Asked to respond to a basic question about proficiency versus growth as testing metrics, Betsy DeVos, Trump nominee for Secretary of Education, served word salad instead of a cogent answer.
Fortunately for us, she served that salad to intelligent and informed Senator Al Franken:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8wEH2ixak
Senator Bernie Sanders takes his turn to ask DeVos is she thinks she’d be on the edge of Secretaryship if she weren’t a multimillionaire, then tries to get her to address whether his free tuition plan is as important as her boss’s tax-cuts-for-the-rich plan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjPHrKqYEgk
Senator Elizabeth Warren points out the lack of vetting for Trump’s Education nominee, asks if DeVos has any qualifications to deal with higher education lending and financing, and then neatly ties in the fake Trump University to the incoming Administration’s ability to protect taxpayer dollars from similar waste, fraud, and abuse:
Pay attention to that ending: offered an easy “you betcha” question, Secretary DeVos declines to not commit to enforcing existing rules that protect students from lying, cheating for-profit “colleges”.
DeVos is not up for Education Secretary because she understands real education issues or wants to help all Americans get an education. DeVos is up for this job because she is rich, and because she will fight to protect her fellow rich people.
Democrats, take note: Franken, Sanders, and Warren show us how to deal with Trumpists: by asking them direct questions that they can’t answer. Franken/Warren 2020.
The only surprise, if it arises to a surprise level, is how pathetically unqualified DeVos is to lead an education department, much less a preschool class.
Thank you Cory for sharing these three clips. I loved them. This is exactly how to ask questions to a person trying to become Sec. of Education. I hate how many people that watch these clips are more concerned with the tone of the question rather the sustainance of the answer, why is that? The lack of an intelligent answer really bothers me.
This person is not even qualified to teach in a public school. She has no clue. What tragic injustice to our kids, our teachers, and our families.
Franken/Warren 2020….
Now we just have to hit those 3000 counties like you have stated Cory.
Imagine if Betsy DeVos were sent out to campaign for Trump. If she is confirmed, smart activists will organize groups to attend every public event she attends around the country to ask her questions about education policy, as Franken did, and to follow up when DeVos offers the salady dodge she tried to pull on Franken.
Spike, I have to believe DeVos would flop in those 3,000 counties. And DeVos is Trump with the pro-wrestler bravado stripped away and the actual substance at the core laid bare.
According to Sen Franken, Betsy DeVos supported gay conversion therapy and she lies about it in this video. Go look up it up, Franken’s telling the truth.
Ms. DeVos had a rough day. I suspect she will only get Sen. Manchin’s vote on the Democratic side, and he will switch parties to Republican within the next 6 months.
No wonder rep’s limited questioning and held hearing later in the day. But, thanks to the D’s, exposed her for who she is.
She reminds me of Sarah Palin. A very rich Palin. Lots of word salad, has always gotten things handed to her on a plate, and zero intellectual curiousity. (side note – DeVos has had since November when she was selected, to get up to speed on things. She didn’t do any homework)
The Trump adminstration twits are all about solutions that don’t work for problems that don’t exist. Might be a good slogan for Democrats in Congress to fling about.
A comedian, pretend Indian, and an 80 year old that has never held a real job lecture a self made billionaire on competence and changing things as we know it.
Yup, pretty much sums up the election.
Awww Greg, your such a cad. Trump the sexual predator, draft dodger and silver spooned bankruptcy clerk courting his murderous friend Putin far exceeds the bar these three can reach.
If money is everything Gates, Buffet and Zuckerberg should be in charge. They aren’t crying around about losing their $33 an hour job turning bolts ‘like the old days’.
Greg, I cannot help but notice you refer to Mrs. DeVos as “a self-made billionaire” and not an education policy expert. Funny, that was the very point that Sanders makes in his questioning when he probes that very issue: she gets the nod because she has money.
I also would be cautious of using the label “Self-made billionaire.” Her father-in-law made piles of money through founding Amway: I believe becoming a self-made billionaire worked out only for the top of that pyramid scheme (although dangled as a possibility to the lower ranks). I would also point out that Amway was how her husband’s father created his wealth, not how she did – she married into that 5.1 billion nest egg. DeVos is chairwoman of the Windiest Group; I don’t believe she made herself a billionaire from her work in clean energy (or by giving money away to political causes).
Her work in education reform has been singularly focused on “choice.” She is not without education policy experience, just not the wide understanding and experience we would hope a Federal Secretary of Education would have, and not for the greater good of a nation’s children.
It seems that unqualified would be the kindest critique of her for this position.
Spike: “Franken/Warren 2020….”
Or Visa-versa if you please.
This is the same woman who suggests that guns may be needed in schools to protect students from Grizzly Bears. What reason, on gods earth, is there to trust or believe anybody from Michigan that talks about grizzly bears. They don’t have grizzly bears in Michigan and from the sounds of things, the woman wouldn’t know a gun any better than she knows what the inside of a public school looks like!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/08/a-sobering-look-at-what-betsy-devos-did-to-education-in-michigan-and-what-she-might-do-as-secretary-of-education/?utm_term=.8237b2b2e9f7
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/01/betsy-devoss-policy-evasion/513440/
Just another empty head born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
I hope the Republicans who are supporting DeVos are ready for what occurs after she starts figuring out a way to divert federal tax money into religious schools. Most automatically presume this means more money flowing into Christian schools, but they had better be prepared for the demands from other religions.
Do you think they will be happy that tax money is going towards a network of Islamic elementary schools? How about some tax funding for Scientology schools? Or maybe a few hundred schools in Utah teaching Mormonism. Better yet, the federal funded School of Satanism opening in a neighborhood near you.
Careful what you wish for – you just might get it.