Tag: Betsy DeVos

Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud at For-Profits

The following article by Danielle Ivory, Erica L. Green and Steve Eder was posted on the New York Times website May 13, 2018:

Secretary Betsy DeVos filled top positions in her department with former employees of for-profit colleges that have been under investigation. Credit: Erin Schaff, The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Members of a special team at the Education Department that had been investigating widespread abuses by for-profit colleges have been marginalized, reassigned or instructed to focus on other matters, according to current and former employees.

The unwinding of the team has effectively killed investigations into possibly fraudulent activities at several large for-profit colleges where top hires of Betsy DeVos, the education secretary, had previously worked.

During the final months of the Obama administration, the team had expanded to include a dozen or so lawyers and investigators who were looking into advertising, recruitment practices and job placement claims at several institutions, including DeVry Education Group. Continue reading “Education Department Unwinds Unit Investigating Fraud at For-Profits”

DeVos Moves to Loosen Restrictions on Federal Aid to Religious Colleges Image

The following article by Erica L. Green was posted on the New York Times website May 9, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos attended Christian schools all of her life and sent her own children to them.CreditTom Brenner/The New York Times

WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a lifelong advocate of Christian education, moved on Wednesday to loosen federal regulations on religious colleges and universities, after a Supreme Court decision that restricted states from denying some kinds of aid to religious institutions.

The measure is part of a sweeping deregulatory agenda for the Education Department announced on Wednesday by the White House budget office, which outlined several rules and regulations for the department to scrap or amend. Among those are rules that restrict faith-based entities from receiving federally administered funding. Continue reading “DeVos Moves to Loosen Restrictions on Federal Aid to Religious Colleges Image”

Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter’s meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources

The following article by Pierre Thomas and James Gordon Meek was posted on the ABC News website April 6, 2018:

Special Counsel Robert Mueller has obtained evidence that calls into question Congressional testimony given by Trump supporter and Blackwater founder Erik Prince last year, when he described a meeting in Seychelles with a Russian financier close to Vladimir Putin as a casual chance encounter “over a beer,” sources told ABC News.

Well-connected Lebanese-American businessman George Nader, a key witness given limited immunity by Mueller, has been interviewed seven times by prosecutors on a wide range of subjects. He told investigators that he set up a meeting in the Seychelles between Prince and Russian sovereign wealth fund CEO Kirill Dmitriev, mere days before Trump was inaugurated, sources familiar with the investigation said this week. Continue reading “Mueller has evidence that Trump supporter’s meeting with Putin ally may not have been a chance encounter: Sources”

While you weren’t looking: 5 stories from the Trump administration that aren’t about John Bolton

The following article by A.P. Joyce was posted on the mic.com website March 23, 2018:

This week, the news cycle has centered squarely on the ongoing Russia probe and unfolding drama at the White House, and excluded many other political news developments.

President Donald Trump began the week by attacking special counsel Robert Mueller specifically, rather than the Russia probe in general, for the first time on Twitter. He kept up his criticism as the week dragged on, even as his top lawyer in the case, attorney John Dowd, unexpectedly resigned on Thursday. Continue reading “While you weren’t looking: 5 stories from the Trump administration that aren’t about John Bolton”

Congress rejects much of Betsy DeVos’s agenda in spending bill

The following article by Moriah Baligit and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel was posted on the Washington Post website March 24, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has been steeped in controversy since she was first nominated for the role in the Trump administration. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post)

Correction/clarification: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated how much Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sought to cut the department’s budget and misstated the reason she aimed to reduce the Office for Civil Rights’s budget. This story has been updated. 

Congress dealt a blow to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos’s school choice agenda in a tentative spending bill released late Wednesday, rejecting her attempt to spend more than $1 billion promoting choice-friendly policies and private school vouchers. Continue reading “Congress rejects much of Betsy DeVos’s agenda in spending bill”

Trump administration escalates attack on federal unions with one-sided ‘agreement’ at Education

The following article by Joe Davidson was posted on the Washington Post website March 16, 2018:

>President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in the White House in February. Credit: Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post

The Education Department is attempting to enforce a “collective bargaining agreement” on a union that does not agree.

The department’s move to foist a contract on the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) is the Trump administration’s latest and most dramatic attack on federal labor organizations and has implications far beyond the 3,900 employees the union represents at the department.

This bold stroke could herald what federal unions across the government might encounter from an administration bent on belittling them. Continue reading “Trump administration escalates attack on federal unions with one-sided ‘agreement’ at Education”

Nine controversial — and highly revealing — things Betsy DeVos has said

The following article by Valerie Strauss was posted on the Washington Post website March 12, 2018:

President Trump greets Education Secretary Betsy DeVos during a White House event last year. Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The latest flap surrounding Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stems from her inability to answer basic questions about schools during an interview she gave to Lesley Stahl on CBS’s “60 Minutes” on Sunday night. But it wasn’t the first time she has revealed a lack of knowledge about fundamental education issues in front of a big audience — or said something that infuriated advocates of public schools.

Here are nine things DeVos has said — or refused to say — in recent years that explain her views and philosophy about education in the United States:

1) In 2015, before she became education secretary in the administration of President Trump, she said flatly that traditional public schools are “a dead end.” Continue reading “Nine controversial — and highly revealing — things Betsy DeVos has said”

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stumbles during pointed ‘60 Minutes’ interview

The following article by Valerie Strauss was posted on the Washington Post website March 12, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had trouble answering questions and seemed to contradict herself during her interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” on March 11. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos appeared on CBS’s “60 Minutes” Sunday night and stumbled in answering questions that journalist Lesley Stahl asked during a pointed interview.

Stahl repeatedly challenged the education secretary, at one point suggesting that DeVos should visit underperforming public schools to learn about their problems. DeVos responded, “Maybe I should.” The secretary also said she is “not so sure exactly” how she became, as Stahl described her, “the most hated” member of President Trump’s Cabinet but believes that she is “misunderstood.” Continue reading “Education Secretary Betsy DeVos stumbles during pointed ‘60 Minutes’ interview”

As DeVos Approves Education Plans, She Finds Skeptics in G.O.P. Governors

The following article by Erica L. Green was posted on the New York Times website February 11, 2018:

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has approved plans from six states states where the governor refused to sign on. Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

WASHINGTON — The majority of states now have the green light from Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to begin implementing a sweeping federal law passed in 2015 to replace the much-maligned No Child Left Behind law.

But state and federal education policymakers are running into a surprising source of opposition: governors.

Ms. DeVos has approved 35 plans, including those from Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., that provide a road map for complying with the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, a bipartisan law passed under President Barack Obama that returns the reins of education reform to states. The law required every state education department to submit a plan. Continue reading “As DeVos Approves Education Plans, She Finds Skeptics in G.O.P. Governors”

Trump and DeVos Continue to Undermine Public Education with Their Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget

The following article by Stephenie Johnson, Neil Campbell and Scott Sargrad was posted on the Center for American Progress website February 12, 2018:

President Donald Trump, with Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, gestures as he walks, November 2017 Credit: Getty/Jabin Botsford

Today, President Donald Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos released their proposed budget for the 2019 fiscal year. The Trump administration’s budget proposal for this year makes strikingly similar drastic cuts to the administration’s fiscal year 2018 proposal, which represented the most devastating funding cuts to the U.S. Department of Education since Ronald Reagan’s presidency. On the heels of that widely criticized proposal, the Trump administration has doubled down this year with a $7.1 billion cut to the Department of Education’s funding—a 10.5 percent decrease from 2017 levels. And while an unusual addendum—released on the same day as the original proposal—seems to restore $3.3 billion to the education budget, Trump and DeVos have made their priorities clear: Starve public schools to fund private school schemes that benefit the wealthy. Continue reading “Trump and DeVos Continue to Undermine Public Education with Their Proposed Fiscal Year 2019 Budget”