Tag: Betsy DeVos

Betsy DeVos to the rescue: For-profit colleges see a savior in secretary

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has systematically dismantled an Obama-era crackdown on for-profit colleges. Credit: Matt Rourke, AP

The rejection letter was harsh.

Page after page, an accrediting agency ticked off all the problems at Virginia College, a large chain of for-profit schools with dwindling enrollment. There would be no seal of approval, the accreditor declared, no imprimatur necessary to participate in the federal student loan program that is the lifeblood of most colleges and universities.

But it turned out that Virginia College — and other for-profit schools — had a friend in high places.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has led a rescue squad for the nation’s for-profit colleges. Step by step, she has dismantled an Obama-era crackdown on the industry, and she plans to deliver a set of regulations next year that many expect to again boost the industry.

View the complete November 23 Laura Meckler on The Washington Post website here.

Betsy DeVos’ predecessor says new TItle IX rules will dissuade victims from reporting sexual assault

Credit: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’ predecessor said in an interview that DeVos’ proposed new Title IX rules designed to strengthen the rights of accused sexual assaulters will have the adverse effect of dissuading victims from coming forward.

“One of the likely effects of the rules as currently proposed is that people who today would report what happened to them and be protected will now be afraid to do so,” John King Jr., who served as secretary of education during former President Barack Obama’s final year in office, said Tuesday in an interview with Mic.

On Friday, DeVos proposed sweeping changes to Title IX rules — which dictate how education institutions that receive federal funds handle allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

View the complete November 21 article by Emily C. Singer on the Mic.com website here.

How the DeVos Family Is Buying Political Sway Ahead of the Midterm Elections

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos shakes hands with President Donald Trump during a White House meeting, February 2017. Credit: Saul Loeb via Getty Images

Over the past year, the family of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been quietly funding far-right Republican politicians. This CAP Action Fund analysis shows that the DeVos family has poured more than $2 million in donations into Republican coffers over the past 12 months—despite Secretary DeVos’ clear pledge not to make political contributions.

Even by the loose standards of U.S. campaign finance laws—and President Donald Trump’s blatant corruption—the donations by the family members of a Cabinet official have been brazen. In February 2018, Richard DeVos, Secretary DeVos’ father-in-law, gave $1 million to the Freedom Partners Action Fund—a political action fund that has long been associated with far-right causes. Over the past year, the DeVos family has also given $350,000 to the Republican Congressional Leadership Fund and another $400,000 to the Republican National Committee.

The DeVoses have also donated to specific candidates for federal and state office. (see Methodology) Wisconsin’s far-right firebrand, Gov. Scott Walker (R), for example, has received more than $635,000 over the past decade from the DeVos family—including $30,000 in 2018. Bill Schuette, Michigan’s Republican attorney general who is running for governor, received almost $40,000 over the past year.

View the complete October 29 article by Ulrich Boser and Perpetual Baffour on the Center for American Progress website here.

DNC on Betsy DeVos’s Proposed Campus Sexual Misconduct Rules

DNC Women’s Media Director Elizabeth Renda released the following statement on the new campus sexual misconduct rules Education Secretary Betsy DeVos plans to propose, which “would bolster the rights of students accused of assault, harassment or rape” and “lessen liability for institutions of higher education”:

“The proposed campus sexual misconduct policies from Betsy DeVos and her Department of Education are just the latest example of the Trump administration turning its back on women and victims of sexual assault. These proposed rules are a blatant and disturbing attack on every student who has experienced or could experience sexual assault or misconduct on a college campus, and they exemplify the misplaced priorities of DeVos and the Trump administration. Our government should be fighting to protect victims of sexual assault and hold their attackers accountable. Instead, under DeVos’s leadership, this administration is actively fighting to weaken protections for victims of the sexual assault epidemic that plagues campuses across the country. Democrats will never stop fighting against the Trump administration’s shameful attacks on women, victims of sexual assault, and our country’s values.”

DNC on DeVos Using Federal Funds to Put More Guns in Schools

In response to reports that the Trump administration is considering letting school districts use federal funds to purchase guns, DNC spokesperson Daniel Wessel released the following statement:

“Our nation has a growing gun violence epidemic that has manifested itself in schools across the country. Now, Betsy DeVos wants to take federal funds intended for academic and enrichment opportunities in our poorest schools and allow school districts to purchase firearms. More guns in schools is simply, and obviously, not the answer. Instead of using taxpayer dollars to make students less safe, Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration should stand up to the NRA and join Democrats in working to enact commonsense gun reforms.”

Omarosa: DeVos said black college students lack the ‘capacity to understand’ her agenda

The following article by Banjamin Wermund was posted on the Politico website August 14, 2018:

Omarosa Manigault Newman trashes Education Secretary Betsy DeVos throughout her book and calls the Trump Cabinet official “woefully inadequate and not equipped for her job.” Credit: Andrew Harnik, AP Photo

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos allegedly said the students who booed her May 2017 commencement speech at a historically black college didn’t have the “capacity to understand” what she wants to accomplish, according to the tell-all book by former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman.

Manigault Newman describes DeVos’ comments during a conversation with her after the May address at Florida’s Bethune-Cookman University as “meaning, all those black students were too stupid to understand her agenda.”

Manigault Newman trashes DeVos throughout the book and calls her “woefully inadequate and not equipped for her job.” She alleges President Donald Trump referred to the education secretary as “Ditzy DeVos” and promised to “get rid of her” after the Bethune-Cookman event.

View the complete article here.

Back To School: DeVos Making It Harder To Pay For An Education

Betsy DeVos is making it harder for students to pay for their education. While Democrats are fighting for accessible and affordable education for all, DeVos has repeatedly taken the side of predatory for-profit schools and made it more difficult for students to pay back their loans.

As students head back to school, here’s a look at some of the steps DeVos has taken against student borrowers:

  • Betsy DeVos announced plans to eliminate the gainful employment rule, which was enacted to ensure for-profit schools give students the skills they need to obtain good-paying jobs.
  • Betsy DeVos issued a proposal that would cut billions of dollars in debt relief for defrauded students.
  • Betsy DeVos withdrew guidance aimed at improving the contracting process for student loan servicers.
  • Betsy DeVos proposed putting student loans on debit cards to oversee and potentially control their usage.

Continue reading “Back To School: DeVos Making It Harder To Pay For An Education”

DeVos Ends Obama-Era Safeguards Aimed at Abuses by For-Profit Colleges Image

The following article by Erica L. Green was posted on the New York Times website August 10, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos scrapped a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs. Credit: Michael Reynolds, EPA, via Shutterstock

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos formally moved Friday to scrap a regulation that would have forced for-profit colleges to prove that the students they enroll are able to attain decent-paying jobs, the most drastic in a series of policy shifts that will free the scandal-scarred, for-profit sector from safeguards put in effect during the Obama era.

In a written announcement posted on its website, the Education Department laid out its plans to eliminate the so-called gainful employment rule, which sought to hold for-profit and career college programs accountable for graduating students with poor job prospects and overwhelming debt. The Obama-era rule would have revoked federal funding and access to financial aid for poor-performing schools. Continue reading “DeVos Ends Obama-Era Safeguards Aimed at Abuses by For-Profit Colleges Image”

Tax-dodging Trump flunky won’t fly the US flag on her $40 million yacht

The following article by Dan Desai Martin was posted on the ShareBlue.com website August 9, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is dodging more than $2 million worth of taxes by registering her yacht in the Cayman Islands rather than the United States.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos Credit: Olivier Douliery/picture-alliance, dpa, AP Images

Trump often roars about the need to respect the flag in his racist rants against NFL players who kneel during the national anthem. Yet as it turns out, embattled Education Secretary Betsy DeVos refuses to fly the American flag on at least one of her family’s ten yachts.

Devos’ 164-foot yacht — the one that was recently untied and set adrift — flies the flag of the Cayman Islands, not the stars and stripes.

And this foreign flag isn’t just a unpatriotic decorating choice. It’s also a scheme that helps DeVos “avoid taxes, regulations, transparency requirements and domestic employment laws,” Newsweek reports.

View the complete article here.

Special Counsel Mueller Is Reviewing Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Phones and Computer: Report

The following article by Elizabeth Preza was posted on the AlterNet.org website June 25, 2018:

An Erik Prince spokesperson acknowledged the Trump ally provided Mueller with “total access to his phone and computer.”

Erik Prince Credit: Wikimedia Commons

Special counsel Robert Mueller is reviewing the communications of Betsy Devos’ brother, Blackwater founder Erik Prince, a Donald Trump ally who said last week he “cooperated” with the Russia investigation.

As ABC News reports, Prince came under Mueller’s investigatory purview after he reportedly tried to establish a backchannel between Trump and the Kremlin. As the Washington Post reported, on January 11, 2017, Prince met with Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian wealth fund manager, in the Seychelles. Sources told the Post the purpose of that trip was to connect Trump’s team with Russian officials.

Prince told Congress he took the meeting for business, and was not acting on behalf of Trump’s team, but Mueller is reportedly examining evidence to the contrary. As ABC reports, “Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, told investigators that he set up the meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Dmitriev, sources familiar with the investigation told ABC News. Documents obtained by Mueller also suggest that before and after Prince met Nader in New York a week before the trip, Nader shared information with Prince about Dmitriev.” Continue reading “Special Counsel Mueller Is Reviewing Blackwater Founder Erik Prince’s Phones and Computer: Report”