Tag: Betsy DeVos

DeVos Sees Public Education As A Biblical Battlefield

The following article by Cynthia Tucker Haynes was posted on the National Memo website February 11, 2017:

Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) greets Betsy DeVos for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 17. (Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

There’s a reason that Betsy DeVos’ confirmation as the new secretary of education was such a close vote, requiring Vice President Mike Pence to break the tie. Even in the Trump administration, with its clear suspicion of expertise and competence, DeVos stands out as spectacularly ill-suited for her new post.

There was such a public outcry against her that two Republican senators, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski and Maine’s Susan Collins, voted against her confirmation. In this hyperpartisan age, that’s extraordinary. Continue reading “DeVos Sees Public Education As A Biblical Battlefield”

State DFL Chair Ken Martin on Betsy DeVos

 

Chair Martin released the following statement February 7, 2017:

“Today, the Trump Administration forced a dangerously unqualified nominee on the American people. His ‘my way or the highway’ attitude has put too many families in harm’s way and this latest promotion of the most unqualified candidate for Secretary of Education is no different.

“Once she was announced as Trump’s pick to be the country’s highest ranking education official, it was immediately revealed that she had no experience with public schools at all- not as a student, parent, teacher, administrator, nothing.  Her gross incompetence was on full display during the U.S. Senate hearings. When she was before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, she refused to rule out defunding public schools, refused to stand up for kids with disabilities, and failed to answer basic questions about education policy.

“The American people have expressed their displeasure through calls, emails, letters, and social media asking their senators to listen when they say no to Trump’s agenda and not confirm DeVos. Our children and our country’s future are too important to allow an unqualified, enemy of public education to lead the Education Department.”

– See more at: https://www.dfl.org/blog/dfl-news/2017/02/statement-from-dfl-chairman-ken-martin-on-betsy-devos-confirmation/#sthash.kNIDe8QN.dpuf

The DeVos vote is a bad case study for the power of campaign contributions

The following article by Philip Bump was posted on the Washington Post website February 7, 2017:

Chairman Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) greets Betsy DeVos for her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on Capitol Hill on Jan. 17. (Brendan Smialowski/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

After the Senate narrowly — historically narrowly — voted to approve the Cabinet nomination of Betsy DeVos, opponents of her nomination presented a theoretical rationale: money.

CAP Education @EdProgress

Toomey, Cochran, Capito, and Tillis have all voted ‘yes’ to confirm DeVos as Secretary of Education

CAP Education @EdProgress

Here’s how much they received from DeVos: pic.twitter.com/Fhm6R9awbf

View image on Twitter

Continue reading “The DeVos vote is a bad case study for the power of campaign contributions”

With historic tiebreaker from Pence, DeVos confirmed as education secretary

The following article by Emma Brown as posted on the Washington Post website February 7, 2017:

The Senate confirmed Betsy DeVos as education secretary Tuesday by the narrowest of margins, with Vice President Pence casting a historic tiebreaking vote after senators deadlocked over her fitness for the job.

DeVos now takes the helm of the Education Department with questions about whether and how the polarizing fight over her confirmation will affect her power to advance the Trump administration’s agenda. Continue reading “With historic tiebreaker from Pence, DeVos confirmed as education secretary”

Betsy DeVos’ Threat to Children with Disabilities

The following article by Meg Benner and Rebecca Ullrich was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 2, 2017:

Introduction and summary

There is something that supporters of school vouchers—such as Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for education secretary—will not admit: Children with disabilities can and will be harmed under voucher programs.

Consider Trinity Fitzer: In the spring of 2012 when Trinity was a 6-year-old kindergartener, she was kicked out of the private school she attended using a voucher provided by the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program.1 Over the course of the year, Trinity’s mother had been called several times to pick her up early because of behavioral problems, with school officials calling Trinity “out of control.” According to the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism, Trinity suffered from gastrointestinal problems and anxiety, which led to challenging behaviors that her private school was not prepared—or required—to manage. Continue reading “Betsy DeVos’ Threat to Children with Disabilities”

Eli Broad, billionaire philanthropist and charter school backer, urges senators to oppose DeVos

The following article by Emma Brown was posted on the Washington Post website February 1, 2017:

AP/Carolyn Kaster
Secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos testifies at her confirmation hearing in Washington on January 17, 2017.

Eli Broad, a billionaire philanthropist from California and major backer of charter schools, is urging senators to oppose the nomination of Betsy DeVos as education secretary, saying that she is unqualified for the job.

“At the risk of stating the obvious, we must have a Secretary of Education who believes in public education and the need to keep public schools public,” Broad wrote in a letter Wednesday to Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). Continue reading “Eli Broad, billionaire philanthropist and charter school backer, urges senators to oppose DeVos”

DeVos’ Code Words For Creationism Offshoot Raise Concerns About ‘Junk Science’

The following article by Annie Waldeman was posted on the ProPublica website January 30, 2017:

Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick as secretary of education, has funded groups that champion “intelligent design,” a sophisticated outgrowth of creationism. Science educators worry that she could use her bully pulpit to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

AP/Carolyn Kaster
Secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos testifies at her confirmation hearing in Washington on January 17, 2017.

At a confirmation hearing earlier this month, Betsy DeVos, President Trump’s pick for education secretary, responded to a question about whether she would promote “junk science” by saying she supports science teaching that “allows students to exercise critical thinking.”

This seemingly innocuous statement has raised alarms among science education advocates, and buoyed the hopes of conservative Christian groups that, if confirmed, DeVos may use her bully pulpit atop the U.S. Department of Education to undermine the teaching of evolution in public schools.

DeVos and her family have poured millions of dollars into groups that champion intelligent design, the doctrine that the complexity of biological life can best be explained by the existence of a creator rather than by Darwinian evolution. Within this movement, “critical thinking” has become a code phrase to justify teaching of intelligent design.
Candi Cushman, a policy analyst for the conservative Christian group Focus on the Family, described DeVos’ nomination as a positive development for communities that want to include intelligent design in their school curricula. Both the Dick and Betsy DeVos Foundation and Betsy DeVos’ mother’s foundation have donated to Focus on the Family, which has promoted intelligent design.

Continue reading “DeVos’ Code Words For Creationism Offshoot Raise Concerns About ‘Junk Science’”

13 Facts that Set the Record Straight on DeVos

The following article by Stephanie Johnson and Coleton Whitaker was posted on the Center for American Progress website January 31, 2017:

AP/Carolyn Kaster
Secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos testifies at her confirmation hearing in Washington on January 17, 2017.

Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for secretary of education, sat before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee on January 17, 2017, for her confirmation hearing. During that hearing, DeVos made a series of statements that avoided straightforward answers, conflicted with her record on various subjects, and expressed confusion about the basic issues affecting students in public schools across America. Spokespeople from President Trump’s transition team and others have similarly made statements about DeVos that diverge from what her record shows.

This column presents 13 facts that set the record straight. These facts debunk DeVos’ “alternative facts” with actual facts and evidence regarding her history as a career megadonor and political influencer. Continue reading “13 Facts that Set the Record Straight on DeVos”

The telling letter Betsy DeVos wrote to clarify her position on U.S. disabilities law

The following article by Valerie Strauss was posted on the Washington Post website January 28, 2017:

Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire President Trump nominated to be education secretary, wrote a letter to a senator about the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. What she said in that letter is very telling about her education priorities.

DeVos wrote the letter to Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, after a Jan. 17 confirmation hearing in which DeVos revealed a lack of understanding of basic education issues, including IDEA. Continue reading “The telling letter Betsy DeVos wrote to clarify her position on U.S. disabilities law”

Inside the Financial Holdings of Billionaire Betsy DeVos

The following article by Ben Miller and Laura Jimenez was posted on the Center for American Progress website January 27, 2017:

AP/Carolyn Kaster
Secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos testifies at her confirmation hearing in Washington on January 17, 2017.

On Friday, January 20, 2017, the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, or OGE, released the paperwork and pledge for President Donald Trump’s secretary of education nominee Betsy DeVos. The 108-page document is rife with private equity and hedge fund investments that are opaque to the public.

Overall, DeVos’ paperwork showcases an extensive web of investments, several of which raise eyebrows. She has investments in companies that hound students to pay their federal loan debts, as well as in psychiatric hospitals under federal investigation for Medicare fraud. She also has more than $1 million in an undisclosed venture related to education. And although her filings do not show any direct ownership stake in a private for-profit college, she has chosen to put some of her money into firms that are invested in that industry. Continue reading “Inside the Financial Holdings of Billionaire Betsy DeVos”