I can't think of anyone as profoundly ignorant, or as uniquely unqualified to be appointed Secretary of Education as Betsy…

I can't think of anyone as profoundly ignorant, or as uniquely unqualified to be appointed Secretary of Education as Betsy…

…oh, wait, never-mind.

Let's not forget that neoliberal school privatization is a bipartisan project. Both parties fail education.

A natural progression of neoliberalism

• Rod Paige
• Margaret Spellings
• Arne Duncan
• John King
• Betsy DeVos

Not opposing the neoliberal corporate education reform agenda when Democrats were in charge is what led to the DeVos disaster. Not unlike how the Hillary Rodham Clinton camp's "Elevating Pied Piper Candidates" led to the Trump fiasco.

Trump Lies Reach Biblical Proportions

Betsy DeVos, Serial Plagiarizer

In one instance she lifted from ALEC, which is entirely fitting, since ALEC will now be writing Rules and Regs at ED.  

Below is a clip from Dr. Roxani Marachi's blog:

. . . .Senator Murray asks,

“If you claim to support accountability and transparency, why do the model voucher policies from the American Federation for Children that you chaired fail to require students in private schools receiving vouchers to take the same assessments and report the same data as those in public schools?”

DeVos answers:

“The model voucher policies include strong accountability provisions. I’ve included the language below for your review:
(C) Academic Accountability Standards. There must be sufficient information about the academic impact Parental Choice Scholarships have on participating students in order to allow parents and taxpayers to measure the achievements of the program, and therefore:
(1) participating schools shall:
(a) annually administer either the state achievement tests or nationally norm-referenced tests that measure learning gains in math and language arts, and provide for value-added assessment, to all participating students in grades that require testing under the state’s accountability testing laws for public schools;
(b) provide the parents of each student with a copy of the results of the tests on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;
(c) provide the test results to the state or an organization chosen by the state on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;
(d) report student information that would allow the state to aggregate data by grade level, gender, family income level, and race; and
(e) provide rates of high school graduation, college attendance and college graduation for participating students to the Department or an organization chosen by the state in a manner consistent with nationally recognized standards.”

The Senate’s review should note that her response appears to be a near-identical match to language from the ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) Parental Choice Scholarship Program 

“(C) Academic Accountability Standards. There must be sufficient information about the academic impact Parental Choice Scholarships have on participating students in order to allow parents and taxpayers to measure the achievements of the program, and therefore:
(1) participating schools shall:
(a) annually administer either the state achievement tests or nationally recognized norm-referenced tests that measure learning gains in math and language arts to all participating students in grades that require testing under the state’s accountability testing laws for public schools;
(b) provide the parents of each student with a copy of the results of the tests on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;
(c) provide the test results to the state or an organization chosen by the state14 on an annual basis, beginning with the first year of testing;
(d) report student information that would allow the state to aggregate data by grade level, gender, family income level, and race; and
(e) provide graduation rates of participating students to the Department or an organization chosen by the state in a manner consistent with nationally recognized standards.” 

The few words indicating any substantive difference are in section “a” where Devos’ response to Murray includes tests that she thinks should provide for value-added assessment.
So, which of the two following situations is more likely?
Situation 1: DeVos lifted the ALEC language and failed to include a citation or link referring to the ALEC specific policy? Such an action would apparently indicate further evidence of plagiarism…
or…

Situation 2: Since Senator Murray’s question refers specifically to model voucher policies from DeVos’ American Federation for Children (see earlier post for AFC involvement in ALEC) then perhaps DeVos had actually authored the policy she wrote about in her response. If this is true, then she would have had a far greater role in shaping ALEC bills than had been indicated in her earlier paperwork. Unfortunately, such a scenario would reveal a glaring omission in her written disclosures of activities within, for, or with the ALEC organization. When prompted to list organizational memberships, her response appears to have been exhaustive, and goes so far as to include three yacht clubs, yet fails to make any mention of ALEC. How would she be held accountable for such an omission if indeed she has participated in ALEC activities? . . .

Anti-DeVos Sentiment Almost Makes Us Forget Dems' Privatization Efforts

Charter schools are not the issue here.  --Senator Al Franken at Betsy DeVos hearing

Indeed, charter schools are not the issue, since Democrats have long supported the billions of federal dollars that Team Obama gave to vastly increase the number of charter schools over the past 8 years.

During the failed Clinton campaign of 2016, NPE, NEA, and AFT were on the hot seat for their candidate's staunch support for even more charters.

Now they have launched campaigns against the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.  DeVos supports privatization of schools, and she doesn't much care how she does it.  Charter, voucher, private, for-profit charter, non-profit charter--it just doesn't matter--she is on a mission from god, or someone.

NPE, NEA, and AFT, however, have more discriminating tastes when it comes to school privatization. They prefer the non-profit variety, which is to say, the kind that offers the corporate whales big tax breaks for supporting them.

NEA president, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, was on MSNBC last week to make it clear that NEA does not support the for-profit, "unaccountable" kind of charter schools, the ones that drain tax money from public education.

At the same time, she made it clear that NEA supports high-scoring, "innovative," non-profit charter schools that are "accountable" and that do not drain public education dollars.  You know, that "innovative,"segregative, no excuses variety that all the billionaires love.  

It's almost as if Garcia believes that the charters that NEA and AFT prefer do not drain public funds, and that the ones that the ones that Betsy supports do drain public funds.  Sorry Lily, the thousands of public dollars that leave public schools with every charter kid are lost regardless of the profit or non-profit status of the charter reform school.



No doubt, the BATs, NPE, AFT, and NEA have an impressive campaign going against the privatizing DeVos.  Imagine what might have happened if they had put that money and spirit behind quashing the debilitating spread of charter schools for the past 8 years.  If they had, perhaps there would have never been a DeVos nomination.  Or Donald, for that matter.

DeVos Makes Appearance at WH Daily Press Briefing

Why Eli Broad is opposed to Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education

By Tim Scott

Eli Broad’s opposition to Betsy DeVos further exposes the current financialization model of education he and his peers maintain, which is based on funneling public funds to seed and support government protected/regulated (NCLB, RTTT, ESSA, etc) education markets. For insiders like Broad:

(1) A voucher system that funds truly private and dispersed schools is too pure of a market-based model for venture philanthropists like Broad, who seek a cohesive standardized (universal) education system that is about social control as a means to maintain their neoliberal social order. Thus, Broad is fearful of how radical free-market interventions will disrupt current federal/state-finance partnerships where publicly funded charters - with aligned curriculums - are positioned as sites of authoritarian incubators for the tech industry and its function within the larger Internet of Things/Artificial Intelligence surveillance “ecosystem.” Read more here, here and here.

(2) Since Broad’s model currently relies on a social justice marketing narrative that exploits subordinated groups as investment opportunities (Social Impact Bonds, etc), there is also a PR purpose in opposing the Trump administration’s far too explicit white supremacist agenda… at this time. Many Silicon Valley companies are now distancing themselves from this agenda for PR purposes and so they can continue their current labor practices of largely relying on workers with H-1B visas.

I suspect that when DeVos is confirmed, she and her boss will quickly get in line with how things “are supposed to work,” particularly since universal state controlled education systems have always served as a bedrock for nationalism.

Simply, Broad is only seeking to protect a model of education that is in the making – one that is state protected and intended to bolster the supremacy of finance capitalism via highly sophisticated and profitable surveillance technologies – from the irrational far right who promise to destabilize the still fragile seedling markets and infrastructure that he and his ilk are still irrigating.

New Video on Hybrid/Blended Learning

If you think you know all you need to know about this efficiency scam now coming to a classroom near you, have a look at this.  There's lots of valuable info packed into this 9 minute video from Wrench in the Gearsl:

And Who's Gonna Pay for the Wall?! USA! USA! USA!

Bill Maher offers his take on the Insane Clown President's first week in Washington:

Lamar Alexander, Another Lame Duck

I don't know why we, over time, don't make every public school a charter school....You could not do it overnight, but you could do it over 20, 25 years." --Lamar Alexander, 2013

Even if the former "Education Governor" of Tennessee has not decided on whether or not to run again in 2020 when his current term in the U. S. Senate is up, the people of Tennessee have enough evidence to know if Alexander if fit for another term.  

His tyrannical control of the Senate committee considering Billionaire Betsy for Sec. of Ed., and his decision to turn off his phones to his constituents trying to make their voices heard, and his unwavering support for someone whose only education qualification is in killing public schools, has made him a pariah among public school advocates everywhere, especially in Nashville.

Perhaps Alexander's coming out of the Trumpeteer closet will cause some of the teachers who have been fed the Ravitch/Alexander propaganda on how great ESSA is will begin to have a second look at what amounts to a charter stimulus bill, minus federal oversight.  Lamar knows Betsy is the perfect Secretary to direct traffic in DC, as corporate trucks back up the Department of Education for their loads of tax money intended for education. 

Betsy and Eric: Privatizing Education and the Military in God's Name

From Democracy Now, which is viewer funded.  Please donate.

In this web exclusive, investigative journalist Jeremy Scahill of The Intercept talks in depth about Trump’s team, from unofficial adviser Erik Prince to Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis to education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos.