Nancy E. Bailey notes that Betsy DeVos says she is a religious person.

In this post, she gives DeVos some Christmas gifts, drawn from the Bible.

She begins:

Betsy DeVos seems to believe she is doing God’s work when it comes to education in America.

There are so many Bible verses indicating that Jesus loves the poor. He doesn’t seem too keen on the wealthy. What seems certain, is that he expects much from them.

She asks, What would Jesus think of the new tax bill?

Read on.

When my book “Reign of Error” was published, my first presentation was in Philadelphia to an audience of parents, teachers, and community leaders. There were musical presentations before I spoke, and one was the marching band from a celebrated high school fabled for the musicians who got their start there. The marching band cane charging down the center aisle in somewhat tattered uniforms. Their leader explained that they had no musical instruments because the school’s budget couldn’t pay for them. I was aghast that the city would allow this to happen.

A reader wrote:

“On yesterday’s Vice News there was a story about music in the Philadelphia Public Schools. As a product of this school system, I was both angry and sad at this news. The story was about a music teacher that could no longer have an orchestra because the amount of damage to the instruments. In order to raise money to repair the instruments, the students were giving “concerts” with their broken instruments. What was upsetting was that the reckless, irresponsible leadership of the city and state has left the district a shell of its former self. They allowed the barbarian horde of “edupreneurs” loot the public schools with all their lies, waste, fraud and kickbacks for the so-called representatives.

“Developers have been allowed to make a fortune by rebuilding and resegregating neighborhoods with selective charters for middle class white families and cheap charters or crumbling public schools for the poor minorities. The misguided, blind acceptance of “market based solutions” makes money for a few at the top at the expense of many at the bottom. It is anti-democratic, rascist and sickening.”

Charles Blow dissects and trashes the GOP Tax bill.

It starts:

“With their tax bill, Donald Trump and the Republicans are raiding the Treasury in plain sight, throwing crumbs to the masses as the millionaires and billionaires make off with the cake.

“America should be aghast not only at the looting but also at the brazenness of its execution.

“It seems that for as long as I can remember, Republicans have been wringing their hands about deficits. And yet in this budget, they willingly, willfully exploded the deficit, not for public uplift or rebuilding America’s infrastructure but rather on the spurious argument that giving truckloads of money back to businesses will spark their benevolence.

“According to the government’s own nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the tax bill will lead to “an increase in the deficit of $1,455 billion over the next 10 years.”

“But be sure, when this bill leads to these predicted deficits, Republicans will return to their sidelined deficit rhetoric armed with a sickle, aiming the blade at the social safety net, exacerbating the egregious imbalance of the tax bill’s original sins.

“That’s the strategy: Appease the rich on the front end; punish the poor on the back. Feed the weak to the strong…

“Make no mistake: No matter how folks try to rationalize this bill, it has nothing to do with a desire to help the middle class or the poor. This is a cash offering to the gods of the Republican donor class. This is a bill meant to benefit Republicans’ benefactors. This is a quid pro quo and the paying of a ransom.

“Trump promised to drain the swamp. That was another lie among many. He and the Republicans are in fact feeding us to the gators…

“America must make an honest appraisal: Donald Trump is a plutocrat masquerading as a populist. He is a pirate on a mission to plunder.

“Trump is milking the American presidency for personal gain. If he can give the impression of compassion on his mission to cash out, all the better for him, but the general good, the health of the nation and the plight of the plebeians is not now nor has it ever been his focus.

“His ego is too big for egalitarianism, and his heart too small for it.

“So he sticks closely to what he knows, the brand of Trump: promoting it, positioning it, defending it and enriching it.”

Governor-Elect Ralph Northam has selected an eighth-grade civics teacher as the state’s Secretary of Education. He kept his promise to choose an educational expert to lead the State Education Department: a classroom teacher.

http://www.princewilliamtimes.com/news/dale-city-teacher-nominated-virginia-secretary-of-education/article_b3214e58-e678-11e7-a982-cf30a29f7401.html?utm_medium=social&utm_source=email&utm_campaign=user-share

Here is the press release:

Prince William County middle school teacher Atif Qarni, a former U.S. Marine and native of Pakistan, will be Virginia’s next secretary of education.

Gov.-elect Ralph Northam (D) is scheduled to appear at Beville Middle School at 1 p.m. today to personally make the announcement. The selection of Qarni, who teaches eighth-grade civics at the Dale City middle school, coincides with Northam’s goal to involve educators at the highest level of his administration, said Northam press secretary Ofirah Yheskel.

“The governor-elect has said during the campaign that it was very important to have an educator’s perspective and that educators should be at the table shaping education policy,” Yheskel said.

Yheskel said Northam has been interviewing “quite a few people” for the top job in the state’s education department. He is scheduled to announce two deputy education secretaries today, Yheskel said.

In 2013, Qarni, a Democrat, ran unsuccessfully against Del. Bob Marshall, R-13th, and to replace retiring state Sen. Chuck Colgan in 2015, a race that he lost to current state Sen. Jeremy McPike, D-29th in the primary that year.

Qarni immigrated to Baltimore with his family when he was 10, enlisted in the Marine Corps Reserves before graduating from high school in 1996 and worked three jobs to pay his way through George Washington University. During this time at college, he became a U.S. citizen and graduated with degrees in sociology and history.

Qarni remained a Marine Reservist for eight years and was among the first group of Marines to reach Baghdad during the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Qarni worked in a Washington law firm for eight years and earned a master’s degree in history from George Mason University. He said he considered going to law school to become a military lawyer, but decided he’d rather be in the classroom. Qarni has taught both middle school math and adult GED classes in Prince William County Schools since 2007.

A three-Judge appellate court in Virginia tossed out Shelly Simonds’ one-vote victory over a 17-year Republican incumbent. It invalidated one ballot, where the voter checked both names. That left the vote a tie. The winner will be chosen randomly, like the toss of a coin.

The loser might appeal for another recount.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/court-tosses-out-one-vote-victory-in-recount-that-had-briefly-ended-a-republican-majority-in-virginia/2017/12/20/ed979a70-e5b9-11e7-a65d-1ac0fd7f097e_story.html

If Simonds wins, the House of Delegates would be 50-50. If she loses, the Republicans would cling to a 51-49 majority.