No previous U.S. Secretary of Education required the protection of U.S. Marshalls.
Betsy DeVos is the first to feel so endangered that she requires a special unit for herself.
Could it be the Grizzly bears?
Her brother Erik Prince owns a mercenary army. Both of them are billionaires. Why doesn’t she ask Erik to pitch in?
Politico Morning Education reports:
DEVOS SECURITY DETAIL COST MORE THAN $6M LAST YEAR:Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ security detail cost more than $6 million over the past fiscal year and it’s projected to cost more than $7 million over the coming year, a spokesperson for the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to POLITICO.
— The Marshals Service said the final cost of protecting DeVos in fiscal 2019, which ended Monday, was $6.24 million. That’s down from $6.79 million in fiscal 2018.
— For the current 2020 fiscal year, which extends until next October, the Marshals Services projects that the security costs will increase to $7.87 million. The service did not disclose why the secretary’s protection is expected to cost more this year.
— The U.S. Marshals Service began providing a protective detail for DeVos in February 2017. The service said in a statement that it “regularly conducts threat assessments on Ms. DeVos to determine threats to the secretary’s safety.” Nicole Gaudiano has more.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
How much money has Trump wasted on his never ending golf trips? it is also in the millions.
TRUMP’S GOLFING HAS COST TAXPAYERS $102 MILLION, JUST $12.7 MILLION BEHIND OBAMA’S TRAVEL DURING ENTIRE PRESIDENCY: REPORT
Newsweek, May 2019: The $102 million paid by Americans to cover security and travel expenses on the golf trips during Trump’s almost two and half years in office was about $12.7 million less than what Barack Obama and his family spent on travel during Obama’s eight years in the White House, according to documents obtained by Judicial Watch, a conservative government watchdog that relies on open records laws.
HuffPost said it “took a conservative approach to determining costs” of Trump’s travel. It calculated Air Force One operating costs at $15,994 per-hour—the price of fuel and maintenance—although Pentagon documents received by Judicial Watch showed that each flight-hour cost $180,118 in fiscal year 2016 and $206,337 in fiscal year 2015…”
Billionaires don’t mind taking advantage of us ‘normal/poor people’. We are the ‘little people’ who are getting screwed.
DeVos doesn’t care or she’d ask her brother Erik Prince for security.
There are many uses for this waste of money. How about funding Medicare for All, funding K-12 public schools, doing work on our failing infrastructure or increasing Social Security monthly payments?
$8M is a pittance compared to the cost of protecting our children’s educations from her, measured in both dollars & quality of life.
DeVos is REALLY wealthy. She’s much wealthier than the Trumps.
I think people that rich always have a security detail. I just don’t think she should make the public pay for it. It’s an extraordinary expense that is only there because she’s hugely wealthy. I don’t think the public should take the hit on that.
Just remember! Nothing is free. These Trump administration bragging that they don’t take salaries? It would be cheaper to pay a salary.
She claims her huge voucher program is “free” too. It’s a fantasy, but all of ed reform is clapping along in unison as she spouts this nonsense. Blatantly and deliberately misleading. “Free! No money down! Win/Win! Plus/And!”
Ask people in Wisconsin if vouchers come with a cost. They got the bill.
Trump Administration members who “don’t take a salary” are really, really expensive.
The world’s priciest “volunteers”.
I don’t know why they come out to the hinterlands anyway. So they can tell public school students they’re all “failing” in their “government schools”? It is RELENTLESSLY negative towards public schools and public school students.
The invented statistics, too! Welders make “40 dollars an hour”. “65%” of jobs will be gone in 20 years. “60%” of students want to attend private schools but can’t.
Are they a disinformation corps? How does this serve the public? And why would I believe anything ELSE out of the US Department of Education if they’re validating this nonsense?
$8 million could have paid for a number of music or art teachers, libraries etc. It is shocking how these billionaires can burn through public dollars.
We know Trump doesn’t pay taxes, does DeVos?
Betsy’s noxious which provokes threats. She should take personal responsibility and pay for the problems that her actions and words create.
Speaking of oligarchs in education, Saint Melinda (Lucifer herself) is self-promoting with promises of money to be given away…again. It’s become a tiresome, cottage industry PR trick of the Gates. FYI- Mr.and Mrs. Gates, your reputations are experiencing wear-out as a result of too much self aggrandizement. (But, egomaniacs have to be fed.) Perhaps realizing that the loss of education jobs will decimate women’s prospects (and, those of the middle class) Ms. Gates created a “company”, Pivotal Ventures, that hawks her book… and, sallies forth with buzzwords about supporting women’s opportunities to advance in fields other than education, like tech. By all means Ms.Gates should proceed- and report back to the American people about how her efforts overcame the basic problem of concentrated wealth and her family’s preference for destroying the common goods of Main Street.
Melinda “loses sleep over fears that the nation will stop caring about inequality and diversity”- this go round her talking points are about gender inequality. She wants women fast tracked in tech, media and public office…no mention of the leadership in her own church- Catholic. It’s ironic because Catholic and evangelical men seem to be the ones who have no interest in gender equality. Melinda should write a note to self.
Correlations must not have been taught in Melinda’s Catholic school where she was first in class. Nations with the greatest income equality have greater gender equality.
YES
Bears, Beets, Battlestar Betsy
Lions and tigers and Betsys, Oh my!
Yes, actually, the security team is due to grizzly bears. Don’t blame the bears, though, blame DeVos. The fact that the Senate anointed her after she made such an outlandish comment about grizzlies made everyone very upset. So, there were (peaceful) protests. Billionaires like Elizabeth DeVos see peaceful protesters as unwashed, dangerous thugs, however. So, $28 million of anyone’s money but her own will be wasted on an unnecessary armed protection squad. Because of “grizzlies”. It was such a stupid thing to say into a microphone. That’s billionaires for you.
Off topic, sorry. Just want to say, and I mean this differently than before: Go Bernie!
NPE lists at its site, the board members of organizations like KIPP. The board members of Seton Catholic School Network should be included. (Seton was co-founded with Scott Hamilton of KIPP).
Is there a book that chronicles the story of ed policy formation leading to privatization,
as it relates to Catholics/Dioceses, organizations promoting them or related to them?
Privatization never reached the process of referendum where majority citizen preference could be determined. The impact of Gates, etc. is documented.
Chapters about the following would add insight.
(1) Sean Fieler and Frank Hanna III
(2) Catholic school chains, Seton Catholic School Network and Cristo Rey.
(3) Priests, dioceses staff and politicians in cities and states like Providence, Rhode Island, Milwaukee, Raleigh, N.C., Harrisburg, Pa., Los Angeles, Kentucky, New York, Cincinnati, etc.
(4) Acton, Manhattan and Fordham Institutes
(5) Pahara and Bellwether (recommended ed reformers reach out to churches).
(6) Voucher research about lack of efficacy and where most of the money goes- Ohio as example.
(7) Religious attitudes toward unions and public-owned common goods.
Is it surprising that the man who brought you Trump University would choose as his Secretary of the Department for the Privatization of US schools (formerly the USDE) the woman whose family money comes from Amway?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-level_marketing
This is from S. Africa but it certainly applies here.
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Joke: How to Eat a Politician
Two Crocodiles were sitting at the side of the River.The smaller one turned to the bigger one and said, ‘I can’t understand how you can be so much bigger than me. We’re the same age, we were the same size as kids – I just don’t get it.
”Well,’ said the big Croc, ‘What have you been eating?’ ‘Politicians, same as you,’ replied the small Croc. ‘Hmm. Well, where do you catch them?’ Like’On the other side of the river near the Parliament car park in Pretoria. ‘Same here. Hmm…..
How do you catch them?’ asked the big Croc.’Well, I crawl up under one of their big Lexus, BMW or Mercedes cars and wait for one to unlock the car door. Then I jump out, grab them by the leg, shake the crap out of them and eat ’em!’
‘Ah!’ says the big Crocodile, ‘I think I see your problem. You’re not getting any real nourishment. See, by the time you finish shaking the crap out of a Politician, there’s nothing much left but an a**hole with a briefcase.’
Cabinet secretaries are entitled to Secret Service protection. While I think it is highly unlikely that Ms. DeVos is a target for assassination, there is the possibility of kidnapping for ransom.
Many senior government officers, and cabinet officials are the targets of mentally deranged people.
Trump is mentally deranged. Maybe Betsy needs to be protected from him.
According to Borowitz, Trump learned a lot from Betsy. [Remember Borowitz is a comedian and writes satire on political events.] WaPo: Feb 02, 2017 · Trump implied Frederick Douglass was alive.
Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday that everything he knew about Douglass had come from his Education Secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos.
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—After raising eyebrows by suggesting that he believed that Frederick Douglass was still alive, Donald Trump revealed on Wednesday that everything he knew about Douglass had come from his Education Secretary nominee, Betsy DeVos.
“Betsy told me all about Frederick Douglass,” Trump told reporters. “I think she’s going to be a fantastic Education Secretary. She really made Frederick Douglass come alive.”…
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/trump-says-he-heard-frederick-douglass-was-alive-from-betsy-devos
Gary, Indiana is a poverty area. Gee. State takeover of poor schools isn’t working. Imagine that happening!
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Outrage Over Conditions At Gary Schools Hits State Ed Board
ERIC WEDDLEFollow us on Twitter Find us on Facebook
Outrage Over Conditions At Gary Schools Hits State Ed Board
Photo of a leaking roof inside the Westside Leadership Academy in Gary displayed Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, at the State Board of Education meeting.
Parents and others angrily called out the State Board of Education at its meeting today in Gary. They say despite the state’s intervention in local schools students face unsafe buildings, leaky roofs and even lack toilet paper at one school.
Parent LaRona Carter says students have been let down by elected state officials, various appointed boards and the companies hired with tax-dollars to manage the schools. Nine other parents and community members echoed Carter during public comments.
“When a takeover happens, that means I am going to do a better job than when you had it,” Carter told the board. “We are not seeing that.”
Tony Walker, a state board member from Gary, shared Carter’s concerns. Walker said he was troubled during a visit to schools Tuesday with Katie Jenner, Gov. Eric Holcomb’s senior education advisor. Walker says they saw “no fewer than 10 leaks” and mold in the library of the Westside Leadership Academy.
“It calls into question the state intervention in the city of Gary is, in fact, making it better,” Walker said. “Some great things are going on and I don’t want it to seem like this is a failed mission, but we do have some concerns here locally about the state engagement in Gary.”
Earlier this year millions of dollars in maintenance needs at Theodore Roosevelt College and Career Academy forced the school to no longer hold classes. Roosevelt students are now getting instruction at the Gary Area Career Center.
Walker described seeing students taught in “basically a garage” during his Tuesday visit.
“This is their school for the foreseeable future because their other building is uninhabitable for the foreseeable future,” Walker said, later adding: “It’s a disgrace, actually. We took over that school and since our involvement in that school, it’s landed to now where kids go to school in a garage.”
The temperature was hot in the uncontrolled garage this week, Walker said, and winter will soon come.
Roosevelt Superintendent Marshall Emerson and Principal Joshua Batchelor agreed with Walker that the career center is not appropriate for learning.
In 2017 state lawmakers approved the takeover of the entire Gary Community School District due to massive debt. The state gave MGT Consulting Group, based in Tallahassee, Fla., a $6.2 million contract to serve as Gary’s emergency manager.
The district is overseen by the state’s Distressed Unit Appeal Board.
The company has since earned bonus payments connected to cutting debt and other improvements. The emergency manager has previously reported an ongoing deficit-reduction plan could erase around $20 million in annual debt.
In 2012 the state took over Roosevelt High School for academic failure. The school was severed from the Gary Community School District and New Jersey-based Edison Learning was given a contract to operate the school. In 2017, the company signed a joint operating agreement with Gary Schools.
Board member David Freitas told Ron Sandlin, the board’s senior director of school performance, to propose three plans to fix the Roosevelt issue at the November meeting.
Peter Morikis, the Gary Schools emergency manager, did not attend Wednesday’s meeting. In a statement, he said the current administration is “committed to not only turning our schools around academically but creating a culture of excellence in all that we do.”
Morikis said improvements were made at West Side Leadership Academy before the start of the 2019-20 school year.
“The library is open and operable with a small area in need of restoration. We are aware of the need for roof maintenance and are working to identify the most financially responsible and feasible approach for repair,” he said.
The State Board of Education’s next meeting is Nov. 6.
Contact WFYI education reporter Eric Weddle at eweddle@wfyi.org or call (317) 614-0470. Follow on Twitter: @ericweddle.