PAA to Senate HELP committee: Vote NO on DeVos | Parents Across America #DumpDeVos

PAA to Senate HELP committee: Vote NO on DeVos | Parents Across America:

PAA to Senate HELP committee: Vote NO on DeVos #DumpDeVos

PAA faxed the following to all members of the Senate HELP committee today:

Parent Voices Education Fax

January 13, 2017

Parents ask for “No” vote on DeVos nomination

We write to ask you to vote “no” on the appointment of Betsy DeVos for US Secretary of Education. Our request is based in large part on clear differences between her education agenda and what Parents Across America believes our children and schools actually need to succeed. We also base our opposition on the insights into Mrs. DeVos’s agenda and activities in Michigan shared by our local affiliate. These experiences raise an alarm and deserve the attention of this Committee.

In the experience of Michigan Parents for Schools, Mrs. DeVos has acted in that state as though her considerable financial resources buy her the right to have elected officials follow her agenda and enact her vision for public education. For example, she successfully opposed efforts to hold charter schools accountable, despite the well-reported financial and other problems that have plagued Michigan’s chaotic charter school system. In your hearing, we suggest that you ask her to explain how her position aligns with the responsible stewardship of public education funds (see, for example, “Michigan spends $1B on charter schools but fails to hold them accountable,” Detroit Free Press, 6/22/16).

MIPFS reports that Mrs. DeVos believes K-12 education should be provided by private entities, because “government” cannot be trusted. We disagree, believing that the communities which built and have supported our local public schools over generations (i.e. local government) should have the authority over and be held accountable for running those schools in the best interests of the community. We believe that no one should profit off of our children, and that public money should be used entirely for their benefit, not to enrich private businesses. Mrs. DeVos has lobbied for vouchers for years, including unsuccessful efforts to convince Michigan voters to lift the state constitutional ban on use of public education funds to benefit private and religious schools. The people of Michigan have said no to her privatization agenda time and again, but Mrs. DeVos has refused to hear them. We do not imagine that things would be any different if she were confirmed to lead the US Department of Education. In next week’s hearing, we suggest that you ask her to explain how her pro-voucher position aligns with the democratic purposes of education.

Please listen to the experience of Michigan parents and to the concerns and wisdom of active public school parents around the nation, who urge you to vote “no” on the Betsy DeVos nomination for U.S. Secretary of Education.

Parents Across America is a national network of grass-roots parents from all backgrounds across the U.S.

who support quality public education for every child.

info@parentsacrossamerica.org www.parentsacrossamerica.org

PAA to Senate HELP committee: Vote NO on DeVos | Parents Across America:

 Call to action: Contact Senate ed committee to vote “NO” on DeVos

by pureparents / 10min

The hearing on Betsy DeVos’s nomination to be the next U. S. Secretary of Education has been rescheduled for Tuesday, January 17, by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee. We call on you all to reach 

Michigan parents’ warning on DeVos

by pureparents / 10min

Steven Norton, the executive director of Michigan Parents for Schools, our affiliate in Michigan, home of Betsy DeVos, shared the following piece responding to a recent op-ed by former MI Governor Mitt Romney’s endorsing 

CURMUDGUCATION: More Baloney in Support of DeVos

CURMUDGUCATION: More Baloney in Support of DeVos:

More Baloney in Support of DeVos

This week, it's often looking as if the postponement of Betsy DeVos's confirmation hearing was so that she could round up a few more supporters.

So here comes former Michigan Governor John Engler, the guy who helped start the process of busting up public education in Michigan.

Engler opens with a nifty observation:

America doesn't need any more fights around education.

Yeah, I'm looking better every day.

By which I can only assume that he means, "Y'all need to shut up, sit down, and do as your told. Fall in line and stop stirring up trouble." What other reason can the need for less fighting lead one to conclude that a good choice for Educhief is someone who has dealt with disagreement by threatening and stomping on those who disagree with her? But then, Engler's current job as president of the Business Roundtable gives him a particular perspective on these issues:

 
Business leaders are intently focused on promoting creative approaches that will raise the performance of our K-12 students — making them and the entire U.S. economy more competitive for decades to come. 

Baloney. Business leaders have often been spectacularly dim about the purpose of public education (spoiler alert: it is not to manufacture a deep pool of meat widgets to serve corporate needs or CURMUDGUCATION: More Baloney in Support of DeVos:

Education deans to Trump: We’re ‘seriously concerned’ about your agenda - The Washington Post

Education deans to Trump: We’re ‘seriously concerned’ about your agenda - The Washington Post:

Education deans to Trump: We’re ‘seriously concerned’ about your agenda

More than 175 deans of colleges and schools of education across the United States have issued a letter saying that they are “seriously concerned” about the agenda of the incoming Trump administration and urging it and Congress to protect the U.S. education system.

The letter doesn’t specifically name President-elect Donald Trump or his education secretary nominee, Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos, but it is clearly aimed at policies they have espoused, including Trump’s stated intention of spending $20 billion in federal funds for block grants for states to support vouchers for children to attend private schools. Critics of that plan and other corporate school reform initiatives say that public school districts are harmed when public funds are directed elsewhere.

[What’s the worst that could happen with Betsy DeVos as education secretary? Two scenarios.]

The deans offered four guiding principles for officials:

• Uphold the role of public schools as a central institution in the strengthening of our democracy
• Protect the human and civil rights of all children and youth, especially those from historically marginalized communities
• Develop and implement policies, laws and reform initiatives by building on a democratic vision for public education and on sound educational research
• Support and partner with colleges and schools of education to advance these goals.

DeVos was supposed to go have a Senate confirmation hearing on Jan. 11, but it was postponed until next week because the Office of Government Ethics had not finished its review of her financial holdings and potential conflicts of interest.

Here’s the full letter: Education deans to Trump: We’re ‘seriously concerned’ about your agenda - The Washington Post:

Law Supported by DeVos Leaves Loopholes in Oversight - The Atlantic

Law Supported by DeVos Leaves Loopholes in Oversight - The Atlantic:

Betsy DeVos's Accountability Problem

Her supporters are out to disprove the claim that she is anti-oversight, but key legislation she supported tells a different story.

Donald Trump’s pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos, has proven to be polarizing.

Teachers, unions, and public-school advocates have argued that DeVos wants to see public education dismantled. They point to the fact that the Michigan billionaire, and the education-advocacy groups she funds, have pushed to funnel public dollars away from traditional public schools and into charter and private schools. DeVos’s proponents, however, argue that adult interests have taken over the education arena and that the nominee supports school choice because the traditional public-education system has failed kids. “Detroit Public Schools are academically and financially bankrupt, and they’ve lost the privilege of educating children in Detroit,” Gary Naeyaert, the Executive Director of the Great Lakes Education Project (GLEP), a charter-advocacy group DeVos bankrolls and helped govern until November, wrote in a 2015 press release describing a plan to “relieve DPS of all teaching responsibilities.”

While previous education secretaries, including the Obama appointees Arne Duncan and John King, have endorsed models such as charter schools, DeVos has been scrutinized for her connection to unfettered charter growth in Detroit, where—over two decades after Michigan’s charter experiment began—the competition enabled by school choice generally hasn’t lived up to the promise of better options.

More than half of Detroit’s school-aged students attend a charter school, but last year fewer than 1 percent of the city’s schools were given an A or B+ grade, according to Excellent Schools Detroit, a clearinghouse for school shoppers in the Motor City. Eighty percent of the state’s charter operators are for-profit, which not only reduces financial accountability, but has also earned Michigan a nickname as the “Wild Wild West” for education. In 1999, researchers from Michigan State University assessed charter-school laws across the nation and concluded that Michigan—along with Arizona and Delaware—had the most permissive charter-school laws in the nation, noting that in the Mitten anyone can start a school, and that there are very few boundaries when it comes to who could Law Supported by DeVos Leaves Loopholes in Oversight - The Atlantic:

The Red Queen – EduShyster

The Red Queen – EduShyster:

The Red Queen

The ultimate target of Betsy DeVos’ agenda isn’t teachers unions, or even the *education establishment.* It’s the Democratic Party…

By the measures that are supposed to matter, Betsy DeVos’ experiment in disrupting public education in Michigan has been a colossal failure. In its 2016 report on the state of the state’s schools, Education Trust Midwest painted a picture of an education system in freefall. *Michigan is witnessing systematic decline across the K-12 spectrum…White, black, brown, higher-income, low-income—it doesn’t matter who they are or where they live.* But as I heard repeatedly during the week I recently spent crisscrossing the state, speaking with dozens of Michiganders, including state and local officials, the radical experiment that’s playing out here has little to do with education, and even less to do with kids. The real goal of the DeVos family is to crush the state’s teachers unions as a means of undermining the Democratic party, weakening Michigan’s democratic structures along the way. And on this front, our likely next Secretary of Education has enjoyed measurable, even dazzling success.

This story goes back a long ways, so settle in. We could start in the 1840’s, when the first Dutch settlers began to arrive in Western Michigan, or in 1970, when the DeVoses made their first attempt to amend the state constitution so as to allow for public funding for private, religious schools. Another obvious starting point is 1993, when then Governor John Engler called the public schools in Michigan an *educational gulag* and a *monopoly of mediocrity,* lobbing the first fusillade in a war against the state’s teachers that has never ceased. For the sake of brevity, though, I’ll fast forward to the mid-oughts, when Betsy’s husband Dick DeVos ran for governor. It was the The Red Queen – EduShyster:

John Thompson: Mark Zuckerberg Hires Post Truth Pioneer, Campbell Brown, to Fight Post Truth in Social Media

Mark Zuckerberg Hires Post Truth Pioneer, Campbell Brown, to Fight Post Truth in Social Media | The... - Linkis.com:

Mark Zuckerberg Hires Post Truth Pioneer, Campbell Brown, to Fight Post Truth in Social Media

Why in the world would Mark Zuckerberg choose Campbell Brown to lead its News Partnerships team, and its effort to deal with today’s version of Truthiness? Perhaps he is following the dictum of “it takes one to know one.” Brown is the co-founder of The 74, the education media company which supposedly combines journalism with advocacy because “not every story has two sides.” Since she is a proven practitioner of “Post Truth” union-bashing, maybe Zuckerberg thinks Brown will be able to best identify fact-free social media feeds from Vladimir Putin.

Did Zuckerberg think through even the most basic questions that a journalist would ask when distinguishing between fact and Post-Fact? I wonder if he was aware of the background information that the New York Times was bound to report about his choice, such as, “Ms. Brown has emerged as a major player in the pitched political battles over charter schools, prominently clashing with teachers’ unions while coming out against teachers’ tenure.” The Times’ Jim Rutenberg and Mike Isaac add:

Some commentators noted Ms. Brown’s ties to the Republican donor Betsy DeVos, Mr. Trump’s nominee to lead the Department of Education. Ms. DeVos’s family foundation funds The 74, an education-focused journalism site co-founded and led by Ms. Brown. In a post to the site on Friday, Ms. Brown said she was stepping away from her daily editorial role at The 74, but will remain on the company’s board of directors.

Brown also serves on the board of DeVos’ the American Federation for Children.

Although Brown didn’t mention this inconvenient truth when she wrote in support of DeVos, her endorsement of the nominee demonstrated the mindset that she will bring to Facebook. Brown said that DeVos’ “attackers needlessly reopen late-NCLB fault lines and deepen the clamor that follows Trump everywhere.” Moreover, “just about everyone who has spent time alongside her during the past 30 years,” would dispute the idea that “Betsy’s work with children is ideologically or financially driven.”

It wouldn’t have taken much googling for Zuckerberg to find the work of the widely-respected Jennifer Berkshire, and read what she was told by a journalist who Mark Zuckerberg Hires Post Truth Pioneer, Campbell Brown, to Fight Post Truth in Social Media | The... - Linkis.com:

Dr. King, Inauguration Day and Our Democracy - Lily's Blackboard

Dr. King, Inauguration Day and Our Democracy - Lily's Blackboard:

Dr. King, Inauguration Day and Our Democracy

In the coming days our nation will be marking two occasions:  the national holiday honoring the life, service and leadership of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the peaceful transfer of power from one presidential administration to another that we call Inauguration Day.

For me, both days will be emotional.  Both days call for reflection.  Both days demand our renewed commitment to the ideals that our country aspires to live up to.

Dr. King devoted his life not only to creating better conditions in his day, but to creating a better future. He challenged us to be as good a nation in practice as we are on paper, and his struggle for justice changed America and inspired civil rights movements across the globe. He understood that the remedies for discrimination and injustice can be found within our public institutions. And he believed that those institutions and laws, and the resilient American spirit, make us unique.  (Many excellent classroom resources for teaching about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement are available on the NEA website.)

Inauguration Day has always been bittersweet. Those whose candidate won are jubilant. Those whose candidate lost are disappointed. The traditions of having all the living past presidents of both parties sitting on the stage to witness the swearing-in is designed to show Americans that whether or not you supported the person elected, that person is now president, and the ceremony draws a bright line between the end of one administration and the beginning of another.

To say that I’ll be among the “disappointed” on Inauguration Day would not do justice to what continues to boil inside me. I said before the election that Donald Trump was uniquely unqualified, morally and temperamentally, to be our president.  Election Day did not change that.  Inauguration Day will not change that. 

But I have been reflecting on Martin Luther King, Jr. He understood that acknowledging the political power of Dr. King, Inauguration Day and Our Democracy - Lily's Blackboard:

Take Action This Thursday, January, 19, 2017 - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom

Take Action This Thursday, January, 19, 2017 - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom:

Take Action This Thursday, January, 19, 2017

Say No to Billionaire Bullies!

This week, school communities across the nation are gearing up to take a stand against to Trump and the attack on public education in an “unprecedented alliance of parent, youth, community and labor organizations that together represent more than 7 million people nationwide.”

“Educational Justice is Racial Justice”

Public schools are the foundation of a strong democracy, and is critical for racial and economic justice. The Alliance to Reclaim our Schools (AROS) is a national organization working with grassroots organizations across the country. Together with national and local teachers unions, and parent and community groups, they are fighting to reclaim the promise of public education.

Join me this Thursday, January 19th, along with other parents, teachers and labor and community leaders in fighting to ensure all our kids go to high quality, equitable schools. Stand with members of the SF Families Union, Coleman Advocates, United Educators of San Francisco (UESF), Jobs with Justice, SEIU at SFUSD, and many other community and school organizations fighting for high quality, equitable public schools.

Education is a right — it should not be a privilege for the few! 

National day of action to protect our students, schools and communities – THURSDAY, JANUARY 19

Why take action?

Across the country, educators, school staff, parents, students, political leaders and community allies will stand together to show President-elect Trump that we are committed to protecting ALL our students, our schools and our communities, and to demonstrate our opposition to Betsy DeVos as secretary of education. For decades, DeVos and her family have spent millions on an anti-public-education agenda, defunding and destabilizing public schools while at the same time promoting private, for-pro t schooling without any regulation, transparency, accountability or respect for civil rights and church-state separation.

What is the goal?

We are organizing to fight the president-elect’s agenda to dismantle public education, and to ensure that all students have the opportunity to pursue their dreams free from fear. On January 19, we will demand that:

• Our schools and campuses remain centers of learning that are protected against threats of bullying, racism and deportation;
• The Senate support public schools by rejecting Betsy DeVos as secretary of education (read this fact sheet and learn why her appointment is so strongly opposed by teachers, parents and education advocates; and
• Policymakers increase investment in public schools, make Wall Street and billionaires pay their fair share, and protect Title I funds.

What sort of actions?

Take an action that is right for your school, your community or your city, and that reflects our commitment to protect our students, schools and communities. You know your local situation best. You know how to bring together staff, students, parents and other community members to draw attention to the need to protect our students and schools.

Many locals are considering a “hands around your school” action, with participants creating a human chain around, or right in front of, their school or worksite (large buildings may require the use of extenders—like strips of cloth tied together—to get all the way around). Other locals are planning rallies at schools and district of ces, actions to urge their Senators to vote “No” on Betsy DeVos, and other highly visible demonstrations.

(Download a flyer of the above information to share with your school community!)

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What’s happening in San Francisco?

Join me and thousands of parents, educators, students, and community leaders to show our president elect, our schools are not for sale!

Here are the details…Take Action This Thursday, January, 19, 2017 - SF Public School MomSF Public School Mom:

DeVos hearing delayed: Call the HELP committee members today - Network For Public Education #DumpDeVos

Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan

Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan:

Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Reps. Mark Pocan (D-WI), David Cicilline (D-RI), Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY), Jared Polis (D-CO) and Mark Takano (D-CA), Co-Chairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, today sent a letter to members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) urging them to closely examine Secretary of Education nominee Betsy DeVos’ views on issues affecting LGBT students and parents during her confirmation process.

“It is unfathomable that the next Secretary of Education would oppose basic protections for LGBT students and roll back the progress we have made to ensure all students feel safe and supported in our schools,” said Rep. Pocan. “Ms. DeVos’ history of opposing equality for LGBT individuals is deeply troubling, and the public deserves to know whether she will work with us to improve lives or continue to advocate an extremist agenda that bullies our students.”

The letter specifically highlights the millions of dollars DeVos and her family have contributed to organizations and candidates that oppose equality for LGBT families and actively promote dangerous practices like “conversion therapy.” Rep. Pocan and his colleagues called on Senate HELP Committee members to demand Ms. DeVos denounce these inhumane positions and stand up for policies to protect LGBT students and parents before being confirmed.

Below is the text of the letter and you can find a digital copy of the letter here.

Dear Chairman Alexander and Ranking Member Murray:

            As Co-Chairs of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, we write to express our deep concern with President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for the Secretary of the United States Department of Education, Betsy DeVos. While Ms. DeVos’ stances on a number of public education issues raise concerns, we cannot hold our silence regarding her opposition to the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. 

Betsy DeVos’ career has been marked by repeated attempts to undermine the rights of the LGBT community. She and her family have donated extensively to groups which promote the idea that students who identify as LGBT must undergo “conversion” therapy and have also affiliated with groups that oppose anti-bullying legislation. The next Secretary of Education must represent all students in our country. Anyone who promotes such fervently anti-LGBT viewpoints is wholly unqualified to serve as the Secretary of Education. 

            Since 1998, Betsy DeVos and her family’s foundations have donated at least $6.1 million to Focus on the Family, a right-wing organization which has spent millions of dollars attempting to defeat marriage equality amendments at the state level. Even more troubling, this organization supported by the DeVos family promotes “conversion therapy,” opposes the right of LGBT parents to adopt children, and has referred to transgender individuals as “mentally ill.” This organization has even gone so far to oppose anti-bullying policies and opposes basic workplace protections for LGBT individuals. The DeVos family’s support for anti-LGBT groups and policies extends beyond just this organization to many other groups known for their anti-LGBT activities, such as:

• $1,000,000 to the Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, which has claimed that the overturning of the Defense of Marriage Act amounted to a “fatwa;”
• $15,000 to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which has opposed adoption with same-sex couples;
• $433,750 to the Council for National Policy, a highly secretive group that is led by extremists like Focus on the Family’s James Dobson among other extremists; and
• $13,498,000 to the Heritage Foundation, which has stated that “Despite activist judges’ opinions, the majority of Americans continue to affirm the reasonable conclusion that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

The DeVos family does not stop with contributions to intolerant organizations as they also support anti-LGBT politicians. For example, the DeVos family - including Ms. DeVos - were top contributors to Michigan State Representative Andrea LaFontaine, who sponsored legislation allowing adoption agencies to discriminate against LGBT parents and deny them the ability to adopt a child.

            The LGBT community has made significant and long overdue advancements when it comes to equality in education. During President Obama’s tenure in office, the Department of Education took important steps to combat bullying and ensure that Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on sex, appropriately reflects the rights of transgender students. It is imperative that the rights of LGBT students are adequately protected moving forward.

            As you move to consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos, we strongly encourage you to seek out answers regarding Ms. DeVos’ stance on important education equity issues, including her views on protecting LGBT students from bullying and discrimination in K-12 and higher education spaces. We are particularly troubled by Betsy DeVos’ past support for inhumane “conversion therapy” treatments and believe it is imperative that any Secretary of Education nominee denounce such practices before being confirmed.

            As Members of the LGBT community, we know our schools must be a safe place for all children. As you consider the nomination of Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education, we strongly encourage you to stand up for the civil rights of LGBT students and ensure the next Secretary opposes any action to roll back our progress toward equality.Openly Gay Members of Congress Raise Serious Concerns About Betsy DeVos’ Record on LGBT Equality | Congressman Mark Pocan: