FOX News and the Wall Street Journal–both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation–express shock and astonishment that President-Elect Joe Biden might appoint Lily Eskelsen Garcia as Secretary of Education.
The Wall Street Journal article is here, where WSJ editorial board member William McGurn is taken aback that Biden would do such a thing:
Everyone has understood that a Biden Education Department would mark a change of direction from the past four years. But to elevate to education secretary someone whose career has been spent fighting any reform aimed at relaxing the teachers unions’ stranglehold on the public schools would be an astonishingly bleak admission about whose interests come first.
“Appointing either Weingarten or García would be the biggest union payback since Jimmy Carter created the Department of Education in 1979,” says Jeanne Allen, who is founder and CEO of the Center for Education Reform and worked in the Reagan Education Department. “It’s a sign that the teachers unions now own him lock, stock and barrel.”
How fitting to quote someone who collects millions of dollars from big donors to push charter schools and fight to privatize public funding, especially someone who worked in the Reagan administration. Why should Biden care whether right-wingers approve of his choices?
Thomas Barrabi of FOX News is equally dismayed that Garcia is under serious consideration because she was a vocal critic of Obama era education reforms (which were almost identical to the “reforms” promoted by George W. Bush) and was especially critical of standardized testing. How dare she! Imagine Biden appointing someone who was critical of Arne Duncan! Indeed, the NEA voted to condemn him and Race to the Top (which was, by the way, a costly catastrophe).
Here’s the clincher: The prospective candidate was critical of the Obama administration’s approach to education reform when Biden served as vice president. Eskelsen Garcia was particularly wary of an emphasis on standardized testing as a measure of success for both students and teachers, telling NPR in 2014 that she felt it did “more harm than good.”
Sounds like Lily is thinking about the wellbeing of students and teachers, unlike the WSJ and FOX News, which want more of the same failed policies as No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“…fighting any reform aimed at relaxing the teachers unions’ stranglehold…”
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Stranglehold. Oh, you must never do that. My sides ache. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA…
Teacher’s unions have a stranglehold on reform like flea has a half nelson on an elephant.
Roy, that is a memorable image. Thanks.
Roy,
I had the same reaction but did not express it as well as you.
Too funny! Exactly.
Nailed it, Roy!
Lily or Randi would turn the Department of Education onto a track driven by the needs of children and families, not schemers and privatized, not Gates experimenters, the most progressive school innovations emanate from teachers in unionized school districts, btw, the highest achieving nation in the world are fully unionized … “successes” are sometimes defined by enemies
You do know that both teacher’s unions accepted Gates $$$$ in return for promoting the awful CC standards? My hope would be that Lily would come clean about it and do what’s right for children and teachers.
Yes. That was a sad moment in education history, Lisa.
It seems the subtle assumption is that teachers’ interests are OPPOSED to student interests on principle. I beg to differ. . . . “stranglehold” is just more self-analytic Orwell-speak. I’m with Roy on that one.
And God forbid that Biden might have changed his mind about reformers in education from when he was VP. CBK
How couldn’t one be with Roy on this!!!
Oh, I would be so happy if he chose Lily Eskelsen Garcia! She understands that it is the well-being of our students we should be concerned with and not test scores. She is a well-respected Educator who believes in Public Schools and has actually lived the experience of being in a classroom with children.. unlike someone else who is only intent on lining the pockets of businessmen. ( Can’t wait for BD to go!)
I’d be happy if I knew the President-Elect, and whomever he appoints, know the intimate even essential relationship between democracy and its PUBLIC institutions, including and especially the institution of PUBLIC EDUCATION. CBK
Yes! No doubt!
“But to elevate to education secretary someone whose career has been spent fighting any reform aimed at relaxing the teachers unions’ stranglehold on the public schools would be an astonishingly bleak admission about whose interests come first.”
Teachers unions’ stranglehold on the public schools? Unions are working to HELP students and teachers when politicians and administrators do nothing. Grrr.
No to Lily Eskelsen Garçia. The AFT and NEA have too much power and I am a Democrat!
Oh, of course, Lily and her 10 yachts, tsk tsk. AFT and NEA have too much power!? Where? In what alternate universe? You must be thinking of Gates, Kochs, Waltons, Eli Broad and all those hedge fund managers.
I’m with Joe here. Big money managers have vastly more influence on education than teachers, and had for my entire 47 years in education.
Wouldn’t it be loverly! Makes me wanna sing.
Me, too!!!
And that it would really PO the folks at Fox and WSJ. Oh, oh. Icing on the cake!
Here’s the L.A. Times recapping Devos’ 4 years ed Ed. Sec.
As usual with the Times, it gets pro-charter-y near the end, but I love their assessment of Devos’ overall performance and impact:
The reason that she was the only Cabinet member to serve the entirety of Trump’s presidency is, the Times claims, because “she survived by doing almost nothing.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/editorial-goodbye-betsy-devos-survived-110057306.html
The selection of Secretary of Education and the impact on the cause most of us on here cherish is actually pretty complicated. I don’t know much about Garcia, and she sounds like a very good choice (I appreciate anyone who had the intelligence and courage to say high-stakes testing does more harm than good back in 2014; yes that includes everyone on here). But just as I wasn’t as upset about the selection of Betsy DeVos as I should have been, because I knew she’d expose the entire awful Reform agenda, I’m concerned that a friendly Biden selection could re-open the door to Reform propaganda pushed in the articles mentioned here. Of course, worst of all is someone like Arne Duncan who both pushes the Reform agenda and gives legitimates to Reform talking points.
Am I wrong? I suppose we’ll always be under fire. Billionaire-backed Reformers never go away.
The problem was that Arne Duncan was pushing reform beginning at a time (2009/2010) when all of the negative aspects were not clear. When people attack teacher union leaders for “going along” with the reform agenda, they are referring to an earlier time. I acknowledge that there were some people who recognized the problems with ed reform from the beginning, but others did not at first, but because they are normal people like the rest of us, when they learned about the problems, they questioned and opposed ed reform ideas.
Even Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren didn’t see all the dangers of ed reform back then. But I would be happy if either one of them was Secretary of Education because being misled by hype does not make you evil. Being wrong does not make you evil.
Being wrong and doubling down when you are wrong, and insisting that lies are truth and covering up when the evidence doesn’t support the false narrative you are pushing makes you evil. That is what many ed reformers today are doing.
But I do think it is very important that supporters of public education speak out. Not to demonize a democrat for past support of something we know was wrong, but to pressure them to adopt better policies. That wasn’t done enough during the Obama administration, but it wasn’t done enough because the public did not recognize the dangers.
It is important for support of public schools to be led by parent and teacher groups, and not just be associated with the union. Would love to see a progressive politician like Bernie or AOC take the lead in using their bully pulpit to make this into a parent thing, not a union thing.
Early in so-called reform unions thought they could work with reformers, and they tried to appear open minded about change, especially since some Democrats were advocating for “choice.” Times have changed a great deal. We’ve gone from trying “save students from failing schools” to trying to dismantle public education. Even the unions have had to live and learn.
I would love to see parents lead the charge against test and punish and more funding for public education. Parents cannot be shut down in the way that teacher advocacy groups can.
retired teacher,
You are right — I always respected the unions and I never held it against them for working with ed reformers back when it seemed as if ed reformers were people who were genuinely interested in new ways of approaching education, especially for the most disadvantaged students. It turns out that maybe some of the early folks were, but the entire movement was taken over by the most greedy, dishonest folks and those who might have started out with good intentions either left the movement (like unions) or chose to be complicit and told themselves they weren’t doing harm as they personally benefited from the lies. Those people who remained in ed reform and the cheerleaders in the media told themselves they were doing it for the children, but the truth was always that they were doing it for their own careers. Ed reform is full of people only concerned for the students whose performance enriches them, and if they have to harm the students who don’t help their careers to get ahead or stay in favor, they do it without a second thought. it was never about the students. It was always about them.
That’s why I am forgiving of people like John Merrow who was wrong, but when he did finally realize he was wrong, he did not double down and keep promoting lies or remain silently complicit. The people who remained in the ed reform movement are the ones who are reprehensible – the ones who walked away from ed reform are the ones with a moral and ethical compass.
I agree with that we can’t hold people responsible for views they held a long time ago. However, at this point, the fact that the major unions have not asked members to take to the streets and strike to end the standardized testing mandate is starting to look like complicity in child abuse and the devolution of curricula and pedagogy.
I was flat out furious when the unions got cozy with Gates and Coleman. Sickening. But I’m willing to let bygones be bygones. However, at this point, unions really need to take clear stands, around the country, against the federal standardized testing mandate, charter schools, vouchers, VAM, and the execrable ,puerile Common Core-ish State Standards (CC$$) in ELA. Unfortunately, the CC$$ have been with us for so long now that the current generation of English teachers has, for the most part, known nothing but the CC$$ occupation, and quite a few of these people have become so indoctrinated by the occupying forces that they actually think that teaching English involves stringing together random, isolated exercises on “skills” from the Gates/Coleman bullet list. They don’t remember how the subject was approached in the past, when English teachers would do extended, coherent units on The Elements of Poetry or Aspects of the Short Story or The Transcendentalist Movement in American Literature or British Literature of the Romantic Era or Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha or Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. These people probably imagine, with David Coleman, who was profoundly ignorant about what English teachers were actually doing, that pre-CC$$ students in US English classes weren’t reading substantive texts, and far too many think, now, that when they’ve used a text as an occasion for some exercises on a couple “skills” from the Coleman list, that they’ve “taught it.”
But of course, the text needs to be FIRST. We read because of the text. We are interested in having he vicarious experience or in what the author has to say and why. If our lessons are about Common Core skills x and y and the texts encountered are simply occasions for “practicing x and y,” we have it ALL WRONG.
“The problem was that Arne Duncan was pushing reform beginning at a time (2009/2010) when all of the negative aspects were not clear.”
I’m going to be as elegant as I can with this response NYCpsp:
Horse manure!
Many of us back then had been pointing out the negative aspects of edudeform and privatization for many years by that time. Perhaps you didn’t see it, but I and many others hadd been fighting “data driven decision making” since before the turn of this century.
By 09/10 I had been driven out of one district fighting against the very things that Blahrney D put on steroids. It-the travesties of NCLB and the standards and testing malpractice regime were well known at that point by anyone halfway awake about education malpractice policies.
Duane,
I know you were fighting the good fight long before many people and I thank you for that.
I can only speak from a parent’s perspective, but I definitely didn’t understand the nuances of the issues back then and even though I cared a lot about public education, to a parent, those reforms didn’t seem particularly dangerous. That is because the rhetoric didn’t reflect the reality and most parents heard the rhetoric.
And that’s something that is really important now, because I believe there are still too few parents who really understand the full and detrimental impact these reforms have on public education. There are lots of progressive politicians who can speak convincingly about Medicare for All, or free college for all, but when it comes to K-12 public education, they are still spouting reformy language even when they support public schools! There needs to be a politician with a bully pulpit or an organization of parents and students to take up the mantle of K-12 public education the way people took up the mantle of health care or the Green New Deal or gun control.
I think it’s possible that the past success of the teachers’ union made most of the rest of us who supported public education lazy. The union was fighting the good fight and the rest of us were content that public schools had the union’s strong voice to advocate for them. And then the billionaire ed reformers were able to fund front organizations that appeared to be parents and students and got to be the ONLY voice that the media ever used to represent parents!
Duane, you are well-versed in all these issues, but even some teachers are ill-informed — there are union teachers who vote for Trump and Republicans who want to break unions! So I think you overestimate how little most people understood about what’s wrong with ed reform or even know that “ed reform” was something dangerous — especially 10 years ago. I heard Bernie Sanders in a 2016 debate praising the good “public charters” and missing a unique opportunity to talk about the problems with the privatization movement,
and he actually sat on committees that oversaw education. So imagine how little the typical American understood this.
Just saying that what is obvious to you was not to many people who actually thought of themselves as strong supporters of public education! In fact, it still isn’t obvious to many people who support public education strongly and don’t understand why “ed reform” is so bad.
I have to give Diane credit for not only changing her early views, but also becoming a leading advocate for public education. She saw the writing on the wall before the unions did.
I’m with you, Duane. I was writing pieces about how execrable the state tests were BEFORE Duncan, during Duncan, post Duncan and how ridiculous the CC$$ in ELA were throughout Duncan’s disastrous tenure and ever since.
Both should remain as advocates of public education–but outside of the cabinet. There are better candidates for SoE.
Joe and Jill pledged to select someone whose experience was rooted in the classroom. Close vetting of Randi Weingarten’s time spent as a NYC teacher would reveal that it was an eye-blink. She has had a hard time accounting for this deficiency when questioned.
Republicans, looking to block her possible nomination, would pounce on it and find her record fudgy..
Those are both opinion pieces. They are not news. I have read GREAT advice on Quora more than once to avoid reading opinion pieces while thinking they are based on reliable facts. Instead, stick to the news reported by reliable sources written by journalists that are expected to follow ethical rules that require them to report the truth (or as close as they can get to it – reporters do not have control over any liars they interview and quote), not the crap that is often found on OpEd pages.
I can understand how the choice of a union affiliated person leading the DOE might seem polarizing, but, frankly, my dear, I don’t give a d0mn. Public schools in this country have been under siege for decades as have public school teachers. They have endured the worst of the worst policies from the left and the right. Biden has said he wants to rebuild unions in this country, and perhaps this will be his way of signaling that there is a new sheriff in town and a new day in this country.
Biden has said he wants to rebuild unions in this country
THIS!!!!!
We cannot be afraid to fight against any Joe Biden picks for Sec of education. We already know the ed-reformer goons in both the Democratic and Republican parties, backed by CAP & it’s dark money funders will attack any progressive nominee.
Our focus should be on revealing CAP’s malignant influence over the Dept of Education. Obama era public school teacher assaults percolated inside of CAP. It was CAPs collusion with foundations, DFER, & big tech that amplified their bad ideas.
Just last month, CAP proposed a funding “equity” formula that is nearly identical to Race to the Top. If RttT 2.0 is rolled out in the Biden era, Dems face more electoral losses in 2022 & another Donald Trump in 2024.
Randi was a horrible union leader when she was president of the UFT in NYC. She agreed to the worst contract in the past 30 years. (2005 contract) She is no friend of the teachers of NYC and she would not be a friend to the teachers of this great country.
Ah, but when a lobbyist for extraction or fossil fuels industries is tapped to oversee an environmental regulatory agency, that’s just fine.
As my students used to say to me, when detecting hypocrisy, “Get the f*** outta here.”
Well observed, Mark!
Thank you sir!
markstexttermianl, Yup. Here we are again:
“Speaking on Monday at The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Representative Cedric Richmond, recently recruited by the Biden transition team to become a top White House adviser as director of the Office of Public Engagement, assured the business elite that they would always enjoy the ear of the new administration. Asked how CEOs can get the White House to listen to them, Richmond said, “I hope to be that conduit straight into the White House.” He promised an “open-door policy.” https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/progressives-biden-cabinet-corporate/
I would be sooo pleased with either of these appointments!
If Biden picks a DFER candidate or any other DFormER whose views align with those of DeVos, it will be devastating not only public education but for the Democratic Party. One can only get away with throwing stones at unions in one’s own glass house for so long.
Neither union president will be ever be cleared by McConnell’s Senate. Who is 2nd or third on the list? A DFER pick?
There are others beside the union leaders who aren’t DFER and there are ways to form a cabinet other than letting McConnell decide for Biden who runs the executive branch — checks and balances, not unchecked imbalances. To be honest, Randi and Lily are not the most progressive choices on the list. Far from it. They are each acceptable and that’s all.
Which “parents?” BIPOC, OptOut NYC, Gifted School, Specialized HS, etc.,
Garcia is from Utah, Romney is the senator…
I hope Lily gets it! I am in NEA and love her. I’m a plain-old classroom teacher.
The Chicago Teachers Union is working for the children and teachers. Whoever knocks unions doesn’t understand how much they care. Who else has the power to demand things get better in Chicago schools?
………………………..
Chicago Teachers Union |
Last night, our elected House of Delegates voted to reaffirm our demands on safety, equity and trust that we have been making — and CPS has been rejecting — at the bargaining table for months.
While this list is not exhaustive, it represents key demands that come out of hundreds of meetings with members, parents and community stakeholders, and bargaining sessions since March.
Let me be blunt. CPS is trying to move people back into school without being clear about their safety standards. We don’t trust them. They have misrepresented their safety preparations, ignored arbitrators’ orders, and appear to be more focused on the mayor and her political considerations than the well-being of us and our students.
The CTU is instead proposing a safe reopening plan that protects students, their families and workers — and refutes CPS lies that seek to lay blame for hurting students’ education on our union workers. We are sending a clear message to CPS with these demands: we will go back to in-person school when CPS can demonstrate that they have taken our concerns seriously.
You can read our demands here, but I’ll summarize, too.
Under safety, we want CPS to establish clear public health criteria for reopening, instead of the cherry-picked and irrelevant ‘doubling days’ figure they’ve recently rolled out. That includes re-opening CPS facilities for all students and personnel at less than 3% positivity rate and allowing all personnel, including clerks and tech coordinators, to work remotely.
CPS must enforce safety protocols in schools — including masks, cleaning, screening, PPE, social distancing, proper ventilation and training for teachers and staff to verify air quality standards are being met. To date, CPS instead has refused to verify that their ventilation ‘improvements’ can actually prevent the spread of COVID-19. We want safe workspaces for all bargaining unit employees, including clinicians and nurses, to meet therapeutic, instructional, and safety needs. And we want guaranteed testing, contact tracing, and vaccines targeted to areas in greatest economic need.
We want equity — including a commitment by CPS to immediately allow for improvements in remote learning, as parents, students and educators have been demanding for months.
Critically, CPS must prepare a better plan for hybrid learning than their unworkable scheme for synchronous learning, and CPS must provide the support services that students and families need. That must include accelerating CPS’ contractual obligation to make sure every school has a full-time nurse every day.
Finally, we want trust — with CPS engaging all workers, as well as CPS parents and community residents in any reopening dialogue; by creating a joint CPS/CTU COVID-19 committee with authority to monitor safety and other needs; and by establishing a safety committee in every school to address problems and keep our school communities safe.
The pandemic has closed schools. By not meeting these needs, CPS is keeping them shut. If CPS would provide the safety, equity and trust we need — by bargaining in good faith and permitting independent verification of their safety claims by the Union, parents and safety experts — we could agree on safe ways to return to in-person learning. We are the ones with a comprehensive plan that can restore public trust and reopen schools safely. But if CPS insists on pushing us back without bargaining or taking our demands seriously, we will not sacrifice our lives or the lives of our students for their political goals.
It’s critical for us to push this campaign for safety, equity and trust to the next level. Join us at 11 a.m. on Saturday for our car caravan for safety, equity and trust. Watch for emails about a series of actions next week to advance our demands. And stand strong in the unity and solidarity that we all share in our struggle to return to schools safely, with the resources and supports our school communities need.
This is literally the fight of our lives — for the safety and well-being of each of us and all of us together — and when we fight, we win.
In safety and solidarity,
Jesse Sharkey
CTU President
Chicago Teachers Union • 1901 W. Carroll Ave. • Chicago, IL 60612 • 312-329-9100
http://www.ctulocal1.org
for the schools Chicago’s students deserve
Republicans were happy to have Betsy DeVos as our Secretary of Education. DeVos has fought against public education for decades, but FOX and Pubs were 100% behind her. And now that dastardly Biden has the gonads to appoint a public education proponent as Secretary of Education. That can’t be how you MAGA.
—————————————–From: “Diane Ravitch’s blog”
To: pbarton1@charter.net Cc: Sent: Thursday December 10 2020 1:33:09PM Subject: [New post] FOX News, WSJ Are Shocked, Shocked that Biden Might Appoint a Leader of a Teachers’ Union as Secretary of Education
WordPress.com
dianeravitch posted: ” FOX News and the Wall Street Journal–both owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation–express shock and astonishment that President-Elect Joe Biden might appoint Lily Eskelsen Garcia as Secretary of Education. The Wall Street Journal article is here”
What’s it going to be like for the incoming Biden administration? Well, imagine that you are the manager of a grocery, and a herd of bull moose has been diverted through the store. They’ve knocked over shelves, defecated everywhere, eaten the lettuce and turnips and bok choy, broken the coolers and freezers. “Cleanups on aisles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, . . . 50.” Biden’s going to need all those highly experienced professionals that he has been appointing.
Frost once wrote that “the beauty of metaphor is that it breaks down.” Yes, there are now deer ticks in the broccoli. Yes, there is moose scat in Aisle 5. But here’s where the metaphor breaks down: the store can’t be closed while the cleanup is done, and the goods can’t all be thrown away.
OMG! Randi??? YEAH!
I hope that my sarcasmometer isn’t broken!
I feel a bit of hope for the future.
I am pleasantly surprised to read that Garcia and Weingarten are seriously being considered for a cabinet position by Team Biden/Harris. This is excellent news!
Student Loan Cancellation Sets Up Clash Between Biden and the Left
Democratic leaders are pressing the president-elect to cancel $50,000 in debt per student borrower by fast executive action, but he wants Congress to pass more modest relief.
Dec. 10, 2020
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is facing pressure from congressional Democrats to cancel student loan debt on a vast scale, quickly and by executive action, a campaign that will be one of the first tests of his relationship with the liberal wing of his party.
Mr. Biden has endorsed canceling $10,000 in federal student debt per borrower through legislation, and insisted that chipping away at the $1.7 trillion in loan debt held by more than 43 million borrowers is integral to his economic plan. But Democratic leaders, backed by the party’s left flank, are pressing for up to $50,000 of debt relief per borrower, executed on Day 1 of his presidency.
More than 200 organizations — including the American Federation of Teachers, the N.A.A.C.P. and others that were integral to his campaign — have joined the push.
The Education Department is effectively the country’s largest consumer bank and the primary lender, since 2010, for higher education. It owns student loans totaling $1.4 trillion, so forgiveness of some of that debt would be a rapid injection of cash into the pockets of many people suffering from the economic effects of the pandemic…
Thanks for posting this article. I teach students heading off to college plus we have our own recent grad (staring down repayment) right now.
Sad. Biden will only do what his donors tell him to.
A student debt jubilee would be a great boost to the economy.
“Seen in this way, cancelling student debt is not just a nice theory, but an imperative, to prevent a snap-back that is sure to crush household balance sheets. The last thing we need with the fledgling recovery is another $13 billion or so flowing out of the economy every month. (That’s the average $393 payment multiplied by 33 million; the real number might be lower but not by much.) Biden has already vowed to cancel $10,000 in student debt for every borrower and all of it for those who attended public colleges and make under $125,000 a year. So he’d not only be saving the economy but fulfilling a campaign promise.”
https://prospect.org/coronavirus/unsanitized-student-debt-cancellation-anti-austerity-measure-day-one-agenda/
I would oppose this. A trillion-dollar giveaway, benefitting relatively wealthy Americans, and paid for by all Americans. If they want to cancel future college debt, too, then maybe I’m on board, because I have two kids who haven’t gone to college yet.
I am still paying $200 a month on my youngest daughters student loan. I’m hoping for some help to finish it up. Only about $4000 to go. My other daughter owes massive amounts. I’ve paid my share, but it would be nice if the government forgave a part of it. She’s currently a nutritionist, but her dream of becoming a PA was cut short because she would have to live off of student loans for two years to do her clinical. Even with our help, we figured it would cost $100,000 so she would end up with a better salary but a debt which would put her in the hole.
Forgiving a meager $10,000 will cover interest & won’t even touch the principle of the majority of student loans. Half of the total debt is held by households making less than the median income and $10,000 will have no effect on monthly payments & long term payback terms.
Why are these Democrats so out of touch with real people’s problems? It seems Dem insiders are as dogmatic as Republicans about debt relief and PayGo. Pete Peterson is dead & his ideas need to be buried with him.
Robert Kuttner has debunked most of their arguments against student debt relief here: http://americanprospect.activehosted.com/index.php?action=social&chash=0d0fd7c6e093f7b804fa0150b875b868.454&s=2e564e4fb48d0d3ae569d8a776b8404b
It will help me and my daughter.
She is a well-respected Educator who believes in Public Schools and has actually lived the experience of being in a classroom with children.
for any query or support go here
https://click.newsletters.time.com/?qs=02601eba138607ea8d1c140d0bcdf85d4297440ff4f7faf975027d9c0a0c25fa857497c59e720ba9412914fb46ac0c24f41fae35727f321df7c20b4c4b37964c
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris Are TIME’s 2020 Person of the Year
Another thing to stick in Trumps craw.
Great! Sounds like the Anti-DeVos.
Would either get approved?
FLERP, I don’t think either will be approved by the McConnell Senate. The ed reform noise machine has already started.
Floating the 2 union leaders’ as possible picks & triggering the rage machine, sets the conditions for a compromise appointee.
Maybe Biden should let teachers decide who they want for Secretary of education. Anyone who wanted to could run and any teacher in the US and US territories could vote for anyone they wanted on the list or write in someone else’s name.
Make the process democratic.
SDP:
Trump would say he won.
Trump would say he won if he were entered in an Olympic decathlon.
Or women’s gymnastics
Picture Donald in a leotard.
I think his best chance is the luge.
SomeDAM Poet: OH NO! Please don’t torture us women with a picture like that. Ewww.
[Melania got money by viewing that mess but the rest of us didn’t.]
Shuffling along the balance beam with a Big Mac in one hand and a coke in the other.
Funny. Oh, the imagery.
Maybe they could add an event just for Donald “the lose”
The Olympic Loser
Donald is a Loser
Hurtling to his loss
Losing track abuser
Digging up the frost
Tried to mount the pommel horse
The Bible in one hand
Landed on his keister
The size of a baby grand.
If Biden established a new cabinet position — Secretary of Ignorance — Trump would win hands down.
There would be just one requirement for the job: no tweeting.
I wonder what Donald’s hands are going to do after he leaves the White House.
They might have to find a new pastime.
SomeDAM Poet : He’ll know what to do with his hands….women grabbing again will be high on his list. He probably has suffered these last 4 years without overtly grabbing anyone. [I’d hate to be a beautiful woman working in the WH. Nobody knows what went on in that place.]
Trump’s Legacy
Women grabbing
Back stabbing
Finger jabbing
Rant blabbing
Golf flabbing
Snatch bragging
Truth gagging
Thought lagging
Tongue wagging
Zig zagging
Particularly his thumbs.
Maybe tiddly winks?
I once had a math teacher who was the World tiddly winks champion.
He carried around a large wink (don’t remember what it’s called and don’t care) in his wallet.
That was before the sport hit the big time
If tweeting was a sport
Trump would win the race
And a golden thumb
That he could shove
In his darkest place.
He was a bit eccentric but a very good teacher and wicked smart. I think he was an MIT grad.
The Rudy Horse
Giuliani winced in pain
With Donald on his back
Pommel horse is not a game
With Donald on attack
Librarians and other teaching staff would also qualify — except billionaire librarians.
SomeDAMPoet, You mean Biden should give teachers the same open door policy like Cedric Richmond as OPE director who promised an “open door” conduit “straight into the WH” for business CEO’s?
There’s a big difference between CEOs and teachers. Teachers are a majority female profession. CEO’s are mostly white men. Can we dare say the Democrats ed reform is a war against all working women?
Lily is from Utah w/ Romney connections
Randi, a lawyer from NYC with very few days of teaching/classroom time on her resume. Not fit to be SoE according to Biden’s stated desires. Loves to pose as an educator and say how much she cares for “her kids.” A phony.
This sounds like a call to violence.
Twitter is a call to vowelends.
Twitter is a call to intelligends too.
About Jeanne Allen who is quoted in the post-
June 25-2020, The Catholic Association, Episode 62, Jennifer Lahl on the dangers of surrogacy and Jeanne Allen on saving Catholic schools.