Wednesday, February 08, 2017

Betsy DeVos Confirmed!

Most of you know by now that Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education was confirmed yesterday by a very close vote in the U.S. Senate with Vice- President Pence bringing the tie braking vote to 51-50. Reason magazine looks at the situation. I'm pleased as punch as should be anyone who believes in school choice, although it's questionable just how much Ms. DeVos can really do towards that end. 

I'm elated, but the deplorables over at Daily Kos and other left wing venues are pissed. Good for them. Kinda hard to understand why, except they put more effort into fighting DeVos than they have for Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions, who really can do some bad things. Also, as this other Reason magazine article points out, it's hard to understand all the angst over a federal department we never felt a need for until the latter years of the Carter Administration.

I'll be enjoying the thought of deplorables being pissed over this, while I'm elated over the nomination of the new Secretary of Education. 

16 Comments:

At 12:47 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I figured your biggest worry would be health care related given your recent heath issues

 
At 12:55 PM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

That's certainly a concern, but I'll try not to lose sleep or get hysterical over it. Nothing I can do but wait to see what happens and how the Republican's "replacement" for Obamacare turns out.

 
At 1:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow. You need help Fred. Seriously.

 
At 1:46 PM, Blogger Jon said...

Is "Reason" supposed to be an ironic title?

Isn't it somewhat telling that education level is critical to the political movements that depend on an irrationally high priority placed on immigration policies?

In short, poor education standards favor one political movement. Fred, as someone who may appreciate "reason", isn't that concerning.

Or is it that those darn colleges are havens for liberal propaganda instead of actual higher learning.

https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2016/11/18/educational-rift-in-2016-election/amp/?client=safari

 
At 5:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

No secret that our schools have been failing for decades and any attempt at reform has been stymied by the teachers' unions and the democrats. Parents of children in failing schools have no alternative unless they can afford private school tuition or can somehow manage to home school their children.

And speaking of propaganda, how about the curriculum installed by the system to indoctrinate our children in gender politics, environmental worship, multi-culturalism, black lives matter and white privilege while failing to teach basic subjects like ENGLISH, mathematics, science and American history?

The system needs upending and if anyone can do it, it's Betsy DeVos. The definition of insanity is continuing to do the same old thing while expecting different results. Time for our educators to take their collective heads out of their arses and to get back to teaching instead of indoctrinating.

 
At 7:24 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thankfully, the heavy handed Unions lost.
Congressman Thomas Massie submitted a one sentence Bill, ending the Dept of Education by 2018.
Things are looking up!

 
At 7:14 AM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

School, where public employees go liberal rogue, students get brainwashed to the desires of left wing nuts.

Forced education or none at all.

Liberals attempt to convert, then fail, then call those who won't convert names.

 
At 7:18 AM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

Politicians who endorse publuc education do so in order to brainwash.

Think about it....why give a fucking rats ass about people who are stupid, no desire to be better, smarter, faster,stronger, etc....

Votes for hire!

 
At 9:00 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

All the Repugs want to get God back in the classroom

 
At 10:12 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

School choice is the pass phrase of the for-profit privatization movement. It's already been proven a wholesale failure, be it voucher programs or charter schools. Both privatization efforts succeed and fail at the same rate as traditional schools.

So, in terms of killing public schools in favor of for-profit schools, it's a failure because you're not getting anything better, and you're giving up a public resource.

Why do they fail? Because the leading indicators of student achievement are the income and education level of the parents. MANY negative things affecting students trend with poverty (malnutrition, physical/mental/sexual abuse, poor dental care, neglect, parenting by TV (also neglect), drug use, drug use by parents, learning/physical/sensory disabilities, significant emotional issues, lack of education being presented as a thing of value, limited vocabulary spoken in the phone, limited access to books (no school library at the Title I school, not taken to public libraries, never set foot in a bookstore) and so on. The biggest influence of classroom performance is what happens at home.

It's why poor students sent to private schools with vouchers are statistically unlikely to improve their achievement. The same is true of affluent students moving to Title I schools (they don't perform worse).

The only things we might get from this new education secretary are:

1. Fewer public schools

2. More private schools

3. More injection of God into schooling (especially by way of welfare/vouchers for religious schools). This is big with the new secretary.

4. Further erosion of the wall between church and state.

I'm curious Fred. In many ways, you strike me as a closet progressive (albeit, completely unaware many of your root beliefs jibe with progressism).

I know you don't believe any of the facts I recited in my comment, but for the sake of argument, do you support the 4 things I cited at the end that many people expect to see from the new secretary? How about the last 2? More than anything else, these will be a chief focus for her, if her past activism is any indication.

 
At 10:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

er, spoken in the phone = home. Excuse my early onset dementia.

 
At 10:52 AM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

Which leaves the few sane left, who mock both parties.

 
At 11:01 AM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

State sponsored terrorism, aka, american public education.

Parents are just overly lazy when raising their little shits. Parents give in to state babysitting.

Parents allow their children to be abused psychologically.

Oh boy, better kill cops now that Sessions is in control and Sean Spicer is yapping.

No matter who is in control, the 2 Party System is building a police state because America is in the gutters.

Funny thing is that politics is faking the fear in order to benefit from the lie.

Spicer yaps too quickly, trips up too much in a rush to avoid the media blitz.

HOJ is enjoying all the lies american people gobble up like turkeys.......the ultimate goal is nearer.......breakdown of gubbamint.

HOJ encourages more left wing nuts to riot,help break apart the very system that benefits rioters.



 
At 3:07 PM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

Actually pro-choice is being able to tell the government to fuck off and die, you ain't teaching kids Jack shit.

 
At 1:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'll take Fred's silence as meaning he didn't know DeVos' activist history before writing his post. I've gotten the impression The Freddy likes there being a separation between church and state. Watch that wall come down while you're distracted by another wall going up.

 
At 7:55 AM, Blogger Henchman Of Justice said...

That explains why liberal educators go to church too, makeup a majority of the congregation.

 

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