CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) complained that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did not give up her family holdings in a “brain enhancement” company called Neurocore.
Neurocore operates brain performance centers that offer treatment for children and adults with anxiety, depression, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The company uses unproven “brain training” techniques to address these conditions without the use of medication.
At the time she was appointed, Secretary DeVos and her spouse valued their investment in Neurocore as between $5,000,001 and $25,000,000. Since then, the DeVoses have increased their investment in the company by up to $10.5 million, and financial disclosure documents filed this month suggest that her ties to the company are deepening.
Secretary DeVos’ stake in Neurocore presents potential conflicts of interest that stem largely from the possibility that the company could begin to partner with schools, as other similar companies have, and then benefit from programs that she can influence.
In this context, the types of evidence that are sufficient for companies to show effectiveness is an important question, and Neurocore’s claims about its own effectiveness have been disputed. The company has been been called out by the National Advertising Review Board (NARB) for misleading claims about its success in helping its clients address ADHD and autism without medication. Education Week also questioned the scientific evidence behind Neurocore’s claims, citing the American Academy of Pediatrics’ clinical guidelines and consulting three leading experts. If the Department of Education were to accept state accountability plans that relied on interventions for children with conditions such as ADHD and autism that lacked a sufficient scientific basis, it could possibly open the door for Neurocore and companies like it to work with schools in the future.
A number of critics have questioned Neurocore’s claims about curing ADHD and autism with biofeedback.
DeVos increased her stake in the company since becoming Secretary.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
More gimmicky, expensive junk she swallowed whole and will be promoting in public schools, WHILE scolding public school students and teachers about the importance of “critical thinking”
Public schools need to start NOT buying what these folks are selling. It’s garbage.
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Here’s a good 3-minute primer from the Washington Post about Neurocore and Devos:
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“Betsy DeVos
This afternoon I had a great discussion with @laurenweberWSJ at #WSJCFO on #EducationFreedom, workforce development, closing the skills gap, apprenticeships, and the need for life-long learning.”
More publicly funded political campaigning bashing public schools and promoting vouchers to fund private schools.
Can anyone point to a single thing she has accomplished to aid, support or in any way add value to any public school in the country? The schools that 90% of kids attend?
Not clear why I’m paying for her multi-million dollar anti-public school campaign events. Couldn’t the Waltons pay for this? It’s their agenda. Offers nothing of value to children who attend public schools.
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If the Secretary of Education spends every workday bashing public schools and promoting charter schools and private schools, does this have any effect on public school students? We know it offers them no positive benefits of any kind, since they’re completely excluded from her promotions, but does it have a negative effect?
Would they be better off if she simply stopped showing up for work? I think they would be. It’s too much to ask apparently that she provide them some value- perhaps we could request that she refrain from harming them and using them in her ideological campaign against the schools they attend.
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Oh, if you’re interested in receiving Neurocore treatment, here’s a money-saving “Groupon” — yes, that’s right, an entity claiming to be a reputable provider of psychiatric treatment uses “Groupon” to lure in customers … err … I mean … patients.
And it’s endorsed by our very own U.S. Secretary of Education, I’ll have you know!
https://www.groupon.com/deals/neurocore
Here’s some of the text from this Neurocore Groupon:
(It’s such obvious quackery — the modern or internet equivalent of the Wild West snake oil salesman shilling his wares while standing in the back of his covered wagon, as in this scene from Dustin Hoffman’s LITTLE BIG MAN
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
What You’ll Get
Choose Between Two Options
$103.50 for a comprehensive diagnostic neuro assessment with no scheduling restrictions ($250 value)
$51 for a comprehensive diagnostic neuro assessment valid before 4 p.m. Monday – Friday ($250 value)
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
Heart-rate variability (HRV)
Behavioral checklist
Integrated visual and auditory continuous performance test (IVA)
Click here to learn more.
Neurofeedback: Flexing Your Beta Waves
Learn just how your session can leave you feeling more relaxed and alert with Groupon’s introduction to neurofeedback.
Anyone who’s ever struggled to maintain accuracy on a repetitive task or calm down before a big presentation knows: sometimes it feels like your brain has a mind of its own. Neurofeedback therapy aims to help people better control their thought patterns in order to stay calm and focused, and potentially even assuage conditions such as migraines and depression.
During a neurofeedback session, you’ll sit facing a computer screen with electrodes attached to your scalp with conductive gel. This will feel familiar if you’ve ever had an EEG for medical reasons; in fact, a course of neurofeedback therapy typically starts with a baseline EEG reading to build a basic map of your brain’s regular activity.
The electrodes then feed information to software that monitors brain waves. These waves are generated by the brain’s nonstop flurry of electrical activity, produced as neurons communicating with one another, and their frequencies vary depending on the brain’s state: awake or asleep, concentrating or staring absent-mindedly at a mole on someone’s nose.
Therefore, neurofeedback clinicians can program their machines to reward a particular wave frequency—say, the high-frequency beta waves associated with alertness for ADHD patients, or the lower-frequency alpha and theta waves produced in relaxed states for someone seeking to overcome anxiety.
When the electrodes sense that your brain is in the desired state, you’ll get a pleasant audio or visual treat from the computer, perhaps some pretty music or a beautiful field of flowers. If your brain activity veers off course, these incentives will go away. (In one popular program, the flowers begin to wilt and die when your attention wanders.)
In this way, neurofeedback is much like guided meditation, minus any worries about whether you’re doing it right or whether “pineapple upside-down cake” is an appropriate mantra. As the sessions continue, your brain should start finding it easier to slip into the desired state whenever it needs to.
The Fine Print
Promotional value expires 90 days after purchase. Amount paid never expires. May be repurchased every 180 days. Limit 1 per person, may buy 3 additional as gifts. Valid only for option purchased. Must call to schedule appointment. Option with scheduling restrictions is valid only Monday-Friday before 4 p.m. 24-hour cancellation notice required. May be repurchased up to 3 every 90 days as gift. Merchant is solely responsible to purchasers for the care and quality of the advertised goods and services.
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Wow. Wow! That is some quack science. To invest millions of dollars in a company like Neurocore you’d have to be so dumb, dumb enough to think grizzlies go to school. Betsy is sideshow entertaining. Horrifying, but somehow entertaining.
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Conflicts of interest are the MO of this administration. DeVos is no different. She is a symptom of the problem. Clearly, the rules regarding “conflicts of interest” need to be revised and spelled out clearly for future administrations along with mandatory release of tax returns for anyone serving the executive branch. Ethical Jimmy Carter sold his peanut farm to avoid a conflict, but #45’s people use their office as an opportunity to make money behind the scenes.
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Trump has a 99-year lease on what used to be the Old Post Office Building, a block from the White House. He converted it to a Trump hotel. Foreign dignitaries book lavish suites there to demonstrate their loyalty to the Trump brand. This is a blatant example of his violation of the Constitution’s “emoluments” clause, which forbids the President from taking any financial tributes from foreign nations. A Middle Eastern sheik stayed there recently for almost a month, in the most expensive suite. No doubt to close a deal.
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Interesting to post that really Betsy is the one who should strap on the censors to her brain in the areas that prevent her from helping public schools in this country. After the treatment devos might want to visit a public school and see what is going on.
IN all seriousness folks, as I write this post I cannot help the vision in my head of devos and her fake dumb smile, her crazy stares at people. Let me explain. If you ever meet devos in person – not sure if Diane has or not – but if you meet her in person she has this blank stare that projects a sense of dizziness or the notion that something is not kosher in the mind of this person. Or, the sense that she is not listening to you but rather just waiting for her turn to talk about her crap and her crap only. Pretty scary.
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the exact same experience many have had with “reform” administrators: zero interest in what the unhappy person in front of them is saying, waiting to talk about the latest reform dogma and ONLY about the latest reform dogma
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That the family that brought us Amway (The DeVoses; Betsy is a Prince, another right-wing merchant family which produced Eric Prince, the founder of Blackwater) would involve themselves in garbage like this should surprise no one.
My concern: how long before this swill begins washing up in classrooms? There are a number of other things like this–“Brain Gym” comes immediately to mind–in the market, most of them unburdened with the silly formality of evidence to back their claims.
Ms. DeVos should resign forthwith.
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Erik Prince signed a lucrative deal security deal with the Chinese. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/01/blackwater-founder-erik-prince-to-build-training-camp-in-chinas-xinjiang
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Whoa….
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This is another. Begin quote
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell shrugged off a question Tuesday about whether he received special treatment from the Transportation Department because of his marriage to the agency’s secretary, Elaine Chao.
“I was complaining to her just last night, 169 projects and Kentucky got only five,” he deadpanned. “I hope we’ll do a lot better next year.”
McConnell’s remarks at a weekly news conference came one day after POLITICO reported that Chao appointed a special liaison to assist with grant applications for the state of Kentucky.
The special liaison, Todd Inman, offered guidance on grants that were of particular importance to McConnell, who is also up for re-election in 2020.
The agency has provided at last $78 million in grants for the state’s projects, according to the POLITICO report, which fueled a wave of criticism from ethics officials.” End Quote
That brief report from Politico did not add the fact that Chao and her family are stockholders in major company that supplies road paving material and that she has not given up her stock.
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Not in this administration! This must be a hoax. Everybody knows that the trump admin is the most honest since Lincoln earned the moniker.
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Why am I not surprised that there might exist a conflict of interest in the trump White House?
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Can we repeal her? Doesn’t work for the president these days.
Shirley Rausher
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To whom it may concern:
Please take a look at Southern Viet Nam’s fate. I am so sorry for all high academic people in Hong Kong. Then sooner or later the USA Elaine Chao plus all her siblings will taste and experience. The Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell cannot protect her and himself under Trump.
Please watch a movie “John Wick-part 3” and visualize the “Black Water” mercenaries. Plus watch “American Made” in 2017 with Tom Cruise in a major role. These examples can help people to make up their determination in dealing with bad people.
Take an advice from President Ronald Reagan “Trust with verify” hahaha
Life is only difficult and complicated to people who are greedy, ego, blind compassionate. Most of all, people say that we work as a team without conscience. Back2basic
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Off topic-
Stacy Abrams who is opposed to privatization is on CAP’s Board…hmmmm. What is Tom Steyer’s position?
Reed Hastings has left the Facebook board. Newly added- Jeffrey Zients, an executive at Cranemere, a holding company founded by Vincent Mai. Mai is an advisory board member of DFER. “Zients is a businessman’s businessman. He was in the Obama WH, someone whom corporate leaders could talk to.” He’s a graduate of the rarefied St.Albans in D.C. and was with Bain, In other words, he’s a perfect fit with people who who know nothing about the 99% except how to profit from their labor.
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Stacy Abrams I noticed and was boggled. She has a lot more foreign policy chops than many people realize. Tom Steyer is also new to the CAP board. In 2016, gave about $65 minnion to the Democrats.
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Steyer appears to value democracy.
IMO, Tom Daschle and John Podesta are all about money.
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Vincent Mai of DFER would know about colonialism. He’s from South Africa.
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Justice Democrats have a primary candidate running for U.S. Congress in Texas- Jessica Cisneros. Her opponent received more financial backing from private prisons than any other Democratic member of Congress. Rep. Henry Cueller voted with Trump almost 80% of the time. He’s the 5th most bipartisan member of Congress. I don’t know where each candidate stands on privatized public schools but, we know which one is a corporate Democrat.
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