Archives for category: Betsy DeVos
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Nancy Bailey: Time for DeVos to Resign

By dianeravitch
May 15, 2017 //
39

Nancy E. Bailey writes here about Secretary Betsy DeVos’s unpleasant experience at Bethune-Cookman University, where she was booed by the graduates of the class of 2017.

She thinks it was a travesty that the students were not allowed any say in the choice of their commencement speaker. After all, the day is meant to honor them and their accomplishments.

Instead, they got a speaker who is in a job for which she has no qualifications, a woman who has acted to protect predatory lenders and debt collectors, a woman who has never shown any commitment to advancing civil rights.

The students know that public education is a basic democratic right, and they did not respect this representative of an administration pledged to privatization and stripping away their families’ health care.

Bailey writes:

On a day designated for students—a day to honor their achievements—they have to listen to a woman of privilege tell them how she understands their struggle. They cannot even end their college journey without hackneyed political browbeating.

Perhaps if DeVos had the right ideas about schooling, her appearances would be more palatable. Perhaps if she really wanted to help public schools work for all children, but that’s not what she is about.

Betsy DeVos is the topping on the cake after Duncan and Spellings. She is the final straw, meant to end public education altogether—to put in place a system that rings true to her religiosity—a separate system of the haves and have nots. She is welcoming back the time before Brown v. the Board of Education. But my guess is she saw herself as Joan of Arc on that stage Wednesday.

This is not about God or the students. Privatization has never been about the welfare of the student. And it is not about religion either, though they might make you think it is. It is about money and it is about race. School privatization has always been about that.

Betsy DeVos should resign. But she was placed in this position by one vote if we can believe that. The problem is many Republicans and Democrats sold out on public schools a long time ago. The Washington mindset really is Betsy DeVos. I know it and you know it.

So boo away students. Remember this day as you journey forth. Maybe you can make America really great again. The rest of us are betting on that.

Categories Betsy DeVos, Duncan, Arne, Higher Education, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt

DeVos MakesPolitical Appointments

By dianeravitch
May 11, 2017 //
12

Appointments to the Education Department:

— Stanley Buchesky, senior adviser, budget and finance;
— Robert Eitel, senior counselor to the secretary;
— Jason Botel, principal deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary for the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education;
— Candice Jackson, deputy assistant secretary for strategic operations and outreach and acting assistant secretary for the Office for Civil Rights;
— Ebony Lee, deputy chief of staff for policy;
— José Viana, assistant deputy secretary and director for the Office of English Language Acquisition;
— Jana Toner, White House liaison;
— Dougie Simmons, deputy chief of staff for operations;
— Kathleen Smith, special assistant to the secretary;
— Robert Goad, confidential assistant and education policy adviser on the White House Domestic Policy Council;
— Holly Ham, assistant secretary of education for management;
— Michael Oberlies, confidential assistant;
— Andrew Kossack, attorney adviser;
— Patrick Shaheen, confidential assistant;
— Jeffrey “Justin” Riemer, attorney adviser;
— Elizabeth “Liz” Hill, press secretary;
— Carrie Coxen, confidential assistant*;
— Nate Bailey, special assistant to the secretary;
— Michael Brickman, special assistant to the secretary;
— Michael Chamberlain, special assistant;
— Deborah Cox-Roush, special assistant to the secretary;
— Kevin Eck, special assistant to the secretary;
— Ronald Holden, special assistant;
— Amy Jones, special assistant to the secretary;
— Cody Reynolds, special assistant;
— Eric Ventimiglia, confidential assistant;
— Matthew Frendewey, special assistant to the secretary;
— Alexandra Hudson, confidential assistant;
— Gillum Ferguson, confidential assistant;
— Neil Ruddock, special assistant to the secretary;
— Sarah Delahunty, confidential assistant;
— Jessica Newman, special assistant*;
— Nathaniel Breeding, special assistant*;
— Martha Davis, confidential assistant*.

Sent from my iPhone

Categories Betsy DeVos, Trump

The Best Shout-Out to the Graduates of Bethune-Cookman, Class of 2017

By dianeravitch
May 11, 2017 //
18

Blogger Luvvie Ajayi salutes Bethune-Cookman’s graduates for standing up against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, a woman with zero understanding of their lives or the life of Mary McLeod Bethune.

She writes, “Thank You for Telling Betsy DeVos ‘Nah.'”

She writes:

“Y’all are the real MVPs. Really and truly. I am applauding you with the fervor I’d use during praise and worship right now. You know the kind of clapping that’s heavy-handed, and leaves your palms red and burning? The one your Grandma can keep going for 30 good minutes, and you wonder if she had an Apple Watch, how many steps it’d give her for that? That praise clap. You deserve the props, because today, you showed courage. You showed integrity. And you showed that you are more principled than the administration of people who are the ones supposed to show you what all those things are.

“Before I can truly thank you, I need to apologize to you on behalf of people with sense, and people who saw what you’d have to be in presence with and scratched our heads. You were not supposed to be placed in the position to have to defy your school president and administration. You were not supposed to be asked to watch an idiot who would fail the curriculum you had to take, and applaud her. You were not supposed to have to cheer on the woman who is about to flush our kids’ futures down the river. NO YOU WERE NOT. But your GOOFASS administration decided that it was a good idea to have Betsy DeVos, in all her ignoramus glory, on your stage. The woman who always looks like in quiet moments, slow jazz plays in her head. The lady who probably still says “colored people” when she’s at High Tea with her girls, the other Miss Annes. It defied all logic but it must have been led by stupidity and greed.”

The rest of her post is very funny and very serious.

She goes on to say:

“Because in these acts of defiance, you showed that you are more brave than the rubber-backed people who run your school and placed a stamp of approval on one of Cheeto Satan’s collaborators.”

And quotes Mary McLeod Bethune:

“If we accept and acquiesce in the face of discrimination, we accept the responsibility ourselves. We should, therefore, protest openly everything … that smacks of discrimination or slander.” – Mary McLeod Bethune

Categories Betsy DeVos, Resistance

Betsy DeVos Met by Boos and Students Turning Their Backs at Bethune-Cookman University Commencement

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2017 //
44

Betsy DeVos gave the commencement speech at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida and received an unfriendly reception from the graduates. Many booed and were chastised by the University President. Many stood with their backs to the speaker. It was probably not the best venue for a billionaire who works for the Trump administration, which has appealed to white males and the alt-right, no friends of African Americans.

I did not have time to watch her speech but I believe the link includes the video. I assume she spoke about school choice, the only subject in the world of education that interests her.

Categories Betsy DeVos

Peter Greene Takes a Deep Dive into the Mind of Betsy DeVos and Finds…Nothing

By dianeravitch
May 10, 2017 //
13

Peter Greene reviews the speech that Betsy DeVos gave to the annual meeting of the Global Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs at Arizona State University.

She interminably bashes and belittles the public schools as obsolete, failing, etc.

She has, as he puts it charitably, a one-track mind.

She visited wonderful public schools in Van Wert, Ohio, and saw children and teachers who were engaged in learning. She learned nothing. Whatever she saw passed through her mind immediately without leaving an impression.

She keeps searching for an analogy to plug school choice. She tried Uber and that didn’t go over so well. Now she has a new metaphor:

Think of it like your cell phone. AT&T, Verizon or T-Mobile may all have great networks, but if you can’t get cell phone service in your living room, then your particular provider is failing you, and you should have the option to find a network that does work.

Because is just a commodity or a service. Of course, lots of folks live in a place where they have none of those networks as a choice because businesses only serve the customers that are profitable enough to get their attention. This may just be an area of ignorance typical to the really rich– I’m betting that DeVos has never been in a situation where a business told her it wasn’t worth their bother to serve her, nor has she found herself in a situation where that service was simply priced out of her reach.

She truly has no idea of what a public service is and why it is different from something you buy or rent.

She has already given up on the claim that school choice produces better results or better education.

She pushes choice for the sake of choice, even if the quality of choices are diminished.

Categories Betsy DeVos, School Choice

Purdue Buys Online, For-Profit Kaplan, Over Faculty Objections University

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2017 //
13

Mitch Daniels, former governor of Indiana, is now president of Purdue, a soft landing for a politician with no academic bona fides. He has continued his assault on the academic integrity of the university by arranging the purchase of online “Kaplan University,” a for-profit business built on test prep.

The University Senate passed a resolution opposing this move, and Daniels said they felt bad about being left out of the decision-making process. Purdue paid $1 for the flailing online business.

Read about the deal in the Washington Post here:

Read today’s Politico education edition for more on this story.

Text of Faculty Senate resolution:

To: From:
Subject: Disposition:
Whereas,
Senate Document 16-19 4 May 2017
Purdue University Senate
Senators Alan Beck, Tithi Bhattacharya, Evelyn Blackwood, Elena Coda, Cheryl Cooky, Alan Friedman, Alberto Rodriguez, and Laurel Weldon
Resolution on the Purdue Purchase of Kaplan University University Senate for Discussion & Approval
Faculty governance and faculty control of curriculum are the lifeblood of any healthy University.
As, unfortunately, the unique nature of the announced purchase by Purdue of Kaplan University resulted in a violation of both of those central tenets.
1. No input was sought through regular faculty governance before this decision was made.
2. No assessment of the impact on the academic quality of Purdue, now or in the future, was made.
3. No transparency was demonstrated in this process.
4. No impact study has been taken of effects on faculty, curriculum, students and staff at Purdue.
5. Faculty governance and academic freedom at what will become the “New University” is not assured by the Purdue agreement with Kaplan.
6. The Faculty has already requested, in writing, that the administration use the Senate’s Academic Organization Committee when considering any re-structuring of programs or the creation of new ones at any campus.

Be it resolved that

Based on these violations of both common sense educational practice and respect for the Purdue faculty, we call on the President and Board of Trustees to include faculty in all aspects of decision-making regarding the proposed “New University” and to rescind any decisions, to the degree possible, made without faculty input.

Sponsors:
Alan Beck, Tithi Bhattacharya, Evelyn Blackwood, Elena Coda, Cheryl Cooky, Alan Friedman, Alberto Rodriguez, Laurel Weldon

In the Politico report this morning, you will also learn there about the Trump administration’s efforts to tamp down the fears that Trump was preparing to cut off capital funding of HBCUs, in grounds of “equal opportunity” (no favoritism based on race), which he seemed to imply in a recent signing statement.

Watch for Betsy DeVos’s commencement address at historically black Bethune-Cookman University in Florida on Wednesday. Undoubtedly she will praise the virtues of school choice since that is her only thought.

Categories Betsy DeVos, For-Profit, Funding, Higher Education

Adam Bessie and EriK Thurman: A Graphic Essay on School Choice, DeVos, and Segregation

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2017 //
4

Adam Bessie (writer) and Erik Thurman (artist) have created a graphic essay that explains in a series of drawings the consequences of school choice and how it affected students with disabilities in New Orleans. Their graphic essay is especially pertinent at a time when the U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos is an evangelist for school choice and indifferent to the consequences.

I recommend that you see it. It illustrates the adage that a picture is worth 1,000 words.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Charter Schools, New Orleans, Privatization, School Choice, Special Education

A Trillion Dollars of Student Debt, and DeVos Wants to Protect Lenders, Not Students

By dianeravitch
May 8, 2017 //
11

Susan Dynarski of University of Michigan wrote an article in The New York Times about the trillion dollars of outstanding debt for college loans, and the Trump administration’s regulatory decisions that will help and protect the lending industry, not the students.

As the saying goes, elections have consequences. Hillary Clinton adopted Bernie Sanders’ pledge to make higher education free for students whose family income was less than $125,000. Trump offered nothing, and DeVos made clear in her confirmation hearings that she was not at all concerned about students who were burdened by crushing debt.

So the consequence of the 2016 elections is that Betsy DeVos is rolling back efforts by the Obama administration to regulate the businesses that make student loans and protect students from predatory practices. She is also making it harder for students to apply for student aid by removing access to an online program created for that purpose.

But that’s not all.

Access to income-based repayment programs is more important than ever because of a separate Trump administration rollback of protections for borrowers. Now, those who fall behind on their payments are subject to much larger penalties.

The Obama administration had limited the ability of loan companies to impose punitive fees on borrowers who were in default. Before the Obama rules went into effect, borrowers could be required to pay back as much as 16 percent of their loan balance before they were allowed to enroll in an income-based program. On March 16, Ms. DeVos issued a directive that allows loan companies to again charge these fees.

If the Education Department fails to protect and assist borrowers, where can they turn for help? During the Obama administration, other agencies stepped in to monitor the behavior of the loan servicers and banks. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, in particular, appointed a student loan “czar,” who has collected thousands of complaints from borrowers and has published an annual report on student loans.

In a recent letter, a group of academics urged that the consumer bureau go further by collecting loan-level data on repayment, delinquency and default just as it does in monitoring the mortgage industry. I have suggested the same, in a previous column.

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress have made the consumer bureau a target. They aim to strip the agency of its oversight authority and independence. As it stands now, the Federal Reserve funds the consumer bureau, which buffers it from political pressure. If the bureau is hamstrung, borrowers will have lost a powerful watchdog.

It is puzzling that Ms. DeVos has consistently said that government should be held accountable for the quality of the services it delivers to students, yet the Education Department has in short order made loan companies less accountable to both the government and to borrowers.

This is unfortunate. Dismantling the regulation of loan companies isn’t likely to unleash an innovative, private market that will improve services for borrowers, who have been assigned to a loan company and can’t shift to a better one. There is therefore no market discipline that will drive the bad companies out of business.

Deregulation, in this case, simply leaves borrowers at the mercy of an unaccountable corporate bureaucracy.

That seems to be the goal of Trump and DeVos. They know exactly what they are doing. They are acting on behalf of the industry, not students.

Categories Accountability, Betsy DeVos, Higher Education, Student Financial Aid and Student Debt, Trump

Trump Questions Whether a Funding Source for HBCUs is Constitutional

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2017 //
20

The Washington Post reports that Trump questioned whether an important funding source for Historically Black Colleges and Universities is constitutional.

“In February, President Trump invited leaders from historically black colleges and universities to the White House, a move they hoped signaled his support for the institutions and showed an effort to give them more clout in his administration. But critics had a more cynical description of the Oval Office meeting: a photo op.

“Those naysayers got more ammunition Friday after the White House released a signing statement connected to the recently approved federal funding measure. Tucked away in the last paragraph, the White House announced that it would treat a program that helps HBCUs get low-cost construction loans “in a manner consistent with the (Constitutional) requirement to afford equal protection of the laws.”

“People in higher education circles worried that the statement meant that the president was planning to get rid of a capital financing program that helps historically black colleges repair, renovate and build new facilities. Congress approved the program in 1992 after finding that “HBCUs often face significant challenges in accessing traditional funding resources at reasonable rates,” according to the Education Department.”

This raises many questions.

What about Trump’s pledge to be supportive of African Americans?

What will Betsy DeVos say about this when she speaks at an HBCU in a few days and receives an honorary degree?

What does Donald Trump know about the Constitution?

Has he ever read it?

Categories Betsy DeVos, Higher Education, Race, Trump

Sen. Bernie Sanders Endorses Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for L.A. School Board!!

By dianeravitch
May 7, 2017 //
17

Senator Bernie Sanders endorsed Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for the Los Angeles school board. The election will be held May 16.

““Billionaires should not make a profit off of public school children. That’s why I’m supporting Steve Zimmer and Imelda Padilla for the Los Angeles School Board. They will fight against the Trump/DeVos agenda to destabilize and undermine public schools,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders in a statement.”

Zimmer’s opponent Nick Melvoin is supported by billionaires who hope to privatize public schools in Los Angeles.

Zimmer is committed to fighting the Trump-DeVos agenda of charters and vouchers. His opponent is not.

I recommend that citizens of Los Angeles vote for Zimmer and Padilla. They will fight for public schools and the common good.

The Network for Public Education has endorsed both Zimmer and Padilla.

Send a message to Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos! No privatization! No corporate control! No vouchers! The public schools belong to the people, not the billionaires!

Categories Betsy DeVos, Billionaires, California, Charter Schools, Corporate Reform, Education Industry, Los Angeles, Privatization
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