Archives for category: Betsy DeVos
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DeVos Warns: No Testing Waivers Next Year!

By dianeravitch
September 5, 2020 //
27

Due to the pandemic, and the fact that schools across the nation were closed, Betsy DeVos raced to catch up and canceled federally mandated tests this past spring.

But, she warned, don’t expect a waiver from testing next spring!

Just because the nation’s schools are in turmoil and are uncertain about whether and when to resume in-person is no reason to ease up on the Big Stabdardized Tests!

The good news is that if we all turn out to vote in November, Betsy will be out of the Department of Education and back in one of her ten yachts.

The bad news is that some Democrats in Congress can’t wait to start the testing again.

If we fail to assess students, it will have a lasting effect for years to come,” DeVos wrote. “Not only will vulnerable students fall behind, but we will be abandoning the important, bipartisan reforms of the past two decades at a critical moment.”

DeVos’ letter cites a request from a broad coalition of groups calling on the Trump administration to enforce federal testing requirements, including the Center for American Progress, the National Urban League, the Education Trust and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Council of Chief State School Officers also pushed for assessments in the coming academic year, saying it is “more important than ever” to measure student learning and identify potential gaps during the pandemic.

DeVos’ announcement won rare praise from congressional Democrats.

Rep. Bobby Scott (D-Va.), chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, said he appreciated DeVos’ decision. “There is no question that the COVID-19 pandemic is having severe consequences for students’ growth and achievement, particularly for our most vulnerable students,” he said in a statement. “We cannot begin to address these consequences, unless we fully understand them.”

Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate education committee, also emphasized the importance of assessments required by federal law. “Especially when it comes to the disparities that harm so many students of color, students with disabilities and students whose families have low incomes, we’ve got to have data that shows us where we’re falling short so we can better support those students,” she said.

Both Scott and Murray said Congress needs to provide more funding to help schools safely reopen, avoid teacher layoffs and provide services to students during the pandemic.”

The only sane voice in the Edweek article was that of Randi Weingarten.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, blasted DeVos’ announcement, saying the education secretary should be focused on helping safely reopen schools, rather than “issuing a dictate on how to measure them.”

“Instead of focusing on the supports our kids need to get back to school safely, or what she can do to help, her first missive to the field is to tell them she is maintaining high stakes testing,” Weingarten said in a statement. “Of course accountability has a role, as does data, but right now educators and students are struggling with the daily realities of remote learning and returning to a potentially unsafe working environment.”

She is more in touch with the schools than any of the D.C. bigwigs or neoliberal think tankers.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Standardized Testing

Breaking! Federal Judge Rejects DeVos’ Efforts to Give Federal Funding to Private Schools

By dianeravitch
September 4, 2020 //
11

Secretary of Education DeVos issued a rule requiring states to share coronavirus relief funds with private schools, irrespective of need or low-income status.

News from the NAACP, the Education Law Center, and the Southern Poverty Law Center:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 4, 2020
Contacts: Ashley Levett, (334) 296-0084 / ashley.levett@splcenter.org
Sharon Krengel, (973) 624-1815, x24 / skrengel@edlawcenter.org

Parents, Districts, and NAACP Win Major Victory as Federal Court Blocks

Illegal DeVos Rule Nationwide

WASHINGTON D C – Late this afternoon the U S District Court for the District of Columbia
Judge Friedrich wrote: “Congress expressed a clear and unambiguous preference for apportioning funding to private schools based on the number of children from low-income families…” The court continued: “Contrary to the Department’s interim final rule, that cannot mean the opposite of what it says.”….The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs in NAACP v. DeVos, striking down a rule that imposes unlawful conditions on federal emergency aid for public schools. Judge Dabney L. Friedrich ruled that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education violated the clear language of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act in issuing a regulation that would illegally divert desperately needed funds away from public school students for the benefit of private schools.

“This decision sends a clear signal that Secretary DeVos cannot use illegal means to advance her agenda of funneling scarce public resources to private education, to the detriment of our highest need students in public schools across the country,” said Tamerlin Godley, a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, who argued the plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment. “We are particularly grateful that the court issued this decision quickly so that public school districts do not lose any more time in meeting the urgent needs of their students during this pandemic.”

The plaintiffs are the NAACP, public school parents and districts across the country. The plaintiff families have children enrolled in public schools in states including Maryland, North Carolina Georgia Arizona Florida Tennessee Nevada Mississippi and Alabama as well as,,,,,, , Washington, D.C. The plaintiffs also include Broward County Public Schools, FL; DeKalb County School District, GA; Denver County School District, CO; Pasadena Unified School District, CA; and Stamford Public Schools, CT.

The plaintiffs are represented by the law firm Munger Tolles & Olson LLP as well as the
Education Law Center and the Southern Poverty Law Center. These organizations collaborate on
Public Funds Public Schools (PFPS), a national campaign to ensure that public funds for education are used to maintain, support, and strengthen public schools.

The rule invalidated today required districts to either divert more funding for “equitable services” to private school students than the law allows or face onerous restrictions on the use of those funds in their public schools. It would have drastically diminished the desperately needed resources available to support public school children during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a particularly harmful effect on historically underserved student populations, including students of color and low-income students.

The court’s ruling grants a nationwide vacatur of the rule, bringing much-needed certainty to public schools across the country that they will have the full amount of CARES Act funds to which they are entitled.

More information about NAACP v. DeVos is available here. #

Categories Betsy DeVos, Funding

Texas: IDEA Corporate Charter Chain Plans Massive Expansion

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2020 //
16

The IDEA charter chain hopes to double its enrollment in Texas. This is the free-spending chain that planned to lease a private jet for $2 million a year but backed off after bad publicity; that flies its executives and their families in first-class; that bought premium box seats for professional basketball games; that pays its executives exorbitant salaries; that has received more than $200 million in federal funding from Betsy DeVos.

If the expansion plan goes forward, the IDEA enrollment will grow from 50,000 to nearly 100,000; its annual budget will grow from half a billion to one billion. This is larger than the budget of the University of Texas at Austin. Just in the past five years, IDEA’s budget has tripled.

One state representative called for an audit, but was careful to praise the organization that is gobbling up public dollars and sucking the life out of community public schools.

STATE REPRESENTATIVE TERRY CANALES CALLS FOR COMPREHENSIVE STATE AUDIT OF IDEA PUBLIC SCHOOLS

For Immediate Release
August 18, 2020
Contact: Curtis Smith
(512) 463-0426 office

AUSTIN, TX – In a letter addressed to Commissioner Mike Morath of the Texas Education Agency (TEA) and Texas First Assistant State Auditor Lisa Collier, State Representative Terry Canales calls for a comprehensive and multi-agency audit of the IDEA Public Schools (IDEA) after recent disclosures of lavish expenditures for its executives. These disclosures included leasing of a private jet solely for the use of top IDEA officials and their families, chauffeured limousines, advertisements during the Super Bowl and World Series, travel expenses of over $14 million, and many more similar expenditures.

IDEA receives approximately half a billion dollars a year from the State of Texas to educate students. It has plans to almost double its enrollment to 97,000 students and add 27 new campuses by the end of 2021. If approved, state funding could double to approximately $1 billion annually. Additional state oversight is needed to ensure that state dollars are spent for their intended purpose and to prevent questionable use of state funds in the future.

“As public servants, the State has an obligation to ensure that taxpayer dollars are used for their intended purposes, and the recent disclosures of the expenditures at IDEA are alarming—to say the least,” said Rep. Canales. “Texas must ensure that our tax dollars are not being used for purchases like private jets and Super Bowl advertisements. I believe IDEA’s recent actions have raised clear and pressing concerns surrounding IDEA’s financial decisions. Other contracts, state agencies, and even universities that receive far fewer state dollars than IDEA receive more state oversight. So, given IDEA’s questionable expenditures, a financial audit of IDEA only makes sense,” continued Canales. “Let me be clear, I do not believe any of our neighborhood schools are at issue here. I salute the hardworking teachers and students of IDEA, and I wholeheartedly support the work that they are doing. I believe this issue is solely at the executive level of the school district.” said Rep. Canales.

A state audit conducted jointly by the Office of the State Auditor and TEA may ensure that public funds are used efficiently for their intended purpose and may improve public trust. An audit also may reveal the need for possible legislative changes to increase oversight and reduce risk to the State of Texas. For more information, contact the Office of State Representative Terry Canales.

Rep. Terry Canales, D-Edinburg, is the Chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and a member of the Sunset Advisory Commission. Rep. Canales represents House District 40 in Hidalgo County, which includes portions or all of Edinburg, Elsa, Faysville, La Blanca, Linn, Lópezville, McAllen, Pharr and Weslaco. He may be reached at his House District Office in Edinburg at (956) 383-0860 or at the Capitol at (512) 463-0426.

Is Commissioner Mike Morath in IDEA’s pocket? Stay tuned.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Corporate Reformers, Education Industry, Funding, Privatization, Texas

Derek Black: Betsy DeVos and the Theft of CARES Funding

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2020 //
11

In this article in the New York Daily News, constitutional lawyer Derek Black explains how Betsy DeVos used her authority as Secretary of Educatiin to send federal dollars intended for public schools to elite private schools and religious schools. Black’s new book, “School House Burning,” is an outstanding read.

He writes:

Betsy DeVos’ agenda to expand private education has floundered for three years. In 2017, public schools’ financial hole was too deep for either party in Congress to consider digging it deeper. But since March of this year, amidst a pandemic that has killed more than 170,000 Americans, cratered the economy and underlined the importance of public education, the U.S. secretary of education has made more headway than in the last three years combined.

Naively, Congress assumed that DeVos would put coronavirus response ahead of her ideological agenda. They were wrong, and now she is on the verge of turning the education policy world upside down.

In its first year, the administration proposed cutting and eliminating several public education programs and redirecting the money to school choice, including private schools. On top of that, it wanted a new tax credit program to fund private school tuition. Neither party took the proposal seriously. As Republican Sen. Roy Blunt remarked, “This is a difficult budget request to defend.” The story repeated itself each year since.

But in the rush to respond to COVID, DeVos saw an opening to exploit, and Congress gave her an unintentional assist. On its face, the CARES Act was all about the crisis. It doled out the biggest chunk of education money to public schools based on poverty. It put aside a smaller chunk for DeVos and states to spend on the evolving needs of distance learning and places hit the hardest by COVID.

Within days, DeVos was talking about spending her funds on “microgrants” that would operate like vouchers to fund private school tuition and services. Even if it flew in the face of congressional intent, the discretionary nature of the funds made it hard for anyone to stop her.

Next, DeVos threw 50 years of rules regarding how to allocate federal education dollars out the window. Normally, public schools share their federal poverty aid with private schools based on the number of low-income students that private schools enroll. The CARES Act said those same rules apply to COVID funds, but DeVos told public schools to share the money based on private schools’ total enrollment instead, which is overwhelmingly comprised of middle and upper-income students. And rather than back down in the face of overwhelming opposition, she doubled down, transforming her initial policy guidance into an actual federal rule.

For many school districts, that meant spending four, five and six times as much on private school students than ever before.

Unsurprisingly, states and individuals sued and a federal court blocked the rule last week.
As positive COVID cases continued to rise in July, DeVos then created the predicate to move even larger sums of money to private schools.

She demanded that public schools reopen fully and threatened to terminate their federal funding if they did not. While she lacked the authority to carry out the threat, she did begin shifting the narrative. The problem wasn’t COVID; the problem was public schools. And if they couldn’t do their job, private schools purportedly could.

A week after DeVos’ demand, friendly governors started following her lead. The CARES Act had given governors their own discretionary funds to respond to COVID. Like DeVos, they turned it into a slush fund to carry out the pre-existing agenda for private school vouchers. South Carolina’s governor announced that nearly three-quarters of his funds would go to vouchers.

The narrative shift was so effective that the Senate is reversing itself. The first version of its new COVID bill would condition two-thirds of public schools’ money on them physically reopening. A newer version also diverts 10% of the aid to private schools. Lamar Alexander, the chair of the Senate’s education committee, is also pushing a $5 billion tax credit bill similar to the one that DeVos proposed in her first year.

On the pretext of responding to a crisis, Betsy DeVos is trying to transform public education. If she gets what she wants, the effects will remain long after she’s gone — on American families and the nation itself.

Black is author of “Schoolhouse Burning: Public Education and the Assault on American Democracy.”

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Funding, Vouchers

Mercedes Schneider: Betsy DeVos Hasn’t Had a New Idea in Thirty Years!

By dianeravitch
August 30, 2020 //
12

Mercedes Schneider writes here about Betsy DeVos’s single-minded effort to divert public school funding to private and religious schools during the pandemic.

As Schneider documents, DeVos excoriates public schools as “static,” but her own brain is locked in concrete.

She has not allowed a fresh thought to enter her head in at least thirty years.

She wants public money for vouchers, she wants to reduce funding to public schools that desperately need it to reopen safely, she cares not a whit about the 85-90% of students in the nation’s public schools. Nothing new. Same old, same old. Her brain needs air.

She sees the pandemic as a grand opportunity to give choices to kids in public schools, chosen by their parents. She refuses to admit that the $5,000-$7,000 that might be available will not open the doors of elite private schools, but will provide access to subpar religious schools. Nor does she 3ver acknowledge the multiple studies showing that the religious schools she admires provide a lesser quality of education than the public schools she despises.

DeVos is a civic disaster. She threatens the public schools that are the heart of our nation’s communities. No wonder the Trump family did not invite her to speak at the Trump Convention. Even they know she is toxic to America’s parents.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Lies, Privatization, Vouchers

John Merrow: Betsy DeVos and the Day the GOP Died

By dianeravitch
August 29, 2020 //
50

John Merrow and I cling to a belief that once upon a time there was a Republican party that was reasonable and genuinely concerned about the future of the nation. We think of people like Eisenhower and McCain.

But Merrow identifies a day when he says the GOP as we once knew it actually died: The day that Betsy DeVos was confirmed as Secretary of Education. Actually, it was two days. The first was when the Senate Committee approved her nomination, with the assent of Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, despite her inability to answer the most basic questions about education law or practice. The second was when the Senate confirmed her.

The Republican Party fell in line behind the most unqualified person in the nation because Trump wanted her. That was reason enough, which mattered more than the fact that she had spent her entire life attacking public schools. Perhaps no less important was that most of the senators who voted to approve her, as Senator Bernie Sanders pointed out at the time, had received large campaign contributions from her. No principle was involved. Just votes for cash.

All the Senators on the committee fell into line and gave Trump the completely unqualified nominee he proposed.

Only one Republican vote on the Senate committee would have doomed DeVos’s nomination. Neither Susan Collins nor Lisa Murkowski was willing to vote no and kill the DeVos nomination. They voted yes in committee, then “No” on the Senate floor, when their votes could not stop her. Vice President Pence, as choreographed, broken the tie to approve this unqualified person.

Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, and Lamar Alexander were profiles in cowardice. They voted to approve clueless, incompetent Betsy DeVos, who was unleashed to wreak havoc on the nation’s public schools.

Merrow adds:

Fun fact: Trump’s first choice for Secretary of Education was the now-infamous Jerry Falwell, Jr, who told CBS he turned down the job because Trump wanted at least a 4-year commitment that Falwell said he couldn’t make because Liberty University needed him.

Trump also interviewed Michelle Rhee and Eva Moskowitz. Any of them would have demonstrated his hostility to public schools and his determination to undermine them. Too bad Falwell said no. His exposure at this moment would have added to the circus atmosphere of the campaign.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Failure, Trump

Nancy Bailey: How to Force DeVos into Retirement on One of Her Ten Yachts

By dianeravitch
August 26, 2020 //
12

Nancy Bailey writes that the best way to fire Betsy DeVos is to vote for Biden and Harris.

She writes:

If you’re Democrat or Republican, and you care about public education, vote for V.P. Joe Biden to remove Education Secretary Betsy DeVos from the U.S. Department of Education! Four more years of Betsy DeVos means the end of public education.

With a President Biden, public schools have a chance of surviving. With a President Trump, they don’t. It’s as simple as that.

You may be thinking, Democratic leadership has failed public education in the past. Many were disappointed in the Obama administration’s Race to the Top.

Once there’s a President Biden, the country can remind him of this. But the odds of losing our schools with a President Biden is less of a worry now than leaving DeVos in her perch at the U.S. Department of Education.

There are dozens of reasons to check the Biden/Harris ticket. Public schools affect every other issue on the ballot, every issue we face as a nation. Democratic public schools are the backbone of the nation.

She goes on to explain why we all should be worried about the damage Trump and DeVos can do if given four more years to transfer public funds to non-public schools.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Biden, Funding, Religion, Supporting public schools, Trump, Virtual Charter Schools, Vouchers

BREAKING: Federal Judge Issues Injunction Against DeVos’ Coronavirus Aid Rule

By dianeravitch
August 22, 2020 //
7

A federal judge blocked Betsy DeVos’ rule requiring states to split their coronavirus aid with private schools , regardless of need or student poverty levels. For DeVos, the CARES Act was yet another opportunity to divert money from public schools to private schools.

Andrew Ujifusa of Education Week reports:


A federal judge has ruled against U.S. Department of Education in a lawsuit over how much coronavirus aid public schools must set aside for private school students.

Public school groups and officials argued that the interim final rule from the department unfairly deprives their schools and disadvantaged students of crucial funding during the pandemic.

In a preliminary injunction halting enforcement and implementation of the rule while she considers the case pitting Washington state against the Education Department, U.S. District Court Judge Barbara J. Rothstein harshly and repeatedly rejected the department’s arguments. She said that the agency subverted the intent of Congress and hurt students most affected by the pandemic, and that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos did not have the authority to issue the rule in the first place.

The Education Department’s interim final rule, publicized in June and formally issued in July, pushes school districts to reserve money under the CARES Act, the federal coronavirus stimulus plan, for services to all local private school students, irrespective of their backgrounds. That represents a major departure from how education law typically governs that arrangement, in which federal money for what’s known as “equitable services” goes to disadvantaged, at-risk private school students.

But Rothstein attacked DeVos’ rule as “blind to the realities of this extraordinary pandemic and the very purpose of the CARES Act: to provide emergency relief where it is most needed.”

“Forcing the State to divert funds from public schools ignores the extraordinary circumstances facing the State and its most disadvantaged students,” she said.

The injunction in the case, issued Friday in the Western District of Washington, represents a setback for the department and a win for public school advocates. Rothstein does not say that her order extends beyond Washington state to other jurisdictions, but she also does not explicitly limit it to the state. And it could be a bad sign for the department in two other lawsuits about the rule, even if its power to change spending decisions on the ground is unclear.

In a statement Saturday, Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., the chairman of the House education committee, applauded Rothstein’s ruling and asked DeVos “to abandon its unlawful equitable services rule and finally provide schools the clarity and resources they need…”

DeVos and the department have justified the rule by arguing that the virus has hurt students of all backgrounds, regardless of where they went to school. Public school officials and congressional Democrats have countered that the rule improperly diverts money from disadvantaged students to ultimately benefit private schools, and that it defies the intent of Congress.

Rothstein sided with the second group.

“The nature of this pandemic is that its consequences have fallen most heavily on the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including its neediest students,” she stated. “The funding provided throughout the CARES Act, and in particular to schools, is desperately and urgently needed to provide some measure of relief from the pandemic’s harms, many of which cannot be undone.”

Rothstein pointed to separate CARES funding intended primarily for small businesses that private schools could access.

The judge referred to the Paycheck Protection Program, which supplied millions to many private schools, some of which are richly endowed. Charter schools got funding from both the money set aside for public schools and the PPP, which specifically excluded public schools.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Funding, Privatization

Jan Resseger: The Joy of Seeing Democrats Acknowledge the Importance of Public Schools

By dianeravitch
August 21, 2020 //
18

Jan Resseger points out the contrast between the two major parties’s treatment of public schools. Trump treats them as a babysitting service. Joe Biden’s wife Jill gave her Convention speech from a high school where she was a teacher. Trump and DeVos pledge to defund them. Biden and Harris pledge a massive infusion of funding. Trump pledges four more years of massive neglect. Biden and Harris pledge respect.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Biden, Funding, Supporting public schools, Trump, Vouchers

Gail Collins’ Annual Contest for the Worst Trump Cabinet Member

By dianeravitch
August 20, 2020 //
12

Gail Collins, regular columnist for the New York Times, former editor of its editorial page, conducted her annual contest for the worst member of Trump’s Cabinet. Previously, the contest was won by Betsy DeVos. This year there was a new winner.

She writes:


If you run into Attorney General William Barr over the weekend, be sure to congratulate him.

The readers have spoken! Barr was the runaway winner of our vote for Worst Trump Cabinet Member. He swept the field last fall, too. What we need now is a Worst Museum where we can put Barr’s portrait looming over the door.

The Worst of Trump is clearly a topic people are pondering. We got thousands of responses to the contest. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos came in second and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo third.

They were far, far behind the leader. But give DeVos credit — it’s not easy to build up so much rancor when you’re in a relatively low-profile cabinet post. “Betsy DeVos is one I particularly love to hate because of her smug arrogance, while being the very picture of ignorant incompetence,” wrote a voter.

“What can be better than a secretary of education who doesn’t believe in public schools and appears never to have attended any schools herself?” asked another.

Maybe it’s unfair for DeVos to have to compete against terrible cabinet members with so much more power. “Can we divide it into two categories?” asked Anne Gables, who proposed giving separate awards for “least qualified (most clueless) and most dangerous.”

Makes sense, and if those were the options DeVos would sweep the Clueless Contest while Barr would win the Keeps You Awake Nights competition.

One surprise in the pack was the strong showing by postmaster general Louis DeJoy. His job isn’t officially part of the cabinet, but DeJoy got a special exemption to join the competition since he’s been trying to undercut postal efficiency right ahead of the presidential election. “Rookie of the year has to be Louis DeJoy, for the sheer chutzpah of destroying one American institution (the mail) in the cause of destroying another American institution (democracy),” wrote Martin Benjamin.

Whenever we have a vote for Worst Trump Cabinet Member a sizable contingent protest that everybody should get a trophy. (“It is just too difficult to choose the Worst of the worst.”) A Georgia reader managed to trim the list down to three before throwing in the towel. (“Like eating a potato chip; can’t have just one.”)

Shira Revzen recalled a sign she saw at the women’s march in 2017: “I’ve seen better cabinets at Ikea!”

“Each cabinet member makes a unique contribution to the swamp,” argued a reader from Iowa. “Who can say the alligator is more or less important than the mosquito or the leech or the water moccasin?”

The swampy metaphors were popular. Linda Morgan of San Francisco voted for Barr as “concertmaster of all things wicked and slimy in Trump world,” but added an apology to “all green witches, snakes and worms.”

Mike Pence came in fifth — behind Barr, DeVos, Pompeo and DeJoy. Those who did vote for the vice president pointed out that having Pence as veep made it much less satisfactory to daydream about impeachment. (“He perpetually haunts the halls of power with a creepy presence and omnipresent inadequacy.”)

And then, of course, there was his prediction that we’d have put the pandemic behind us by Memorial Day. (“It’s gotta be Mike Pence, Corona Virus Czar. …”)

A reader from Spain expressed surprise that “I’ve seen no mention of the truly vile and incompetent Secretary of the Treasury Steve Mnuchin.” And indeed, Mnuchin came in way down the line. But he had champions who thought he deserved a prime spot. One of them noted that this is a man who left Goldman Sachs with about $46 million in stock, but now “thinks $600/week is overpaid.”

Dennis in Seattle was disturbed that Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao wasn’t “getting enough credit for the wholesale theft of hundreds of millions of dollars from Americans” who couldn’t get ticket refunds when airlines canceled their flights. To be fair, Chao did express her displeasure, but apparently some people don’t think hand-wringing is enough.

And remember Ben Carson? Almost nobody did when it came to the balloting. Frank from North Carolina, in fact, wrote to ask whether the secretary of housing and urban development had joined the Witness Protection Program.

“What has he done so far in his role as HUD secretary other than purchase a $30,000 table for his conference room?” asked a Pennsylvania reader. This is a complaint that goes back to early 2018. On the other hand, that was possibly the last thing many of us heard from Carson.

But after all was said and done, Barr swept the field. “Betsy DeVos can’t destroy our public education in the brief time she has left in office, and Mike Pompeo can’t cause an international crisis just by making the State Department a ghost of its former self,” wrote a voter from Woodstock, N.Y. “But when the country’s top law officer ignores the rule of law to protect Trump from prosecution and advance the president’s political interests, it is downright scary, not to mention a threat to our democracy.”

Just a couple more Barr comments:

“He has flushed down the toilet the rule of law.”

“Not since Tom Hanks won back-to-back Oscars has someone been so deserving of a repeat win.”

“Last year I really had to ponder this choice; this year it’s not even close — go Barr! (No, really, go!)”

Categories Betsy DeVos, Trump
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