Betsy DeVos is such a bad choice for Secretary of Education that even Aberdeen Catholic Schools president Jeff Simmons is concerned:
Roncalli school district President Jeff Simmons’ concerns lie with the possibility that DeVos might damage public schools’ ability to educate students.
“I would express concern in regard to the appointment in the fact that public schools have a great challenge in front of them to educate all students,” he said [Kathy Jensen, “Local School Leaders Disappointed with DeVos Confirmation,” Aberdeen American News, 2017.02.07].
Simmons concerns are amplified in a letter sent to our Congressional delegation from South Dakota’s statewide organizations for teachers, principals, superintendents, and school business officers. The threat posed to public education by Betsy DeVos, who has never attended or worked in a public school, is that obvious.
Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune express no such concerns, maybe because of the $46,800 and $17,500, respectively, that DeVos funneled to their campaigns, maybe not… or maybe just because they are more interested in staying out of the sights of their incompetent, dangerous President than they are in protecting the public education system that serves over 90% of all American children and more than 93% of all South Dakota children.
I may be sort of nitpicking here, but the figure I see from the DeVos family to Thune is/was 17,500.
I really have a difficult time understanding the difference between bribery and most campaign contributions. The 21 Senators that collectively took $950,000.00 in DeVos family bribes should have recused themselves from voting on her confirmation.
Joe Lowe weighs in KOTA against DeVos:
Whoop! Vance, you’re right! I’ll edit that Thune figure above.
Where are the moderate conservatives in Washington? Aren’t they about out of rubber stamps? Is there nobody there with a spine? At what point do you take a step back and really assess the situation? Trump & Co. are bats— crazy. They can’t not be noticing that. When do you finally say enough’s enough?
Should people that donate money to political candidates not be allowed to run for office or be appointed to positions within government? I reckon that would rule a bunch of people out.
Not that any of this matters in SD. If SD’s society valued public school education, they would pay teachers more. Isn’t it just a job prep/babysitting location so that the parents can go to work, so that the students can also get a job, have kids, put them in public school…all in support of the almighty US Economy (blessed be its name)? Do public school teachers still teach, or is it more a facilitation job where the students do online work and computer programs like Odysseyware (which my local PS uses) and K12?
Joe, we should look on billionaires buying their way to Cabinet seats for which their resumes show no professional qualification with great suspicion.
The best I can hope for from the DeVos Education Department is a hands-off approach to local schools—no new testing regimes, no new initiatives, no new mandates, so we can focus our efforts on beating back any privatization efforts.
I do much prefer teaching to babysitting and facilitating online work. Teachers are in the classroom to add real value, not just flip the switch and prevent fights.