they should “escape” to one of the charter or private schools she prefers? Did she tell them they’re getting a “19th century” education and they won’t be fit to ever find a job when they graduate?
Because that’s what all her speeches sound like- 100% negative towards public schools and public school students.
Do we need that in our schools? Is it beneficial to our students? I don’t think so. Parents are correct to object to it. It’s difficult enough to raise children without political operatives parachuting in to recite slogans.
LikeLike
I see this as potentially dangerous news. Hear ye, all Democrats, if DeVos starts playing to the center, it does not, I repeat, NOT mean charters are anything but a far rightwing Libertarian nightmare. Stay in your lane, Betsy.
LikeLike
LCT, you nailed. The real force behind the charter industry is far right libertarian.
LikeLike
Diane: while I bow to your superior knowledge concern who is behind charters, I think you ignore in your statement the anti-public school bias in social conservatism and its effect. The odd marriage between social conservatives, who want very intrusive government into personal matters, and liberitarians, who want no government except to protect investments would seem to me to be a decisive part of the equation that gives us charters, and could explain the recent move toward vouchers.
LikeLike
Roy, it is curious that many of those social conservatives send their children to public schools. But they are also leading the charge to censor textbooks and literary selections. And you are right to point out that they live with a deeply hypocritical stance: they claim they want the government out of their lives but they also want to use the government to impose their views on abortion, guns, and gays on the entire populace.
LikeLike
“. . . she can say that she has visited a public school and there were no protestors.”
That’s a good one, Diane!
But you know the sad part is that you and I know that is exactly what she’ll say.
LikeLike
Duane,
I have been watching the terrible devastation caused by tornadoes in Missouri and Oklahoma. I hope you and your family are safe along with all our readers and friends in the affected states.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for the concern!
It’s been a very wet spring with many large weather systems rolling through. Flooding is the main concern now and it probably will be for the foreseeable future. Lot’s of people are affected by flooding throughout the Midwest.
Again thanks for your concern!
LikeLike
Greetings. Only as of this year did I become aware of your blog. It was a result of the Los Angeles teachers strike, and a public school teacher raising your blog on her Face Book site. I am a retiree of LAUSD, and followed the strike closely.
I raise this to say that I had a letter published on LA teachers strike in the paper, Workers Vanguard, 17 May 2019 No. 1155, at icl-fi.org. I quote you from an earlier article in the LA Times. I considered you may wish to view it.
Thank you for your blog.
Sincerely, Benito Montoya
23 May, 2019
LikeLike
I’m going to guess DeVos chose to visit a public school in Poway CA to look supportive/ borrow charisma: that is where the latest synagogue shooting occurred [4/27/19]. Presumably most Poway kids attend publics [there is only one charter in Poway, a Montessori].
LikeLike
We know this visit was just a ploy. Good GAWD. And all that $$$$ spent with DeVoodoo’s army of Secret Service. BLEAGH.
LikeLike
Why Poway, CA? Was this a vacation to San Diego and she wanted a tax break out of it and called it a business trip? I don’t know how it works, but such a long and expensive trip for the body guards is a big waste. No schools close to DC?
LikeLike
Good point, April. Maybe one of her ten yachts is parked in San Diego.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is off topic. Idaho needs to stop depending upon standardized testing and put more money into its public schools. It is no wonder that Idaho is missing its goals. Idaho is at the bottom of the US in its funding for public schools. “The goals called for increasing test scores and closing achievement gaps. ” What a bunch of BS.
…………………………
IDAHO MISSED 33 OF 34 YEARLY BENCHMARKS ON ITS ESSA COMPLIANCE PLAN
Clark Corbin 05/21/2019
Idaho has failed to meet 33 of 34 interim targets for long-term goals outlined in the state’s plan to comply with federal education law.
As part of Idaho’s plan to comply with the Every Student Succeeds Act, state officials outlined a series of performance and achievement goals they hope to meet by 2022. The goals called for increasing test scores and closing achievement gaps. Specifically, “Idaho’s long-term goal for English/language arts and mathematics will be to reduce the percentage of nonproficient students by 33 percent over six years.”
In order to stay on track, Idaho’s plan outlined a series of yearly interim targets that incrementally broke down the difference between the long-term goal and the baseline.
That’s where Idaho fell short.
Idaho Education News reviewed the ESSA plan and cross-referenced the interim targets with data the State Department of Education publishes through its new online report cards to shine a light on Idaho’s performance.
Idaho missed its interim targets in 33 of 34 areas. The state missed every one of its targets for improving the graduation rate and increasing achievement in math and English language arts. The only target Idaho met involved English language proficiency.
In some cases, Idaho was somewhat close. In math, for example, the state set a target of having 48.1 percent of students reach a score of proficient or advanced. In 2018, 43.69 percent of students reached that interim target.
In other cases, Idaho fell well short of the mark.
State officials set an interim target of having 24.6 percent of students with disabilities earn scores of proficient or advanced on their math assessment. In reality, just 13.81 percent of those students hit the mark in 2018.
Although state officials celebrated an increase in high school graduation rates last year, the figure everyone celebrated was short of the interim target from the ESSA plan. The state set a target of having 84.8 percent of students graduate high school. In reality, the graduation rate was 80.6 percent.
There is still time to recover by 2022, but Idaho is already behind schedule and now faces even more work if it hopes to realize its long-term goals.
Karlynn Laraway, the SDE’s director of assessment and accountability, said Friday she isn’t concerned about the widespread failure to meet interim targets.
“Is it a cause for concern? No, at this point we are staying the course and continue to support schools and districts in meeting local needs,” Laraway said.
It also doesn’t appear there are any consequences for failing to meet the interim goals. It isn’t clear, either, what would happen if Idaho falls short of its goals for 2022.
“There is no guidance from the U.S. Department of Education that plans have to be renewed or updated annually,” Laraway said.
LikeLike
Well, as the Ed Deformers say, the testing isn’t working, so we need more testing.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Bob Shepherd: Indiana keeps changing its standardized test. Politicians are looking for the perfect test. Want to take a guess on how long before that is achieved?
LikeLike
One cannot rationally–validly and reliably–measure the incredibly vague, abstract, and broad list of “skills” that make up the Gates/Coleman bullet list of Common [sic] Core [sic] “standards,” and even if you could, you would be leaving out almost everything that really matters in ELA. High-stakes standardized testing has FAILED UTTERLY by its own preferred measure, test scores. It hasn’t increased them, and it hasn’t closed achievement gaps. So, how long? Well, muttering magical incantations is NEVER going to improve people’s health in the long run. Standards-and-testing-based accountability is a pseudoscience on the level of phrenology or Tarot Card reading or putting pads on your feet “to draw out toxins.”
LikeLike
in our inner-city 90% non-dominant-culture high school, that honestly seemed to be the solution as test scores became the god deciding funding and even a school’s ability to exist: we will test these kids over and over until they PROVE that they are not struggling
LikeLike
Remember that Idaho spends almost the lowest amount of money per pupil in the country, “led” only by Utah (of course).
LikeLike
Threatened Out West: I’m very aware of that. I read that most citizens of Idaho believe in standardized testing as a way to rate schools and improve education.
I am SO glad that I no longer live in Idaho. However, Indiana is not better.
LikeLike
She should make her way 2 hours south and visit GH Reid in Richmond City Public Schools. See what we lack. Totally Title 1 school.
LikeLike
Here is how Betsy DeVos describes public schools:
“Similarly, a cabal has rooted itself between students and their education to protect “what is” at the expense of what could be. Their fingers are in their ears, too, refusing to hear the chorus of voices demanding better. Instead of pursuing innovations for students, they pursue protections from politicians for themselves.”
Every single one of her speeches includes broadside attacks on public schools.
So tell me why, as a public school parent, I want these people visiting my son’s school?
So they can tell him his school is a 19th century factory run by a self-interested “cabal”?
He likes school. Generally. Not all of it and not all the time but that’s not “school”, it’s “life”. We try to stay positive about school at home. Why would I request a visit from federal employees telling him he shouldn’t like school? Why am I paying for this? Is this at all beneficial to my son or any other public school student, that we are apparently paying a huge cadre of professional public school critics in the federal government?
I don’t want them in his school. They add no value. His time in school would be better spent doing nearly anything else.
LikeLike
Chiara: Good comment!!
LikeLike
It’s utterly ridiculous that people who run public schools have to beg the employees of the US Department of Education to support their students and schools.
I get what this superintendent is saying, she needs DeVos to see a solid public school in the (probably vain) hope that DeVos will refrain from attacking public schools, but think about this! This is crazy! She feels she has to “sell” her public school to the federal employees at the US Department of Education- she has to SHOW them her public school isn’t the terrible place they believe it is.
They offer her absolutely nothing- no tangible or measurable benefit at all- and they have somehow set this up as her job to persuade them to offer grudging approval.
It’s backwards. She doesn’t, actually, serve them. They are supposed to be assisting her.
LikeLike
Betsy D. did visit another public school, if you remember, in Ohio two years ago, with Randi Weingarten. The idea was that she would see a terrific public school and would be so impressed that she would change her views. She did not. https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/teachers-union-to-host-devos-on-visit-to-public-schools-in-rural-ohio/2017/04/20/3619cccc-253b-11e7-bb9d-8cd6118e1409_story.html?utm_term=.34ffb2e7cda6
LikeLike
I have an interesting question:
Is this the first time, as Secretary, that Mrs. Devos has ever visited a public school?
Second question:
Given her upbringing, is this the first time she has EVER stepped foot in a public school? Is there evidence she has ever spent any time in a public school building for any reason?
I have some expectations to what the answer will be.
LikeLike
Senator Niemeyer [R-IN] the education blockhead just put out this announcement. There is a severe teacher shortage in Indiana. Guess he thinks this will really make a long term difference.
…………………….
Next Generation Hoosier
Educators Scholarship
Recognizing the critical role teachers play in our community and state, the Indiana General Assembly created the Next Generation Hoosier Educators Scholarship in 2016.
The Indiana Commission for Higher Education recently named 200 students as award winners.
Recipients will receive $7,500 annually for committing to teach in Indiana for at least five years after graduating college.
To qualify for the scholarship, students had to graduate in the highest 20% of their high school class or score in the top 20th percentile on the SAT or ACT.
Among the 393 students who applied, more than 80% were Indiana high school seniors, with the remainder comprised of current college students.
Students who received a scholarship for the 2019-20 academic year are listed here.
LikeLike
I think Betsy the Brainless had to make a pit stop on her way to a corporate charter school, and all she did was use the bathroom in the public school’s office before she fled.
I’m sure she had an adrenaline and cortisol rush that triggered her fight or FLIGHT response. Pulse rate up. Sweat beading forehead. Heart pounding. Someone drops a pencil and when it clatters on the floor, she ducks and screams, but no one can hear her because of the bag over her head hiding who she is.
She was probably in and out so fast, the staff in the public school’s office didn’t even know she was there. All they saw was all these armed U.S. Marshals surrounding Betsy so they were a living shield bigger than her. The staff could not see who they were guarding and probably thought it was a dangerous felon like a serial killer being escorted to prison.
“What’s going on?” the school’s secretary thought while a dozen armed Marshalls rushed in and formed a line between the office staff and the floor space Betsy had to walk through to reach the bathroom where she would tinkle.
Then on her way to the corporate charter school, she wrote a memo to her staff in DC to cut federal funding for that public school because the bathroom didn’t live up to her billionaire standards. She wanted ten toilets for her own use instead of one.
LikeLike
Poway should be right up her alley. The most current stat for medium income is $102,000 which makes them rich, even by CA standards. San Diego County voted for Marshall Tuck for Superintendent. They have 11.7% English language learners vs 20.4% across the state.18.3% Socioeconomically disadvantaged vs 61.5% across the state. So rich and primarily English speaking. I am sure Betsy felt right at home, even if it was a public school.
LikeLike
Design 39 is a non-standard public school within Poway Unified. It ls “learner-based”, project-based, bla, bla, bla. In short, students who know what they want can get a lot of freedom there and can go on their own pace. Most of the kids who have no idea what they should learn or build or read or paint struggle there. No wonder DeVos chose this specific school, because it looks like a project of Bill Gates, who founded a bunch of high schools around San Diego – High Tech High (HTH), then spread down to middle and elementary. Same project-based no-curriculum crap. that works only for the brightest who, frankly, do not need to go to school at all, because they are on a level higher than regular public school.
LikeLike