Politico Education reports that Secretary Betsy DeVos and her political appointees are fanning out across the country to promote charters, vouchers, and educational “freedom” from public schools. She will be in Indiana and Ohio, which already have vouchers and charters, most of which are low-performing.
Under DeVos, the official mission of the U.S. Department of Education is to destroy and privatize public schools.
DEVOS HEADS TO INDIANA, OHIO: The Education secretary begins Day 2 of the Trump administration’s “back to school” tour with stops in Indiana and Ohio today.
— DeVos will visit Purdue Polytechnic High School, a public charter school in Indianapolis, in the morning where she’ll meet with students and faculty and tour STEM classes, according to the department. The administration said the school is a good example of an approach to education that breaks down the silos among K-12 and higher education and businesses.
— In the afternoon, DeVos will head to Cleveland. She’ll tour the Great Lakes Science Center and a specialized high school, MC2STEM High School, which is part of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. DeVos will then visit EDWINS Leadership and Restaurant Institute, “where formerly incarcerated individuals are given the tools they need to transition home, including the opportunity to learn a skilled and in-demand trade in the culinary arts,” the department said.
— Several other top Education Department officials are also fanning out across the country today as part of the administration’s nationwide tour to promote its “rethink school” agenda.
— Deputy Education Secretary Mick Zais will be in Montana. He’ll tour schools and meet with officials in Pryor and Billings along with Montana Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen.
— Johnny Collett, assistant secretary for special education and rehabilitative services, will head to Missouri. He’ll tour an elementary school in Belton and meet with students and faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
— Scott Stump, the assistant secretary for career, technical, and adult education, will be in New Mexico. He’ll tour a high school in Albuquerque in the morning and Santa Fe Community College in the afternoon.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
(Shhhhh! Don’t let her know she’s a walking negative advertisement to everything she supports.)
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Just think; our tax dollars are at work promoting right wing, anti-public education propaganda. This should be called the “Fool’s Gold” tour.
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Great news. BDV is the kiss of death for charters and vouchers. Anybody notice that C&V took a nose dive with Democrats as soon as DJT and BDV became the face of reform?
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Doug,
I am grateful to BDV for making charters and vouchers toxic.
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Hee hee! That’s right. We don’t have to be that quiet though, she’s not not listening. To anyone.
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Oops! That was meant as a reply to Ohio Algebra II Teacher.
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Let’s be thankful for small deeds. The best she can do is cheerleader because she and her administration are so incompetent they don’t know how to appropriately and meaningfully accept public input on a timeline and then do what they want anyway.
They keep blundering from one mis-step to the next both politically and procedurally – we should be thankful they didn’t recruit someone who knew what they were doing.
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I’d love to know a ballpark figure of just how much money had been diverted away from public schools to the corporate charter industry… 10s of billions? 100 of billions? How much better would public schools be without a constant hemorrhaging of resources to feed billionaires more cash?
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Devos is being over talked about…….it is the democrat centrists and their history who deserve discussion…….the republicans are not going to say…..omigosh….we have been on the wrong talk on public education (we are going to quit trying to destroy it). The danger is that the centrist democrats can crucify anyone who criticizes Obama for Gates and Duncan…….Biden and others need to be shoved into the spotlight regarding what they stand for.
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In Ohio, most of the voucher money goes to Catholic schools. In Kentucky, the well-funded ads aimed at trashing Democrat Beshers, who is running against Gov. Bevin, claim in all caps that the Democrat is pro-abortion. That’s THE primary message of the ad. When Bevin and Devos held a public meeting in Ky. about public education, with admittance by rsvp only, a single church group was represented at the meeting, a Catholic diocese.
Steve Bannon, in a NYT interview, said he was looking at a place in Vatican City as a base for his political movement to elect populist politicians across Europe. (BTW, the Criticism section of Wikipedia’s entry for the Catholic Opus Dei is worth reading.)
Pope Francis isn’t alone in fighting against Bannon’s wealthy American Catholic capitalists (a group that loathes labor, believes birth control should be illegal and authoritarian right wing governments installed). The National Catholic Reporter is on his side. But, the Pope deserves more support from Catholic Americans who think Bannon is an abomination. Trump got 60% of the white, Catholic vote.
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DeVos should pair up with Penn. state Rep. Mike Folmer (ALEC) for the talk circuit. Given his legal troubles involving a minor, he’s a perfect spokesman for voucher money going Catholic schools. In 2018, Steven Singer wrote about Folmer’s resurrection of a voucher bill in Pennsylvania.
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And today Folmer was arrested for owning and distributing child porn.
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