Master Index of Archived Threads


We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

batmagadanleadoff Mar 27 2019 10:21 AM Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Apr 22 2019 11:12 AM

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a26960447/lindsey-graham-barr-letter-devos-special-olympics/ excerpt: And, finally, Betsy DeVos, the unprincipled, unqualified incompetent installed as Secretary of Education, has decided that her department can't afford the Special Olympics any more. From the Detroit Free Press: It calls for eliminating billions in grants to improve student achievement by reducing class sizes and funding professional development for teachers as well as cutting funds dedicated to increasing the use of technology in schools and improving school conditions. In many cases, DeVos said the purpose of the grants has been found to be redundant or ineffective. In the case of the $17.6 million cut to help fund the Special Olympics, a program designed to help children and adults with disabilities, DeVos suggested it is better supported by philanthropy and added, "We had to make some difficult decisions with this budget." DeVos's budget cuts all come at the expense of public schools. Her budget increases all come to benefit the deeply corrupt and dishonest charter school industry, which should continue to be very proud of the people its movement attracts. But, seriously, an attack on the Special Olympics? So much winning.

nymr83 Mar 27 2019 11:04 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

given the author's slanderous characterization of the entire charter school industry, i see no reason to take anything they say seriously or read further.

Ceetar Mar 27 2019 01:15 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

=nymr83 post_id=5224 time=1553706254 user_id=54] given the author's slanderous characterization of the entire charter school industry, i see no reason to take anything they say seriously or read further.

It's hardly slanderous to call the charter school industry dishonest and corrupt. It's been documented to be so.



DeVos is an unmitigated discriminatory disaster, and this is yet another example of it.

41Forever Mar 27 2019 01:49 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread Edited 1 time(s), most recently on Mar 27 2019 02:25 PM

given the author's slanderous characterization of the entire charter school industry, i see no reason to take anything they say seriously or read further. It's hardly slanderous to call the charter school industry dishonest and corrupt. It's been documented to be so. And it's also been documented some charter schools are among the best schools in their states. Last year's U.S. News and World Report rankings had seven charter schools in the top 10 public high schools in the nation. [url]https://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/national-rankings I think blanket statements are rarely accurate or fair. Having covered charter schools between 1996 and 2013, I can tell you there are excellent ones and there are horrendously awful ones and a bunch right in the middle. The worst ones should be, and often are, closed. But to say they are all corrupt because of a few bad actors is unfair to all of them. It's like saying the college admissions process is dishonest and corrupt because of the documented abuses uncovered in recent weeks. It's apparently the case in some colleges, and they should be held accountable. But certainly not the case for all of them. President Obama was a strong supporter of charter schools, as is Eli Broad, a huge Democrat contributor. I think both have said charters aren't the silver bullet for education, but there is a place for them.

Ceetar Mar 27 2019 01:53 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

It's not a few charters, and deVos is exacerbating the problems with them because like her criminal boss, she's only after personal profits. And that some of them are the 'best' is not a great measure of how on the level they are. They're certainly not solving any of the problems with the education system.

Edgy MD Mar 27 2019 02:03 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

Actually, the Fallacy of the Part and the Whole (aka Fallacy of Composition) and the Fallacy of the Hasty Generalization does indicate that if you're wrong about one item in the set you're speaking about, you're wrong about the entire statement. The Internet would be such a more pleasing place if we all embraced this reality.

MFS62 Mar 27 2019 06:57 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

=nymr83 post_id=5224 time=1553706254 user_id=54] given the author's slanderous characterization of the entire charter school industry, i see no reason to take anything they say seriously or read further.

Have someone read it to you. Then read about her. This isn't just about the educational environment he proposes. This woman is pure evil, a person who wants to destroy public education. If she's not the lowest of the low, she's jockeying hard for that position.



Later

Fman99 Mar 27 2019 07:50 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

She wants to cut $18 million from the Special Olympics. She also has a yacht that cost her $40 million. Therefore, A + B = her being a shit-ass.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 27 2019 08:03 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

=41Forever post_id=5268 time=1553716169 user_id=69] =Ceetar post_id=5262 time=1553714154 user_id=102] =nymr83 post_id=5224 time=1553706254 user_id=54] given the author's slanderous characterization of the entire charter school industry, i see no reason to take anything they say seriously or read further.

It's hardly slanderous to call the charter school industry dishonest and corrupt. It's been documented to be so.




And it's also been documented some charter schools are among the best schools in their states.


And John Gotti gave out free turkeys to the needy for Thanksgiving.



Give me an effin break already with this scumbag administration and its enormous proposed budget cuts to education. They're cutting services to make up for all the money it gave away to the super rich in the GOP's scumbag tax cut legislation. So Count Betsy zeroes out the Special Olympics budget and on top of that, probably gets back an extra $75 million dollars on the back end from Trump's tax cut to benefit himself and Count Betsy. But I phrased that in reverse. They gave themselves maybe a hundred million dollars each pocketed from tax revenues and covered up the theft by cutting the Special Olympics budget. What a grift.



Still, you would know the difference between a real MAGA hat and a counterfeit one.

LWFS Mar 27 2019 11:08 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

Pretty much zeroing out Special Olympics federal funding AND deep cuts to programs for hearing- and sight-impaired education programs, along with deep, deep cuts to grant programs which bring technology/STEM to underserved schools... but upping charter school funding by $60M. The aim, I think, isn't to actually fund charters. They're just the vehicle. The aim is to extract money from public schools and free-market public education.

Ceetar Mar 28 2019 08:20 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/

batmagadanleadoff Mar 28 2019 09:26 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

=LWFS post_id=5319 time=1553749687 user_id=84] The aim, I think, isn't to actually fund charters. They're just the vehicle. The aim is to extract money from public schools and free-market public education.

Well, yeah. Because school funding is a zero sum game. And for public schools, it's not just the variable costs expressed as a ratio between funds and the number of students. There are fixed costs, too. Floors. And if those fixed costs aren't properly funded, the schools can't function and are eventually closed down. As far as those fixed costs go, it doesn't matter if an underfunded school enrolls 2,000 students or 25. It needs its fixed costs.



This is one thing that DeVos knows all too well. It's not for nothing that Michigan's public education system is, rightfully so, widely known as the laughing stock of American public education.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 28 2019 09:32 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Don't get me started on how private schools can get public funds. And use those funds to teach intelligent design and crackpot ideas about the invisible man in the sky that makes things happen. And then get to claim that they're private so to avoid scrutiny and accountability. I know it's all legal, but I've purposely avoided reading the legal rationale for all of this because I know it would make my head spin. I'm sure it's all intellectually insulting pretextual tortured logic to justify all of this.

41Forever Mar 28 2019 09:40 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Well, yeah. Because if New jersey's system if flawed, that must be the case for the rest of the country. You will very easily find studies and articles showing both charter school successes and failures. Like I said, after covering them nationally and locally, there are outstanding ones and awful ones and a bunch in the middle. (I actually earned a number of awards from the state teachers union for exposing some of the worst in my state.) There are many variations of management, from independent schools to schools operated by traditional districts to schools run by management companies. If you are painting them all with the same brush, you are painting an inaccurate portrait.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 28 2019 09:45 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Well, yeah. Because if New jersey's system if flawed, that must be the case for the rest of the country. You will very easily find studies and articles showing both charter school successes and failures. Like I said, after covering them nationally and locally, there are outstanding ones and awful ones and a bunch in the middle. (I actually earned a number of awards from the state teachers union for exposing some of the worst in my state.) There are many variations of management, from independent schools to schools operated by traditional districts to schools run by management companies. If you are painting them all with the same brush, you are painting an inaccurate portrait. Did you change your mind and suddenly decide that you'd like to discuss politics? Sword. Shield. Sword. Shield. Sword. Shield.

batmagadanleadoff Mar 28 2019 09:52 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Well, yeah. Because if New jersey's system if flawed, that must be the case for the rest of the country. You will very easily find studies and articles showing both charter school successes and failures. Like I said, after covering them nationally and locally, there are outstanding ones and awful ones and a bunch in the middle. (I actually earned a number of awards from the state teachers union for exposing some of the worst in my state.) There are many variations of management, from independent schools to schools operated by traditional districts to schools run by management companies. If you are painting them all with the same brush, you are painting an inaccurate portrait. Did you change your mind and suddenly decide that you'd like to discuss politics? Sword. Shield. Sword. Shield. Sword. Shield. What a character. He likes to make his political points, but then ask him whether Trump's a racist or make a joke about him and his vile MAGA hats, and suddenly he's "not allowed" to respond. Sword. Shield.

Ceetar Mar 28 2019 10:17 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Don't get me started on how private schools can get public funds. And use those funds to teach intelligent design and crackpot ideas about the invisible man in the sky that makes things happen. And then get to claim that they're private so to avoid scrutiny and accountability. I know it's all legal, but I've purposely avoided reading the legal rationale for all of this because I know it would make my head spin. I'm sure it's all intellectually insulting pretextual tortured logic to justify all of this. I believe it's ridiculously simple actually. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it sounds like there are helper groups that help out the charter schools and they can get some of the funds but there's basically zero oversight and they're private. So like "Hey, the boss says we're part of the school. can we have some money?" Groundskeeper Willie is a slumlord buying up buildings with funds from Chalmers.

LWFS Mar 28 2019 11:21 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

=batmagadanleadoff post_id=5361 time=1553786810 user_id=68] =LWFS post_id=5319 time=1553749687 user_id=84] The aim, I think, isn't to actually fund charters. They're just the vehicle. The aim is to extract money from public schools and free-market public education.

Well, yeah. Because school funding is a zero sum game.

I mean, not if you increase overall education spending, and decrease tax loopholes for corporations and the ultrarich, right?

41Forever Mar 28 2019 12:04 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

[url]https://www.northjersey.com/in-depth/news/watchdog/2019/03/27/nj-charter-schools-nj-tax-money-disappearing/2139903002/ Don't get me started on how private schools can get public funds. And use those funds to teach intelligent design and crackpot ideas about the invisible man in the sky that makes things happen. And then get to claim that they're private so to avoid scrutiny and accountability. I know it's all legal, but I've purposely avoided reading the legal rationale for all of this because I know it would make my head spin. I'm sure it's all intellectually insulting pretextual tortured logic to justify all of this. I believe it's ridiculously simple actually. Maybe I'm misunderstanding, but it sounds like there are helper groups that help out the charter schools and they can get some of the funds but there's basically zero oversight and they're private. So like "Hey, the boss says we're part of the school. can we have some money?" Groundskeeper Willie is a slumlord buying up buildings with funds from Chalmers. Yes, you are misunderstanding.

Double Switch Mar 30 2019 08:51 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

One must assume that for many, money is far more precious than children. So what does is say about anyone who can defend Betsy DeVos about anything she does? The lowest of her astonishingly niggardly proposals so far is defunding athletics for disabled children. Anyone in favor of that has a different sort of malignant disability.

batmagadanleadoff Apr 22 2019 11:12 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Betsy DeVos Thread

In this corner ..... count Betsy DeVos. And in this corner ... the Great Elizabeth Warren. Elizabeth Warren's Plan to Cancel Student Debt Is a Stunning Contrast With Betsy DeVos and the Trump Administration https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a27224539/elizabeth-warren-cancel-student-debt-betsy-devos/ Excerpts: [T]he Massachusetts senator returned a couple days later to add to her sprawling policy suite with a sweeping plan, via The New York Times, to overhaul the American higher-education system and make it more affordable.... In addition to eliminating undergraduate tuition at public colleges and universities, she would expand federal grants to help students with nontuition expenses and create a $50 billion fund to support historically black colleges and universities. She would eliminate up to $50,000 in student loan debt for every person with a household income of less than $100,000; borrowers who make between $100,000 and $250,000 would have a portion of their debt forgiven. This seems to be predicated on the notion that, in the richest and most powerful country in the history of the world, maybe kids don't need to saddle themselves with crippling debt for at least the first half of their adult lives just to get an education that will serve them in today's economy. Vocational schools have their place, but if kids want to go to college in America, it should not be some absurd fantasy that puts them 100-grand in the red.... The enormous student debt burden weighing down our economy isn't the result of laziness or irresponsibility. It's the result of a government that has consistently put the interests of the wealthy and well-connected over the interests of working families. Policymakers stood by as state after state pulled back on investments in public higher education and sent tuition soaring. They stood by as for-profit colleges exploded, luring in students with false promises and loading them up with debt as their executives and investors raked in billions in taxpayer dollars. They stood by as employers demanded higher credentials while offloading the cost of getting those credentials onto workers. And they stood by as corporations made huge profits off of the new skills graduates gained through higher education while giving workers almost nothing in the way of wage increases — increases policymakers falsely promised would make graduates' debt worth it. [***] She would pay for it with revenue generated by her proposed increase in taxes for America's most wealthy families and corporations, which the campaign estimates to be $2.75 trillion over 10 years.... Basically, the plan is to take an amount these folks will scarcely notice and put it towards programs whose beneficiaries will very much goddamn notice. But the most refreshing part of this whole thing is the radical departure from the educational regime of Betsy DeVos, who seems to believe an ideal system is one where education is purely a product for corporations to profit on and students should pad those profits by saddling themselves with extraordinary amounts of debt. DeVos has been a relentless advocate not just for charter schools, but in favor of for-profit colleges—the latter of which Warren proposes to cut all federal funding for after a transition period. Meanwhile, DeVos spent more than a year in court fighting the implementation of Obama-era policies that "make it easier for defrauded students to get their federal loans forgiven and they also prohibit colleges from forcing students to resolve complaints through arbitration." That's part of a larger effort to roll back consumer protections for student borrowers, an effort that extended to states when they tried to fill the gap when the Department of Education completely abandoned its responsibilities. (This is the It's-Best-Left-to-the-States philosophy Republicans often make mouth noises about.) Surely, all this has nothing to do with DeVos's extensive business ties to the for-profit college and student-loan industries, which she claimed to divest from when she took office.

Lefty Specialist Apr 22 2019 11:28 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Credit to Elizabeth Warren for actually coming up with concrete proposals to address actual issues. The problem here is that it'll cost too much. She says she'll pay for it with her tax on the super-super-super-wealthy ($50 million and above). She'd have to get that passed first, which is unlikely even with a Democratic House and Senate. But keep the plans coming, Senator Warren. No one can say she isn't running on substance, as opposed to say a Beto O'Rourke who's running on nothing discernible except his good looks and the fact that he almost beat Ted Cruz. And don't get me started on the Seth Moultons and Tim Ryans of the world.

MFS62 Apr 22 2019 07:17 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Lefty Specialist wrote: And don't get me started on the Seth Moultons and Tim Ryans of the world. I like Moulton. I've heard him speak several times and he has impressed me. He looks good, speaks well, and is a combat veteran who can call Agent Orange on his (non)record of service to his country and his ignorance of the Constitution EVERY veteran swore to uphold. He might not be the best candidate, weak on policy, but I think he would be a very strong candidate against (t)Rump. If not a Presidential candidate, I think if he were on the ticket as the VP candidate he would be a plus. Later

metsmarathon Apr 23 2019 06:43 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

the one thing that i'm leery of in terms of forgiving student debt and federally paying for college, is that with all that much more money available for colleges to take in, what's to keep them from raising tuition ever higher so that the actual financial burden borne by the students remains the same? and, y'know, taking that money and just building fancier football palaces?

Ceetar Apr 23 2019 07:24 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=metsmarathon post_id=7980 time=1556023409 user_id=83] the one thing that i'm leery of in terms of forgiving student debt and federally paying for college, is that with all that much more money available for colleges to take in, what's to keep them from raising tuition ever higher so that the actual financial burden borne by the students remains the same? and, y'know, taking that money and just building fancier football palaces?

obviously there should be checks put in place, caveats, etc, written into the law. (certainly better ones than say, Charter Schools) Good oversight, public accountability, etc.

Lefty Specialist Apr 23 2019 08:30 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=MFS62 post_id=7938 time=1555982232 user_id=60] I like Moulton. I've heard him speak several times and he has impressed me. He looks good, speaks well, and is a combat veteran who can call Agent Orange on his (non)record of service to his country and his ignorance of the Constitution EVERY veteran swore to uphold. He might not be the best candidate, weak on policy, but I think he would be a very strong candidate against (t)Rump. If not a Presidential candidate, I think if he were on the ticket as the VP candidate he would be a plus. Later

Moulton was one of the cabal (along with Tim Ryan) trying to oust Nancy Pelosi as speaker without having their fingerprints on it. Those two are dead to me.

Edgy MD Apr 23 2019 03:36 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=Ceetar post_id=7982 time=1556025890 user_id=102] =metsmarathon post_id=7980 time=1556023409 user_id=83] the one thing that i'm leery of in terms of forgiving student debt and federally paying for college, is that with all that much more money available for colleges to take in, what's to keep them from raising tuition ever higher so that the actual financial burden borne by the students remains the same? and, y'know, taking that money and just building fancier football palaces?

obviously there should be checks put in place, caveats, etc, written into the law. (certainly better ones than say, Charter Schools) Good oversight, public accountability, etc.


My plan would be for the federal government to work with states to provide grants to students enrolling in state schools and community colleges vastly reducing or eliminating their tuition or debt in exchange for one or more tours of duty in public service under a federal or state program.



This addresses the student debt crisis and the decline in civil engagement. And hopefully provides some workforce training as well.



The market comes into play, as state schools become an alarmingly better value than private schools (which they already are, but private schools have most of the brand names), leading (hopefully — I'm no economist) to a slowdown or reversal in tuition increases at these institutions, and perhaps bring many or most of them to the table, asking to participate in the federal service-for-tuition program in exchange for agreeing to cap their tuitions. But if they can survive the way they're going when high-quality state schools are a free or low-cost alternative, more power to them, I guess, but their student bodies will end up largely being the unmotivated children of the entitled rich and supermotivated foreign students, and the schools will lose any sense of the character that connects them to the larger fabric of American life.



There's likely a dozen holes in there that need to be filled, but is that an engaging starting point?

MFS62 Apr 23 2019 07:36 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Lefty Specialist wrote: Moulton was one of the cabal (along with Tim Ryan) trying to oust Nancy Pelosi as speaker without having their fingerprints on it. Did not know that. Thanks for the info. Later

Lefty Specialist Apr 24 2019 06:13 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Lefty Specialist wrote: Moulton was one of the cabal (along with Tim Ryan) trying to oust Nancy Pelosi as speaker without having their fingerprints on it. Did not know that. Thanks for the info. Later https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/26/speaker-nancy-pelosi-revolt-seth-moulton-222686 Does not paint him in a flattering light. If he ever got any traction (he won't) this would be an issue.

batmagadanleadoff Oct 08 2019 03:48 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Know nothing count Betsy DeVos, the best friend of shady colleges who'll take as much of your money as possible while giving you as little as possible in return, is threatened with jail time by a federal judge for violating her court order --- 16,000 times. https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEH7Nt2Ddl5hyBf0XLEMI5eoqGQgEKhAIACoHCAow77zbCjDiq8wBMNiCsgU?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen

batmagadanleadoff May 15 2020 06:06 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

DeVos Funnels Coronavirus Relief Funds to Favored Private and Religious Schools Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, using discretion written into the coronavirus stabilization law, is using millions of dollars to pursue long-sought policy goals that Congress has blocked. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos is using the $2 trillion coronavirus stabilization law to throw a lifeline to education sectors she has long championed, directing millions of federal dollars intended primarily for public schools and colleges to private and religious schools. The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, signed in late March, included $30 billion for education institutions turned upside down by the pandemic shutdowns, about $14 billion for higher education, $13.5 billion to elementary and secondary schools, and the rest for state governments. Ms. DeVos has used $180 million of those dollars to encourage states to create “microgrants” that parents of elementary and secondary school students can use to pay for educational services, including private school tuition. She has directed school districts to share millions of dollars designated for low-income students with wealthy private schools. And she has nearly depleted the 2.5 percent of higher education funding, about $350 million, set aside for struggling colleges to bolster small colleges — many of them private, religious or on the margins of higher education — regardless of need. The Wright Graduate University for the Realization of Human Potential, a private college in Wisconsin that has a website debunking claims that it is a cult, received about $495,000. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/politics/betsy-devos-coronavirus-religious-schools.html

MFS62 May 15 2020 06:22 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

The pandemic is just one more way that Trump's supporters have lined their pockets during his presidency. Later

Fman99 May 15 2020 06:22 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Three and a half years of these crooks and grifters running the country. So tiresome to me.

Willets Point May 15 2020 08:28 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Three and a half years of these crooks and grifters running the country. So tiresome to me. But we're safe from "socialism" so everything is ok for the bipartisan elite.

batmagadanleadoff May 27 2020 09:56 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

That this know-nothing nutjob s now a political force to be reckoned with only confirms that Michigan is a failed state. DeVos Demands Public Schools Share Pandemic Aid With Private Institutions Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says she will force public school superintendents to share coronavirus rescue funds with private schools, some of which are facing ruin. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, defiant amid criticism that she is using the coronavirus to pursue a long-sought agenda, said she would force public school districts to spend a large portion of federal rescue funding on private school students, regardless of income. Ms. DeVos announced the measure in a letter to the Council of Chief State School Officers, which represents state education chiefs, defending her position on how education funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, or CARES Act, should be spent. “The CARES Act is a special, pandemic-related appropriation to benefit all American students, teachers and families,” she wrote in the letter on Friday. “There is nothing in the act suggesting Congress intended to discriminate between children based on public or nonpublic school attendance, as you seem to do. The virus affects everyone.” A range of education officials say Ms. DeVos's guidance would divert millions of dollars from disadvantaged students and force districts starved of tax revenues during an economic crisis to support even the wealthiest private schools. The association representing the nation's schools superintendents told districts to ignore the guidance, and at least two states — Indiana and Maine — said they would. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/27/us/politics/betsy-devos-coronavirus-private-schools.html

Lefty Specialist May 28 2020 01:45 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

What states need to do is very politely and in perfect bureaucratic legalese tell her to fuck off. Buffy and Chad's parents will just have to kick in a little extra for the Academy next year.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 08 2020 03:56 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

The Only Education Matter Betsy DeVos Ever 'Thought Hard' About Was How to Make a Buck On It Trump's Secretary of Education is the most baroque combination of ignorance, incompetence, and monied arrogance to be found anywhere. When dingbats meet dinguses, trouble follows. The current campaign out of Camp Runamuck is to force schools to reopen, fully and on time. The president* has decided that human sacrifice generally is a manifestation of his power and glory, and now he's proposing to dragoon a nation of schoolchildren into the effort. On Wednesday, from the foul, fetid heart of the electric Twitter machine, he threatened to withhold federal aid from states that do not offer their children up to the biological Moloch he ignored. He told the country to ignore the cautious re-opening plan developed by his own CDC. (Later that day, the CDC "modified" the guidelines. Shocking!) And, to close the deal, he trotted out his dingus of a vice-president and his dingbat Secretary of Education to pitch it to a quarantined nation. First, the dingus. "What the President was saying this morning is, that if there are aspects of the CDC's recommendations that are prescriptive, or that serve as a barrier to kids getting back to school, we want governors and local officials and education leaders to know that we're here to work with them. Every American knows that we can safely reopen our schools." Every American? Let's go ask a few, Sparky. “I have to tell you the best expert I know on this topic is my wife, Karen, and she spoke at the summit yesterday very compellingly about how a lot of our kids are hurting out there. They're struggling with loneliness, with social isolation. The American Academy of Pediatrics spoke about that, a very forceful statement from pediatricians across the country that said we got to get our kids back into school.” Mother knows best. Next up was the dingbat. Even in this administration, where the bar is set somewhere in the Van Alen Belt, Betsy DeVos is the most baroque combination of ignorance, incompetence, and monied arrogance to be found anywhere. She's a grifter from family money whose goal in life has been to monetize the children she now intends to throw recklessly into harm's way. She took her time to plug some charter schools, and to criticize the public schools in one Virginia county, and then decided to inject the nation's bloodstream with some high-potency banality. Translated from the rudimentary weaselspeak, she told them, "We're going to knuckle you into opening so get ready because, folks, once you open, you're on your own." It's not a matter of if, it simply is a matter of how. Schools must fully open and be fully operational and how that happens is best left to education and community leaders. I appreciate something reiterated yesterday at the White House, the Surgeon General's prescription for health care. First, ask yourself your individual serve stance. Are you or someone in your home vulnerable? Second, what is going on in your community? Third, think about the kind of school activity that you are thinking about how to accommodate into deal with. What needs to be in place for things to be successful. They needed new data for education and communities and weigh the risk. I have thought hard about how to expand education for all students. America always was and is a country of doers. We are confident that with grit and determination, we can and will do what is right for all the students in our nation. Rub a little grit on it and get back in the game, Junior. The only thing about education on which DeVos ever has "thought hard" was how to turn a buck on it. I'm not entirely sure Mike Pence ever has "thought hard" about anything. As for the president*, his re-election isn't worth a bucket of warm piss, let alone the life of a single child. https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33252551/betsy-devos-mike-pence-trump-schools-reopening-covid-19/

whippoorwill Jul 08 2020 05:39 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Scared scared scared. My daughters a teacher;my grandkids are little I don't want the federal government telling school Districts what to do

Lefty Specialist Jul 09 2020 08:12 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

https://scontent.fewr1-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/p843x403/106920305_4819806751363598_6319278428366794263_n.png?_nc_cat=1&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=gNGNsVc_EJoAX94w8Go&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-5.fna&oh=bc5618f29f9633900c92bd8c0e9da07f&oe=5F2B398A>

Frayed Knot Jul 09 2020 01:01 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=whippoorwill post_id=40121 time=1594251540 user_id=79] I don't want the federal government telling school Districts what to do

That horse is long out of the barn.

whippoorwill Jul 09 2020 05:15 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

I would love to see schools waiting another semester to restart but I keep my mouth shut around her. I know she would like to give it a try. If PA goes back to yellow the kids will go alternate days, a heck of a predicament for parents

kcmets Jul 12 2020 07:36 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Omfg, I landed on a Devos interview just now on CNN ('State of the Union with Jake Tapper' but host was someone different). What a train-wreck this woman is. She's a stammering idiot and didn't (can't) answer direct questions, even simple yes/no ones.

kcmets Jul 12 2020 08:17 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Dana Bash was the interviewer, in case anyone want to see if it's online. I don't know who Betsy blew to get her gig, but she must give head like a Park Avenue hooker.

batmagadanleadoff Jul 13 2020 08:27 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

‘I wouldn't trust you to care for a house plant': Democrats blast DeVos for insisting schools fully reopen Excerpt: Facing widespread pushback, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos doubled down Sunday on her call to fully reopen schools and have children return to “learning full-time” in person by the fall — an effort that has also been championed by President Trump. But while DeVos stressed the importance of getting students back in classrooms, she repeatedly dodged questions during Sunday morning interviews on CNN and Fox News about how that could be done safely amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, prompting fierce criticism from congressional Democrats. “[Betsy DeVos,] you have no plan,” tweeted Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) on Sunday afternoon. “I wouldn't trust you to care for a house plant let alone my child.” [***] During both interviews, DeVos appeared to dance around questions about how the Education Department planned to ensure the safety of children and teachers.... Instead, she stuck to a handful of talking points that revolved around the same central message: “The key is that kids have to get back to school, and we know there are going to be hot spots and those need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, but the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall,” she told CNN's Dana Bash. Read it all at https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/07/13/devos-school-reopening-coronavirus/

MFS62 Jul 15 2020 03:11 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

She's being sued her for her ruling against defrauded students: Attorneys general of 23 states, led by California and Massachusetts, are suing Education Secretary Betsy DeVos over her revision of an Obama-era rule that was meant to help defrauded students of for-profit colleges seek debt relief. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/devos-sued-borrower-defense-202026199.html Later

Edgy MD Nov 07 2020 03:50 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Just so it doesn't get overlooked in the moment ... America just voted out Betsy DeVos, too.

whippoorwill Nov 07 2020 05:13 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Just gets better and better

Benjamin Grimm Nov 07 2020 07:43 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

I know! I've been so focused on how happy I am that Trump is exiting, I sometimes forget about all the collateral "damage", all the others who are being swept away. That Bill Maher farewell video that batmag shared in the other thread was great.

MFS62 Nov 08 2020 07:00 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

So now, what will all of them do? My wife had some ideas: Donald can play golf (when he's released from prison) Melania can finally take a good ESL class while looking for a divorce lawyer Pence can get that job he's always wanted in the women's lingerie department at Macy's Giuliani can attend a family reunion in search of his 5th wife Barr can become the new spokesperson for Weight-Watchers Stephen Miller can become a permanent test subject for new vaccines at the NIH Jared should be forced to work repairing houses for the needy Ivanka can model orange jumpsuits Donald Jr. and Eric can get a job cleaning cages at the San Diego Zoo But, still no ideas about Betsy DeVos. Any suggestions? Later

Lefty Specialist Nov 08 2020 08:06 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=MFS62 post_id=50200 time=1604844042 user_id=60] So now, what will all of them do? My wife had some ideas: Donald can play golf (when he's released from prison) Melania can finally take a good ESL class while looking for a divorce lawyer Pence can get that job he's always wanted in the women's lingerie department at Macy's Giuliani can attend a family reunion in search of his 5th wife Barr can become the new spokesperson for Weight-Watchers Stephen Miller can become a permanent test subject for new vaccines at the NIH Jared should be forced to work repairing houses for the needy Ivanka can model orange jumpsuits Donald Jr. and Eric can get a job cleaning cages at the San Diego Zoo But, still no ideas about Betsy DeVos. Any suggestions? Later

Jail. For them all. Maybe exile for Meiania.

kcmets Nov 08 2020 09:42 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

=MFS62 post_id=50200 time=1604844042 user_id=60] So now, what will all of them do? My wife had some ideas: Donald can play golf (when he's released from prison) Melania can finally take a good ESL class while looking for a divorce lawyer Pence can get that job he's always wanted in the women's lingerie department at Macy's Giuliani can attend a family reunion in search of his 5th wife Barr can become the new spokesperson for Weight-Watchers Stephen Miller can become a permanent test subject for new vaccines at the NIH Jared should be forced to work repairing houses for the needy Ivanka can model orange jumpsuits Donald Jr. and Eric can get a job cleaning cages at the San Diego Zoo But, still no ideas about Betsy DeVos. Any suggestions? Later

Waste of time, brain cells and a picture perfect northeast weekend.



I'm happy if the whole lot of them would just dry up and blow away to Mar-a-Lago.

batmagadanleadoff Nov 08 2020 11:19 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Slate is sending off the Trump administration with a series of "Goodbye ____________" pieces. Everybody from the monster Stephen Miller to the lightweight enabler and Trump whisperer Hope Hicks gets the fuck you send-off. Here's the link to all the articles: https://slate.com/tag/goodbye-trump-admin ...and fitting of the conversation this thread just took, here's : Goodbye, Betsy DeVos By Dan Kois Nov 07, 202012:21 PM So long, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos! It wasn't just that you were unqualified to lead America's educational system, as someone who never worked at a public school, attended a public school, or took out a school loan. It was that you were the opposite of qualified, an early example of the Trump administration's elitist disregard for the very role of government agencies themselves. You sailed into the Department of Education as if sailing into port on one of your yachts, buoyed by your belief that public schools are a “dead end,” your declaration that government “sucks,” and your family's hundreds of millions of dollars donated to Republican causes. And yeah, you made the most of the opportunity. You promoted charter and religious schools while ignoring public schools. You reduced protections for victims of sexual assault, for minority students, for gay and trans students. You gleefully ignored a court order and continued to collect loan payments from students at a defunct, fraudulent for-profit university—16,000 times, including wage garnishments and tax seizures. As chair of the Trump administration's “school safety commission,” formed after the Parkland shootings, you declined to recommend any gun control measures, but you did rescind an Obama-era guideline instructing schools not to punish minority students more harshly than white ones. Thank goodness! But it was in 2020, as American schools faced arguably their biggest crisis since the civil rights era, that you really made your contempt for teachers and children plain. As schools across the country sought aid and advice to reopen safely in the fall, you holed up in your Michigan compound, protected by around-the-clock U.S. Marshals that have cost taxpayers as much as $25 million over four years. (You're the first Cabinet secretary ever to insist on such protection.) From your mansion, you joined Donald Trump's demands that schools reopen NOW—but offered no support or assistance. The end result: politicizing school reopening as an issue, making it more difficult for schools to open safely. You've overseen a slow-motion education disaster that will have lasting effects on an entire generation of children. And you've done it all with a haughty, better-than-this attitude that makes clear just how little of a shit you give. You didn't give a shit during your confirmation hearings, when you plagiarized your Senate questionnaire and didn't bother to learn anything about the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. You didn't give a shit this summer, when you sniffed, “The secretary of education isn't the nation's superintendent.” Well, soon you won't be the nation's anything. I can't wait to never think about you again. You're expelled. This is part of a series of goodbyes to Trumpworld figures. Read the rest here.

whippoorwill Nov 08 2020 12:05 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Foster home for Barron before it's too late to save his soul

Benjamin Grimm Nov 08 2020 12:09 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

If he has a soul, he didn't inherit it from his father.

batmagadanleadoff Nov 08 2020 02:58 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

So now, what will all of them do? My wife had some ideas: . . . Pence can get that job he's always wanted in the women's lingerie department at Macy's "Pence should spend his post-Trump life hanging out with Mother, the fly, and no one else." This is part of a series of goodbyes to Trumpworld figures. Read the rest here. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/11/goodbye-mike-pence-coronavirus-task-force-quoteunquoteleader.html

MFS62 Nov 24 2020 01:46 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Still trying to keep money away from the defrauded. https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/education-department-removes-tool-for-defrauded-students-two-weeks-after-launching-the-new-website-212738359.html Later

batmagadanleadoff Jan 02 2021 08:03 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

The Wreckage Betsy DeVos Leaves Behind The Education Department lies in ruins right when it's needed most. By The Editorial Board Excerpt: The departing education secretary, Betsy DeVos, will be remembered as perhaps the most disastrous leader in the Education Department's history. Her lack of vision has been apparent in a variety of contexts, but never more so than this fall when she told districts that were seeking guidance on how to operate during the coronavirus pandemic that it was not her responsibility to track school district infection rates or keep track of school reopening plans. This telling remark implies a vision of the Education Department as a mere bystander in a crisis that disrupted the lives of more than 50 million schoolchildren. If the Senate confirms President-elect Joe Biden's nominee, Miguel Cardona, as Ms. DeVos's successor, he will face the herculean task of clearing away the wreckage left by his predecessor — while helping the states find a safe and equitable path to reopening schools. Beyond that, the new secretary needs to quickly reverse a range of corrosive DeVos-era policies, including initiatives that rolled back civil rights protections for minority children as well as actions that turned the department into a subsidiary of predatory for-profit colleges that saddle students with crushing debt while granting them useless degrees. There is still more to learn about Mr. Cardona. But at first glance, the contrast between him and his predecessor is striking. Ms. DeVos had almost no experience in public education and was clearly disinterested in the department's mission. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/02/opinion/sunday/education-department-cardona-biden.html

Lefty Specialist Jan 07 2021 07:04 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Betsy decides that she's had enough of our hatred and is resigning.

batmagadanleadoff Jan 08 2021 03:05 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

https://twitter.com/SenWarren/status/1347373567898431489

MFS62 Jan 08 2021 06:23 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

The ships are deserting the sinking rat. Now that she's gone, is she risking that tRump won't pardon her? (You just KNOW there was a grift in there somewhere) Later

Edgy MD Jan 08 2021 08:46 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

I wouldn't expect that she needs a pardon. She's terrible at her job. But the president is the criminal. And these people cowardly resigning at 11:59 are doing him a favor.

MFS62 Jan 09 2021 01:49 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

A "buh-bye" from the education community: https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/betsy-devos-good-riddance-043831545.html “Resigning 13 days before the end of this administration does nothing to erase the harm Education Secretary Betsy DeVos has done to this country's students, their families, and educators,” Pringle said in a statement. “She has failed our students yet again when they needed her most. Her complicity, cowardice, and complete incompetence will be her legacy.” and Hours after DeVos announced her resignation from President Donald Trump's Cabinet, the federation's president released a statement just two words long. “Good riddance,” said Randi Weingarten. Later

MFS62 Feb 20 2021 02:25 PM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

Hey! Her brother is a scumbag. Shocker! https://www.yahoo.com/news/erik-prince-trump-ally-violated-152611401.html A confidential U.N. report obtained by The New York Times and delivered by investigators to the Security Council on Thursday reveals how Prince deployed a force of foreign mercenaries, armed with attack aircraft, gunboats and cyberwarfare capabilities, to eastern Libya at the height of a major battle in 2019. As part of the operation, which the report said cost $80 million, the mercenaries also planned to form a hit squad that could track down and kill selected Libyan commanders. Prince, a former Navy SEAL and the brother of Betsy DeVos, Trump's education secretary, became a symbol of the excesses of privatized American military force when his Blackwater contractors killed 17 Iraqi civilians in 2007. Later

batmagadanleadoff Mar 24 2021 05:53 AM Re: We Don't Need No Education (or Special Olympics)! The Return of the Count Betsy DeVos Thread

The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) reports that ignoramus billionaire Betsy DeVos made between a quarter of a billion dollars and close to half a billion dollars while serving in the Trump administration. CREW further reports that DeVos did not avoid ethically compromising entanglements while serving under Trump despite promising to do so.