Betsy DeVos has been rebuked by Congress, even by Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, but she refuses to back down from her plan to force states and school districts to share emergency funding with private schools, even elite private schools.
Erica L. Green writes in the New York Times:
WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, defiant amid criticism that she is using the coronavirus to pursue a long-sought agenda, said she would force public school districts to spend a large portion of federal rescue funding on private school students, regardless of income.
Ms. DeVos announced the measure in a letter to the Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents state education chiefs, defending her position on how education funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, should be spent.
“The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers and families,” she wrote in the letter on Friday. “There is nothing in the act suggesting Congress intended to discriminate between children based on public or nonpublic school attendance, as you seem to do. The virus affects everyone.”
A range of education officials say Ms. DeVos’s guidance would divert millions of dollars from disadvantaged students and force districts starved of tax revenues during an economic crisis to support even the wealthiest private schools. The association representing the nation’s schools superintendents told districts to ignore the guidance, and at least two states — Indiana and Maine — said they would.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
The woman is toxic. She makes little effort to even pretend that she is subject to the rule of law. With an Attorney General who sees himself as Trump’s acolyte, the legislative branch of government is being castrated.
DeVos is only following the example set by her boss — Donald J. Trump. Trump and DeVos are sorry examples for the children of the United States to follow.
I could come up with “lock her up!” – She has broken several laws both prior to buying her position and since – She freely breaks laws RE how Dept. of Ed. money should be spent – laws mean nothing to her – neither do the fines that must be paid – no problem, the taxpayers pay for any fines she accumulates while in office – prior to “citizen’s united” she got caught breaking donation laws in Ohio – A bipartisan senate agreed she was guilty and should be fined – she and her PACs owe hundreds of millions to the state of Ohio- but she smugly refused to pay She has a strong belief in buying elections! She’s not just following the example set by Trump – she could give him lessons on unethical practices! For someone who attended “Christian” schools all her life, she has no understanding of the teachings of Jesus!
for many like DeVos the entire theory of Christ being “the way” appears to have been left out of all religious training
Impeach Betsy DeVos!
Is that all you can come up with?
Blame it on the heat.
As with so many “Christians” the values they espouse are meaningless, especially if those value get in the way of their personal wants and desires. Trump and DeVos along will so many, many of those in the evangelist movement are prime example of “un-christians” who believe the world Is their oyster to do with as they wish.
The Bible warns about people like Betsy the Brutal.
Matthew 7:15
“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.”
Corinthians 11:13-15
“For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.”
And these two are not the only warnings in the Bible about false prophets like Betsy the Brutal.
https://www.openbible.info/topics/false_prophets
Thank you, Eva Moskowitz, for your very fine work in 2017 when you made it your mission to empower Betsy DeVos by embarking on your personal PR effort to demand the Senate confirm Betsy DeVos when her confirmation was in doubt.
“BetsyDeVos has the talent, commitment, and leadership capacity to revitalize our public schools and deliver the promise of opportunity.” tweets Eva Moskowitz.
And a special shout out to the administrators and teachers at Success Academy — most particularly the ones who don’t have the moral and ethical character to walk away and are rewarded by promotions and higher salaries — whose silence and complicity when their great leader devoted herself to making sure DeVos was Secretary of Education speaks volumes. I don’t know whether the administrators and teachers were as fawning and admiring of Betsy DeVos as their great leader was, but does it matter? They shared the moral character of Susan Collins, and no doubt a few of them wrote a strongly worded e-mail and sent it to their draft folder or shook their finger vigorously where no one could see.
“Future generations have much to lose — but plenty to gain — in the next four years, and they will have a strong ally fighting for them in Washington, DC, when Betsy DeVos is confirmed.” writes Eva Moskowitz
The children in private schools owe a great debt of thanks to Eva Moskowitz and those teachers and administrators at Success Academy who were silent and complicit when Moskowitz made it her mission to work to legitimize Betsy DeVos as the savior of all children.
Public funds only for public schools. Period.
Somebody help me understand this.
Could it be that private schools are not considered private businesses, and therefore do not qualify for pandemic aid to businesses with fewer than 500 employees? No. They will apply for PPP, which should allow them to keep enough staff on payroll to provide online ed to students during closure. NYS also has 0-interest loans up to $75k for smallbiz up to 100 employees. We know that public schools are ineligible for those programs. They will avail themselves of far smaller congressional pandemic aid to K12 ed under CARES – which DeVos says they must share w/privates? We also know this aid falls far short of reqts, hence draconian state cuts to public ed already in works.
There is a theoretical point raised by DeVos, & also by a privsch parent in the article [re: why can’t she get NYCDofEd assist for student chromebook]. It’s that public funds should be shared w/privschs when it comes to providing essentials to all children [safety, food, certain social services]. Can you stretch the definition of “essential” to cover keeping their privschs in biz– maybe just getting digital devices in privsch student hands for online learning? I don’t think so. Not when there’s an easy alternate option: get a refund on tuition from your closed privsch & enroll in your zoned public. Presto: now you can apply for that chromebook & get remote learning.
The thing BDV & whiny privsch parents are pretending not to get: this is a fiscal crisis the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1929. There’s… very little $ available for public goods right now, & likely for a couple of yrs or more. That means: batten down the hatches. Shut down all frills like two-& three-tier publicly-funded school systems . “School choice” is (& always was) a concept that’s fiscally unsustainable except as practiced in a couple of countries w/schsys very different from ours [the Netherlands, e.g., where national per-pupil allotment is equal (except higher in poor communities) all teachers pd to natl scale, all schs subj to same stds/assessments, et al].
Private schools charge, manage your outrageous tuition fees better
Keep Betsy Devos out of our schools.