CURMUDGUCATION: When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen

CURMUDGUCATION: When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen

When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen

esterday, Erica Green did a masterful job of covering Betsy DeVos's appearance before the House Education Committee to defend her continued efforts to resist any sort of debt relief for students bilked by for-profit schools. The New York Times article isn't accessible to everybody, and that's too bad, because the hearings are a perfect little picture of what values drive DeVos through her work at USED. Green has caught some key quotes that let DeVos tell us who she is. We should listen.

Because DeVos is rich, folks often accuse her of being greedy. I don't think that's true-- past a certain point, money stops being about greed-based utilitarian acquisition of stuff, but about keeping score in other sorts of games. Because DeVos often makes statements that don't make sense from a particular point of view, folks often accuse her of being dumb. I don't think that's true, either.

Here's an absolutely DeVosian quote from the proceedings:

I understand that some of you here just want to have blanket forgiveness for anyone who raises their hand and files a claim, but that simply is not right.

Ah yes-- the smirk.

This is DeVos-- she knows what's right, and she's going to stand up for it. And's what is right is that Those People shouldn't be able to get away with not paying their debts. Those People should not be allowed to stiff their Betters. Because you know that Those People are probably lying about how badly they were hurt, anyway, because Those People are always trying to get things they don't deserve. This "anyone who raises their hand and files a claim" characterization that DeVos has been using is such a flip way to dismiss the damage done by for-profit collges, an d here it matters what DeVos doesn't say-- she doesn't say CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: When Betsy DeVos Tells You Who She Is, Listen