Just pathetic.
That really is a sad performance.
Sanders asked a hilarious question.
“Do you think that if you weren’t a multi-billionaire, if your familiy had not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican party, that you would be sitting here today?”
The argument of the right on all these hearings is basically “Bitch all you want snowflakes, we only need 51 votes to appoint and we have votes to spare!” Tribalism at it’s finest.
With DeVos it’s going to be especially heinous. All anyone needs to do is look at the charter school system in Michigan (which she herself holds up as a model of the system) to see how detrimental it is to children trying to learn within it. When used as a replacement for failing public schools and run strictly for profit, charter schools are an educational disaster.
On the other hand, charter school systems run the right way, like those in Massachusetts, can be a welcome addition to an education system. Placing a cap on the number of charter schools, placing limits on how they can recruit students and regulations on student acceptance, controlling who can open and manage such schools, all these things ensure quality, equality and success. Boston has some of the most successful charter schools in the nation.
Education reform is one of the most basic and necessary building blocks in the process of fixing the myriad of issues with the economy, government and social structure of the United States. A well educated country is a more successful country, a better managed country and a more equal country. We need people in power who understand that. Betsy DeVos is not one of those people.
DeVos has lived in a bubble of richness her entire life. She has never attended a non-private school. She has never taught at any educational facility. Her husband, who is also a major proponent of charter schools, has never attended a non-private school. They used their money and influence to get a charter school law passed in Michigan…which promptly plummeted to the bottom of national school rankings. She has 0 applicable experience and 0 applicable success in other areas. It would be hard to find a less qualified individual to run the Department of Education.
On a side note; the Federal government hasn’t been the roadblock to charter systems. The charter/voucher system needs to be voted in on a per-state basis. The DoE can put certain pressures on states to pass a voucher law, but they have no power to force it to happen. The main power DeVos will have is the power of the purse. She can withhold Federal funding to states that don’t have a voucher program. That should cause some interesting protests and headlines.
That’s all we need, for MORE public education money to go to for-profit K-12 schools. Because for-profit colleges have been such a winner. insert gif of Jerry Seinfeld rolling his eyes here
Devos couldn’t get hired for a low level admin position at a public school with an interview like that. It’s like she’s never even been in a school in her life.
Yeah, that was awful on epic levels. I want Devos nowhere near a government position.
I understand the whole “pivot” bit with talking heads, but this is kind of ridiculous to see in a confirmation hearing. If you don’t have the conviction to state your beliefs and stand up for them, why even bother showing up?
How much power does the Secretary of Education have to do that, though? Federal funding for education comes from Congress. She can’t just invent new requirements.
I’m sure the Republican Congress would be delighted to do that.
Right, there would need to be a voucher law put in to place at the Federal level that would allow the DoE to pull funding. But even with that law in place, the only power they have is to withhold the funding. The states can still refuse to pass a voucher program.
At the end of the day, DeVos, if confirmed, would have a lot less power than she seems to believe to get her pet voucher program spun up nationally. She could do damage in other ways; mostly by refusing to enforce existing rules (Title IX, for example), but that’s the limits to her power unless Congress gets involved.
Pruitt scare me.
I mean, look at China smog clouds, or the minamata syndrome. They guy basically want to poison america.
Yes, but presumably they would be filibustered.
And some of us have school aged special needs children which really makes this thing a nightmare. At least I’m in Minnesota which I assume in Kaine’s argument would be one of the states you would have to move to.
The DeVos money comes from Amway, so they directly benefit from an uneducated populace.
Is this true? If so, it seems fitting for Trump.
Partly. Her father-in-law is Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway. She has her own family’s money though. Her father is Edgar Prince, founder of The Prince Corporation.
Fun fact: Her brother Erik Prince started Blackwater, the merc corporation.
We’re certainly draining the swamp here!
Trump’s pick for OMB “forgot” to pay his nanny taxes.
At one time this was considered disqualifying, but of course it is a drop in the bucket for the Trump cabinet.