Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, hints at sweeping changes ahead

[Bullettime]

When you're woefully unfit for a job, there isn't much for you to say.

I enjoyed seeing her freeze and the panic setting in when questioned about the studies in performance vs growth. Right there it was like you could see the glass shatter in her brain.

Also, Warren is a savage. That cold shoulder at the end of the hearing even gave me chills.

[Wyrt]

This was the worst confirmation for multiple reasons. 1. She was obviously unprepared for the type of questions they were going to ask. 2. The questions they asked had very little to do with education and mostly were used to rebuke Trump's policy positions and 3. The democrats chose this confirmation to attack Trump given that she was the weakest person to defend herself so far.

If the dems want to debate education policy, there is a time and place for that on the house floor, do it in front of a camera is not the time. It was a disgrace.

You're saying education policy shouldn't be a topic for the confirmation hearing of the possible secretary of education? WTF?

[Deleted]

I went to a Catholic School. I was taught The Big Bang Theory, Evolution and the 3 branches of Science. The only time we discussed religion was during Religious Education (an actual GCSE course which is taught in all schools in the UK). So like that.

A UK catholic school is vastly different than a small school in bumfuck Texas. They will be going straight to flat/new earth creationism, abstinence only and all their other stupid shit.

[Milchshake]

When you're woefully unfit for a job, there isn't much for you to say.

Bernie asked a great question.
Bernie Sanders: “Do you think that if your family had not made hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to the Republican Party that you would be sitting here today?” he asked.
DeVos paused. “I do think there would be that possibility,” she said.



Like where'd all the Bernie Bros go... I thought they would be hi-fiving over this?!
Guess they went back to being libertarian and soft-right shills, too busy glad handing themselves over horseshoe theory.

[Bullettime]

A UK catholic school is vastly different than a small school in bumfuck Texas. They will be going straight to flat/new earth creationism, abstinence only and all their other stupid shit.

Especially when one of the key parts of her platform is more state independence in the rules and curriculum. Not only does she want to use the budget to attack public schools and create Republican sponsored Christian charters, she would give the states the freedom full freedom to decide what attributes to focus on. You could see states like Alabama not just see the death of public school but replace science with creationism entirely.

Hell, she even claimed she's not against gun restriction on school grounds because "bears."

[Independent voter]

I was hoping the Secretary of Education would be this lady, Rhee. She turned around one of the worst school systems in the US and that's saying something. She might've went to far though, after she got rid of the bad teachers, she started firing the marginal teachers.

[Bullettime]

One note flying under the radar a bit is her complete anti union attitude in a country where teachers are trying really hard to unionize. She wants to bust existing unions and prevent future ones from forming, but as a part of her platform in Michigan, has also been against pay raises for teachers that actually would help increase the educational standards. Being a teacher right now is basically a passion job and there are a lot of people who want to teach and would make good teachers that just don't pursue it because of the high cost of education and low turnaround on their investment.

So it raises a question on how she plans to even accomplish her goals. She's still going to need teachers to teach all these new upcoming charter schools she wants, but her efforts are more likely to decrease the pool when it needs to be going the opposite direction. She can slash funding to public education and start hardcore vetting teachers like she wants to, but good luck filling those spots unless you're going to start teaching with priests, pastors, and nuns if you want to break unions, bargaining power, "extreme vet" teachers to your state's new standards that they'll alone get to set, and keep teaching wages low.

[SirBeef]

Does George W Bush ring a bell?


We were almost done digging ourselves out of the pit he dug. I guess some people just felt like hopping back in while Trump tries to sell them golden diving boards.

You want to talk about fake news. Despite the fact that the economy got better, wages got better, and joblessness got better, Americans were led to believe things got worse for them under Obama. For some maybe, but for the vast majority, things improved and were still improving through the election. Yet enough were led to believe things were worse off than when Bush left office. That is why.

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Private schools are for profit schools, and it doesn't seem her plans revolve around universities one bit. Her plans are entirely focused on propping up private schools (meaning elementary, middle, and high schools) with government money, instead of spending it on public schools.

Yup she spent millions to try to amend the Michigan state Constitution so that public money could be used to subsidize private, private charter, and religious schools. It was easily turned down by the voters of my state. The funny thing is we do have public charter schools here and they outperform the private ones.

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The entire campaign was him attacking people for things he himself did. I don't see why he'd govern any differently.

He fits in well with the GOP then. That's all they do.

[Xandrigity]

As a parent of a middle school child I hope common core is gone. It sounded good on paper but in the end didn't do what it was intended to do. The education system does need a huge overhaul. Perhaps teachers unions do need to be knocked down a few notches since they are doing a poor job of educating our children. Time to get rid of some of the bad seeds.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Lol, shuck and jive Endus, Shuck and Jive.

Everything I stated is clearly true. I just didn't pursue the one angle you wanted me to focus on, that's your personal bias.

I'm reminded of the analogy about a pigeon shitting on a chess board.

Theo doesn't want to have a discussion about her own topic with someone far more well versed in it? It must be a day of the week ending in Y.

[SirBeef]

That one was funny. Even funnier? A comedian is the one who stumped her with that one.

Inquiring honestly, I see stuff like this all the time, like it is unthinkable that a comedian, athlete, actor, or musician, is incapable of anything else other than what they are famous for. Why? They are just like everyone else who has passions and interests. Al Franken has always been a political wonk, comedy just paid the bills and gave him a platform.

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Honestly, this push toward private and charter schools just seems more and more like an attempt to re-impose segregation. I went to a charter school myself, and while we did have plenty of black and Hispanic students, they were practically all well-behaved overachiever types, and thinking about it now it was kind of messed up that we pretty much skimmed off the top leaving only the problem kids for the public schools to deal with.

Winner, winner. Chicken dinner. the GOP loves to tout they are the party of Lincoln, but let's face facts, they haven't given a shit about the average person, especially minorities since the 1960s. A lot of what they do is to segregate and marginalize minorities, the working class, and the poor.

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As a parent of a middle school child I hope common core is gone. It sounded good on paper but in the end didn't do what it was intended to do. The education system does need a huge overhaul. Perhaps teachers unions do need to be knocked down a few notches since they are doing a poor job of educating our children. Time to get rid of some of the bad seeds.

A lot of that has to do with the Bush era policies and the common core. ALl they do is teach for the test. Teachers are graded on test score performances only. Some states have changed that or are working on that. But it is a different era and the unions have little to do with it. They were the ones fighting common core from day one.

[zenkai]

Combine that with a lack/reduction of oversight, what could possibly go wrong?

What do you mean? Private schools have to get government tested and they usually excel over private education.

[Paula Deen]

they already do.

It's not the government's place to pay for private, charter, or faith-based schooling.

republicans are for small government thats what daddy trump said ur lying fake news reeeeee

[satimy]

They already do.

It's not the government's place to pay for private, charter, or FAITH-BASED schooling.

I don't like religion either but the lazy entitled teachers union needs to be blown up before you can even begin to improve education. Why should taxes pay for those lazy brats and not for other options ?

[Cthulhu 2020]

The woman has a lot of investments in the student-loan business.

If she hadn't donated $200 million to Trump's campaign she wouldn't have gotten this 'high social responsibility' job.

How is Trump's fight against corruption going?

Drain the swamp of the swamp water.

Fill it with human excrement, muck, and chemical/nuclear waste.

[Macaquerie]

I don't like religion either but the lazy entitled teachers union needs to be blown up before you can even begin to improve education. Why should taxes pay for those lazy brats and not for other options ?

Yes because if there's one group that's clearly milking the system, it's teachers. Those bastards are loaded!

[NYC17]

The woman has a lot of investments in the student-loan business.

If she hadn't donated $200 million to Trump's campaign she wouldn't have gotten this 'high social responsibility' job.

How is Trump's fight against corruption going?

And yet, neither her nor her immediate family have any personal experience with student loans. Hmmm...

[NED funded]

I was hoping the Secretary of Education would be this lady, Rhee. She turned around one of the worst school systems in the US and that's saying something. She might've went to far though, after she got rid of the bad teachers, she started firing the marginal teachers.

I prefer Raj Chetty.

[Kaganfindel]

A UK catholic school is vastly different than a small school in bumfuck Texas. They will be going straight to flat/new earth creationism, abstinence only and all their other stupid shit.

I went to a Catholic high school on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and my education was similar to the one described by Kronik85. My sex ed classes in a Catholic grammar school in the deep south were about the biology and mechanics of sex and childbirth, disease prevention and other practical concerns. It was informative and devoid of judgment or doctrine. "Faith-Based Education" doesn't necessarily have to mean abstinence and creationism.

Bear also in mind that public, tax funded schools in NC are teaching a mandatory sex ed curriculum that is abstinence-based. In one classroom, the coach told them that masturbation would turn them gay. The kids were required by state law to sit still and listen to the idiot lecture them on how the internet was a portal to sin that would subtly sexually reorient them. Had the parents pulled them out of class, they'd have been rounded up by police, and their children would have been escorted back to the classroom by armed agents of the state for the remainder of the indoctrination. So don't get too caught up on that "faith-based" descriptor. Pastafarian schools are just as free to seek accreditation as the Baptist Brainwashin' Barns.

[Sorshen]

She got destroyed by Kaine... I'm not sure if it's funny or I should be worried.

le: of course Theo would think this is good, every topic she makes reinforces my idea she's a caricature character.