What I Am Thankful For Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all

Diane Ravitch's blog | A site to discuss better education for all:

What I Am Thankful For

by dianeravitch / 6min

These past few weeks have been very difficult for many of us. For the first time in my long life, I fear that our country is going backward, not forward. We have had bumps along the way and regressions from our ideals and dreams. We have had too many wars. We have way too much poverty. We have too much indifference to the sufferings of others. But throughout my life, I have thought that we were m

YESTERDAY

Betsy DeVos: A Disastrous Choice for the Nation and Public Schools

55by dianeravitch / 9h

Get to know the DeVos family. They are billionaires who are funding extremist groups and the rightwing assault on public education. This article at Alternet describes their far-reaching power, made possible by their billions. The family is dedicated to school privatization. “The former chair of the Michigan Republican Party, DeVos backed a failed ballot initiative in 2000 to amend the state const

Stephen Dyer: Betsy DeVos PAC was Fined $5.2 Million in Ohio for Violating Campaign Finance Laws

52by dianeravitch / 10h

Our new Secretary-of-Education designate Betsy DeVos has an Ohio problem, writes Stephen Dyer of Progress Ohio. “DeVos has a bad history here in Ohio. In 2006, she allowed David Brennan to launder campaign cash through her All Children Matter PAC. That led to the largest fine ever levied against a candidate or PAC by the Ohio Elections Commission — $5.2 million. By all accounts, that fine was lar

A BATS Reading List to Learn About Betsy DeVos

100+by dianeravitch / 11h

Here are some suggested readings from the BATS: Here are some pieces you can read about DeVos. She is NO friend to public education and has been attacking public education in Michigan for over a decade. Here is what the teachers of Michigan say: http://www.mea.org/aft-michigan-and-mea-presidents-respond-selection-betsy-devos-us-secretary-education Chalkbeat reports what you should know about DeVo

BATS Oppose Betsy DeVos as Inexperienced, Unqualified, and Hostile to Public Schools

400+by dianeravitch / 11h

The BATS released the following statement on Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos: PRESS RELEASE The Badass Teachers Association FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: MARLA KILFOYLE, Executive Director BATs MELISSA TOMLINSON, Asst. Executive Director BATs contact.batmanager@gmail.com 516-987-4405 BATs Board of Directors Statement on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education The Badass Teachers Association, a ne

G. F. Brandenburg: The Only Worse Candidate Than Betsy DeVos Would Have Been Rhee

27by dianeravitch / 14h

G. F. Brandenburg weighs in on Trump’s selection of Betsy DeVos to be Education Secretary. He was disappointed to learn that between 20-33% of teachers voted for the Orange One.

Betsy DeVos and Campbell Brown: Good Friends

28by dianeravitch / 15h

The corporate reform movement must be popping the champagne corks with the selection of Betsy DeVos as Trump’s Secretary of Education. Finally, a secretary who advocates for the elimination of public schools without embarrassment and who will fight unions and teacher tenure. As it happens, Betsy DeVos and her husband are funders of Campbell Brown’s website The 74 (along with Walton, Broad, and Bl

Peter Greene: Who is the Real Betsy DeVos?

96by dianeravitch / 15h

Peter Greene has done his homework and he walks us through the career of Betsy DeVos in this illuminating post. Open the piece to read it in full and to see the links to Peter’s research. She is close to Jeb Bush. She and her billionaire family fund ALEC, the far-right group that drafts model legislation to privatize all government functions. She is a supporter of Scott Walker, scourge of unions.

Mitchell Robinson: From Michigan, This is the Real Betsy DeVos

1Kby dianeravitch / 16h

Mitchell Robinson is a professor of music education at Michigan State University. He writes here about the Betsy DeVos that the people of Michigan know, the one who wants to monetize education spending and voucherize the schools so that families can spend their education dollars wherever they want. Robinson writes: The news that Donald Trump has named Betsy DeVos as his choice for Secretary of Ed

Clinton Now Leads Trump by Two Million Votes

32by dianeravitch / 18h

is this a democracy? One man, One Vote? Clinton now has a 2 million vote lead over Trump in the popular vote.

Oakland: Parents Group Marks the Departure of Antwan Wilson to D.C.

11by dianeravitch / 18h

This is a statement by Parents United for Public Schools, on the news that their Superintendent is moving to D.C. “Parents United for Public Schools released the following statement on the announced departure of OUSD Superintendent Antwan Wilson: “The departure of Superintendent Antwan Wilson midway through his contract to lead our schools presents Oakland with a unique opportunity to learn from

Washington Post: Meet Betsy DeVos

27by dianeravitch / 18h

In case you don’t know anything about Betsy DeVos, the Washington Post has a good summary. So does Wikipedia . She is a huge fan of vouchers. She supports Common Core. She thinks vouchers will give every child a great education. The story says that some studies find that voucher students are more likely to go to college. Those studies show that voucher schools have high rates of attrition. The st

Trump Picks DeVos for Secretary of Education

99by dianeravitch / 19h

i guess my withdrawal of support for Betsy DeVos came too late. I just received a news flash from CNN that Trump offered her the U.S. Department of Education post, and she took it. Now we will have a “reformer” who does not hide her contempt for the public schools. She loves vouchers. She opposes any any regulation or oversight for charter schools. She wants privatization, perio.

News Flash! I Withdraw My Support for Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education; I Support Bill Evers!

71by dianeravitch / 20h

A few days ago, I said that I support Michigan billionaire and hard-right voucher advocate Betsy DeVos, because she would show the world that “reformers” are out to destroy our public schools. No ambiguity there. She would demonstrate the close link between “reform” and the rightwing. But I hereby formally withdraw my support for DeVos’s candidacy. To be sure, it was meant in jest, but many reade

Boston: When Will Mitchell Chester and Tommy Chang Be Held Accountable?

21by dianeravitch / 21h

The citizens of Massachusetts spoke loudly and clearly on November 8 when they overwhelmingly rejected Question 2. They don’t want more charter schools. They want strong and well-resourced public schools. But the state of Massachusetts and the Boston school superintendent Tommy Chang have decided to close Mattahunt Elementary School despite the pleas of the parents and the local community. The st

D.C. Mayor Chooses Antwan Wilson as Chancellor of Schools

7by dianeravitch / 22h

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser selected Antwan Wilson as the next chancellor of schools, p romising that he would continue the policies of Michelle Rhee and Kaya Henderson. Wilson has been superintendent in Oakland for the past two years. He is a graduate of the unaccredited Broad Superintendents Academy. He has pledged to tackle the achievement gaps in D.C., which are the largest of any urban district

G. F. Brandenburg: Lies Reformers Tell

5by dianeravitch / 23h

G. F. Brandenburg, a fearless blogger who taught math for many years in the schools of D.C., writes here about the hypocrisy of reformer rhetoric. He writes: If you look at the lingo used to justify all the horrendous crap being imposed by “Ed reform”, you’ll see that it’s all couched in lefty-liberal civil rights language. But its results are anything but. Very strange. He takes, for example, th

Computer Security Experts at U of Michigan: Vote May Have Been Rigged

81by dianeravitch / 1d

According to New York magazine, the votes in three swing states- -Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin–are suspicious and should be audited. Clinton’s lead over Trump in the popular vote is now 1.75 million and still rising. Hillary  

The Zombie Politics of School Choice: A Reader | the becoming radical

The Zombie Politics of School Choice: A Reader | the becoming radical:

The Zombie Politics of School Choice: A Reader

The original zombie narrative has been re-created and distorted in contemporary U.S. pop culture, as Victoria Anderson explains:

So what were zombies, originally? The answer lies in the Caribbean. They weren’t endlessly-reproducing, flesh-eating ghouls. Instead, the zombie was the somewhat tragic figure of a human being maintained in a catatonic state – a soulless body – and forced to labour for whoever cast the spell over him or her. In other words, the zombie is – or was – a slave. I always find it troubling that, somewhere along the line, we forgot or refused to acknowledge this and have replaced the suffering slave with the figure of a mindless carnivore – one that reproduces, virus-like, with a bite.

While there is some nuance and variety among the many ways in which U.S. pop culture have manipulated the zombie narrative, central to almost all of those is the zombie as relentless consumer who has risen from the dead and resists being killed permanently.

In that context, school choice is zombie politics because the ideology will not die and its many versions (vouchers, tuition tax credits, charter schools) are destructive.

A few decades ago, school choice advocacy depended on the appeal of the ideology itself since choice is idealized and fetishized in the U.S.

Once school choice policy began to be implemented, and then over the past 2-3 decades as evidence from how choice has not achieved the promises made, school choice advocacy has depended on constantly shifting the type of choice and the promises.

At the center of the school choice debate is a failure in the U.S. to appreciate the importance of the Commons, how publicly funded institutions are necessary for the free market to work (both economically and ethically).

For example, publicly funded roads and highways are powerful and essential for commerce in the U.S. Many resist toll roads in the U.S., and certainly, the entire economy and way of life in the U.S. would be destroyed if we left roads and highways to the whims of the Invisible Hand.

Two facts remain important now as the election of Donald Trump and the apparent choice for Secretary of Education suggest that the zombie politics of school choice has been rejuvenated:

• The overwhelming evidence for all aspects of school choice show little differences when compared to traditional public schools; some aspects can certainly be categorized as harmful, and any so-called positives are erased when those gains are explained—attrition, comparing apples and oranges, selectivity, inability to scale, etc.
• Idealizing parental choice fails to step back to the bedrock promise of publicly funded institutions: insuring that choice isn’t necessary.

Just as a blow to the head and brain can kill permanently the zombie, evidence and truth should eradicate The Zombie Politics of School Choice: A Reader | the becoming radical:

Wisconsin school-choice supporters cheer DeVos pick | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog

Wisconsin school-choice supporters cheer DeVos pick | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

Wisconsin school-choice supporters cheer DeVos pick

Jim Bender, of School Choice Wisconsin, celebrates the decisions of Trump, the President elected on a platform of racism, misogyny, and xenophobia

Erin Richards , Milwaukee Journal Sentinel November 23, 2016

With her deep ties to Wisconsin’s private-school choice movement and disdain for unions thwarting reforms, Betsy DeVos, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Education Secretary, was a name that sent shock waves through the state’s education circles Wednesday.

“It is completely jazzing the entire school-choice community nationwide,” said Jim Bender, president of advocacy group School Choice Wisconsin. “It’s like, game on.”

Gov. Scott Walker congratulated DeVos, whom he called his friend, on Twitter while Democratic Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan tweeted the nomination was “really bad news for public schools.”

DeVos is married to Dick DeVos, and both are heirs to the fortune amassed by Michigan-based direct sales company Amway, which was co-founded by Dick’s father, Richard DeVos. Betsy DeVos was active in Republican politics and has focused on schools as board chair of her national advocacy group, American Federation for Children, based in Washington, D.C. The group has funneled millions of dollars into campaigns around the country to elect school choice friendly lawmakers and to lobby aggressively for school choice legislation.

AFC spent almost $5 million on Wisconsin elections alone since 2010, according to liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now, which railed against DeVos in a statement Wednesday.

“Being a billionaire whose hobby is underwriting campaigns to steal our public school dollars and send them to unaccountable private schools disqualifies her from being our Secretary of Education,” the statement said.

DeVos believes in upending the status quo in education and has denounced politics and slow-moving governmental processes as methods for doing so. Instead, she supports competition in the form of charter schools and voucher schools to provide more educational opportunities.

“How many of you believe our education system will ever be fixed by political parties?” she asked in Austin last year when she spoke at the SXSW education conference. “I have some bad news for you,” she continued for anyone whose hands were raised. “You are delusional.”

The American Federation for Children actually had its origins in Milwaukee in 1998; it operated under a different name and helped support the Milwaukee voucher program. DeVos remains close with Scott Jensen, the former Republican speaker of the state Assembly who was barred from running for public office in Wisconsin after his role in the state caucus scandal. Since Wisconsin school-choice supporters cheer DeVos pick | Educate All Students: Larry Miller's Blog:

Louisiana Educator: Trump Appointee Committed to School Privatization

Louisiana Educator: Trump Appointee Committed to School Privatization:

Trump Appointee Committed to School Privatization

President elect Trump has chosen to nominate probably the biggest enemy of public schools in our country to run the U. S. Department of Education! Trump announced that he will nominate Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. Trump and DeVos have made it clear that their first priority will be to encourage a huge increase in school privatization by using federal funding to add more charter schools and voucher schools for high poverty students.

DeVos, a billionaire who derives her wealth by having married into the Amway family, never attended public school, her children also only attended private schools and has no formal training in the field of education. Appointment of such non-educator education reformers to top education positions has become the model adopted by many states and cities that are part of the radical education reform movement in the U. S. Please read this article on DeVos and the billionaire education deformer/privatization movement.

It is ironic however, that the truly elite private schools routinely exclude high poverty students and they will continue to do so. Trump and DeVos cannot force the exclusive elite private schools to accept minority and low socio-economic students. What we have seen instead in Louisiana and other states that have expanded "choice" in education has been the proliferation of what I have characterized as predatory charter schools and new church sponsored voucher schools  created specifically for the purpose of profiting their founders and management organizations.

These new Choice schools use advertising (often making highly misleading claims) in an attempt to recruit the more capable and most motivated students away from the real public schools. Their manager/entrepreneurs know that the true secret to school performance is the enrollment of higher performing students. Such students can make any school look good because they generally do better on state and national tests. But these new "choice schools" still usually underperform compared to our true public schools.

A case in point are the online virtual charter schools in Louisiana where the advertising promises a college preparatory eduction which students can access on a home computer. Contrary to the advertising claims, studies have shown that their students receive an inferior education compared to that provided by our public Louisiana Educator: Trump Appointee Committed to School Privatization:

Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme. | GFBrandenburg's Blog

Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme. | GFBrandenburg's Blog:

Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme.

It’s surprising how quiet the media have been about how corrupt Amway is, the company which made Betsy DeVos rich enough to have sufficient clout to be able to ruin public education?

Did you know that they had to pay $150 million just a few years ago? I had no idea. Goiing by what I wrote previously about Multi-Level Marketing (the polite name for modern pyramid schemes), the FTC and other regulatory groups treat Amway and their peers with kid gloves not because it’s not a fraud and a con, but because a lot of Senators and Representatives in both parties are beneficiaries of these Ponzi schemes. So whenever an agency tries to stop this Ponzi mess, there is immediate pushback from another branch of government.

Here is some analysis that appeared in 2010, just after Amway was hit with this ruling:

Among the accusations made in the Amway class action suit that resulted in Amway’s agreement to pay $150 million (the suit was technically brought against Quixtar, the now defunct name used by Amway for its North American operations):

* Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme.
* Amway’s Kingpin companies that sell “motivation and training” products to recruits are also an illegal pyramid scheme.
* Amway criminally violates federal racketeering law.
* Amway violates California’s “endless chain” law.
* Amway masks “criminal behavior” with claims that it is in compliance with a federal Amway ruling of more than 25 years ago. In fact, Amway is not in compliance with the ruling.
* Amway induces salespeople to buy thousands of dollars of overpriced products and useless “success tools” and then to recruit others to do the same in an endless chain scheme that dooms, by design, nearly all to losses.
* Amway deliberately deceives consumers to enroll in the pyramid scheme in which they inevitably suffer financial loss.
* Amway’s arbitration rule which is intended to prevent victim lawsuits against it is unfair and “unconscionable”.
* Amway commits wire fraud and mail fraud.

Amway is an illegal pyramid scheme. | GFBrandenburg's Blog:

On Thanksgiving 2016, Let’s Enjoy Some Music. | deutsch29

On Thanksgiving 2016, Let’s Enjoy Some Music. | deutsch29:

On Thanksgiving 2016, Let’s Enjoy Some Music

A Happy Thanksgiving to all of my readers.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.”–G.K. Chesterton

On this Thanksgiving, I would like to share some of my favorite music with my readers. When I was a preteen, I used to enjoy listening to records, sometimes by myself, and sometimes with a friend around the corner, Jerry Ducote. We would listen, talk, and eat cookie dough. (It never occurred to me to eat cookie dough until Jerry introduced the idea to me one day while listening to records.)

So many years later, I forego the cookie dough and listen via Youtube on my laptop.

One of my all-time favorite recordings is the Lennon Sisters signing the 1965 Toys hit, “Lover’s Concerto.”

Their voices blend so well that I understand why Lawrence Welk was immediately interested in them when his son brought the sisters home to sing for his father.

Of course, I had to listen again while writing this post.

The next song is french conductor Paul Mauriat’s 1968 instrumental remake of Andre Popp’s “Love Is Blue”:

Another favorite instrumental is bandleader Percy Faith’s 1960 hit, “Theme from a Summer Place”:

These instrumentals remind me of my Aunt Louise’s house, which she and my Uncle Gus built in 1977 in Kenner, Louisiana, and which had a central stereo system. (Cutting edge technology: The house also had central vacuuming.) My aunt would often play easy listening during the day while working or reading.

I think one of the best voices of all time belonged to the British singer, Dusty Springfield. Of all of her songs, her 1966 English remake of an Italian love song, “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me,” is my favorite, both for the song and for how the song showcases Springfield’s vocal talent:

I own the complete collection of Springfield’s recordings; the liner notes describe how tired she was at having to do so many takes of the song when she recorded it.

One more.

Let’s end where we began, so to speak, with “Lover’s Concerto”– this time with the original 1965 hit by New York female trio, the Toys:

And there I shall leave it.

 On Thanksgiving 2016, Let’s Enjoy Some Music. | deutsch29:

TFA Makes A Statement On DeVos | Gary Rubinstein's Blog

TFA Makes A Statement On DeVos | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

TFA Makes A Statement On DeVos

Today Betsy DeVos was offered and accepted the Secretary of Education position in Trump’s cabinet.  Her entire strategy for improving this country’s schools can, it seems, be boiled down to one word:  “choice.”

Here is a speech she made in 2014 which includes this quote “The traditional education industry is really good at two things:  Bucking and criticizing change and protecting grown up jobs.”

Her theory of the power of choice fits in well with Trump’s idea to divert $20 billion in federal money from public schools for school choice including vouchers for private school.  Trump, in the announcement, said “Under her leadership, we will reform the U.S. education system and break the bureaucracy that is holding our children back so that we can deliver world-class education and school choice to all families.”

One thing Teach For America is quite good at is promoting itself and the modern ed ‘reform’ movement.  During the Obama administration, especially, TFA has gotten a lot of taxpayer money to help grow and has been very public about supporting various reform strategies, like Common Core and school and teacher accountability based on value-added teacher ratings.  When the reform movement rebranded itself a bit by replacing Arne TFA Makes A Statement On DeVos | Gary Rubinstein's Blog:

Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education | janresseger

Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education | janresseger:

Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education

This blog takes holidays off.  But because President-elect Donald Trump named Betsy DeVos this afternoon as his pick for Secretary of Education, I thought it might be useful to reprint this blog’s post from September 8th of this year—on the subject of none other than Betsy and Dick DeVos.

Good wishes for Thanksgiving, and look for a new post next Monday.

DeVos Family Contributes Lavishly to Legislators Who Defeated Detroit Charter School Oversight

I grew up in Montana, where in Montana history class we learned that at one time Anaconda Copper owned the state legislature. While the patrons have changed over the decades, the political process hasn’t been cleaned up. Amazingly the extraction industry has been replaced by the education sector these days in a number of states. On Tuesday this blog covered the investments being made in Ohio to block the regulation of the notorious online charter schools. Today the subject is Michigan and the massive payoffs this summer by Dick and Betsy DeVos, the Grand Rapids couple who made their fortune in Amway. Dick and Betsy DeVos have been investing heavily this summer to ensure that Detroit’s for-profit charter operators won’t be regulated.

Stephen Henderson, editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, explains: “There’s nothing more difficult than proving quid pro quos in politics, the instances in which favor is returned for specific monetary support. But look at the amounts involved, and consider the DeVos’ near sole interest in the issue of school choice. It’s a fool’s errand to imagine a world in which the family’s deep pockets haven’t skewed the school debate to the favor of their highly financed lobby.”  The Great Lakes Education Project is the Michigan pro-charter school lobby underwritten by the DeVos family, who also launched All Children Matter in the spring of 2003 to promote private school vouchers. Dick and Betsy DeVos later founded the American Federation for Children, which has, according to ThinkProgress, worked with its closely related PAC to serve “as a launching pad for school choice legislation across the country.”

You’ll remember that earlier this summer the state legislature in Michigan passed a bill to prevent the bankruptcy of the Detroit Public Schools, but at the last minute the legislature removed the Detroit Education Commission, an agency that had been designed to regulate an out-of-control, for-profit charter school sector and to oversee, for example, the siting of schools to ensure that the needs of children instead of the marketing plans of charter chains determine where schools are opened and closed. Even Governor Rick Snyder had approved the creation of the Detroit Education Commission, Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education | janresseger:

The End is Near | Opine I will

The End is Near | Opine I will:

The End is Near

Public education is our nation’s most important asset that is responsible for protecting and nurturing our nation’s most precious asset, our children. Public Education is about to be dismantled and sold off to the highest bidder in every state of our nation. Trump’s legacy will someday describe this real estate scoundrel as the demolition expert that has destroyed an American institution that began in 1690.  Unfortunately, a large portion of our populace do not realize that the end is near.

No matter which party you support or who you voted for, you will soon feel the real pain of a Trump administration. Some have said, we may survive four years of Trump, but will we survive many years of an ultra-Right Wing Supreme Court? Will we survive a Tea party controlled Congress? Will our schools survive?

The “end” for public education is one step closer with Trump’s pick for Education Secretary billionaire Betsy DeVos. DeVos is a conservative activist that has pushed for school vouchers across the nation. She supports raiding taxpayer revenues and funneling them to private and parochial schools. She has no experience in education and will be the chief architect in Trump’s demolition plan.

Trump’s demolition plan includes the destruction of unions. The very same unions that advocate for highly effective schools, strong standards that are appropriate, school safety, and protect the needs of our most challenged students.   Trump has signaled that he would establish Right to Work laws nationwide. Trump’s plan would impede all unions’ abilities to provide the much-needed advocacy that has protected our schools and in turn our middle class.

The end will arrive for many of our union sisters and brothers when a Trump Supreme Court dismantles public unions’ bargaining rights and his wrecking ball destroys tenure protections. Public schools will be immediately impacted when The End is Near | Opine I will:

BATs Board of Directors Statement on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education - Badass Teachers Association

Badass Teachers Association:

BATs Board of Directors Statement on Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education

 The Badass Teachers Association, a network of over 80,000 teachers and education activists throughout the United States, are appalled that Betsy DeVos has been selected Secretary of Education.  We want to be clear as an organization, we will mobilize on a national level, at the state level, and the local level to STOP her agenda to dismantle public education in this nation.  We will fight for our communities to have strong, sustainable, and well-funded public schools.


Betsy DeVos brings NO education experience, but she does bring a disturbing record of attempting to dismantle public education.  She has used her family money and influence to push an agenda that will hand public tax dollars over to unaccountable for-profit corporations; she will promote vouchers schemes that have, according to research, no value in improving education, and she will funnel public money to church-sponsored schools.  Students and families across the nation will pay for her lack of understanding that it is the responsibility of elected officials, and the public, to provide a quality public education for all children. 

"Public education is not a business.  Public education is not a competition.  In competition and business there are winners and losers.  Public education should be about nurturing our most valuable resource - our children.  Our children deserve a Secretary of Education who is an advocate for public education not privatization."  - Marla Kilfoyle, Executive Director BATs

“Children whose parents lack the means or ability to select a school and provide transportation for a child to a school far away from their neighborhood are left with little “choice.”  This will certainly be harmful to the most vulnerable children and families and will fall especially hard on those in poverty and those in isolated rural communities”.  - Kathleen Jeskey, Oregon BAT and BAT Co-Director of State Administrators.

"Trump's choice for Secretary of Education solidifies and makes tangible the very real concerns many in Public Education have about the disrespect shown and the callous disregard for our profession. It appears that the President-elect has doubled down on the efforts to privatize and commodify one of the cornerstones of democracy. Trump has in fact spat in the face of all who work tirelessly for the many children in public schools throughout the country by appointing someone with little regard for the work we do. As a public school teacher, I am committed now more than ever to bringing attention to the many challenges we face in trying to save Public Education from the greedy hands that seek to profit from our children and our communities. With this selection, Trump has revealed his true feelings and intentions when it comes to the students, families, and educators that comprise our Public Schools."  - Gus Morales, BAT Board of Director Member

"Great! A Republican mega-donor who never held a job in her life will be the next Education Secretary. She's a perfect choice for Trump's plan to bribe state government to increase charter and voucher schools with our tax dollars." - Steven Singer, Director BATs Research, and Blogging.

" Why on Earth would someone who has no experience working with and for the public in our school system be appointed to oversee the same system they never worked within. Is the goal of this administration to improve Public Education or is it to pilfer the coffers that should be allocated for all the children of our country. This is unfathomable." - Becca Ritchie, NEA BAT Caucus Chair

"After the constant failure to deliver the promised results of improvements and closing of achievement gaps, BATs consider such a nomination as unacceptable. Public schools and teachers have seen and suffered for almost two decades the same dogmatic ideology she professes and its destructive policies." - Sergio Flores, BATs Board of Directors Member

"My teacher friends here in Michigan know that the choice of Betsy DeVos as the next Secretary of Education shows just how much we have to be concerned about in a Trump administration. Ms. DeVos is not just a charter cheerleader--her goal is to destroy our system of public education and turn a public good into a private profit center.  Based on her track record in Michigan, we can expect an alarming lack of transparency and an unbecoming level of arrogance coming from a DeVos-run Department of Education. We must all be vigilant, and make a move from public school advocates to activists. It's that important." - Mitchell Robinson, associate professor and chair of music education - Michigan State University

BATs around the country will continue to advocate and fight at the federal, state, and local level to sustain our public school system and to make sure that every child in this country has a strong, sustainable community public school in their neighborhood.  Betsy DeVos is unqualified and unfit to be Secretary of Education.  The children, families, and teachers of this nation deserve better.Badass Teachers Association:

glen brown: “Billionaire Betsy DeVos 'has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education’”—Deirdre Fulton

glen brown: “Billionaire Betsy DeVos 'has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education’”—Deirdre Fulton:

“Billionaire Betsy DeVos 'has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education’”—Deirdre Fulton

“‘President-elect Donald Trump has tapped for U.S. Education Secretary a reformer who does not hide her contempt for the public schools,’ according to historian Diane Ravitch.

“Of conservative billionaire Betsy DeVos, a longtime supporter of charter schools and vouchers for private and religious schools, National Education Association president Lily Eskelsen García said, ‘her efforts over the years have done more to undermine public education than support students.’

“‘In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding, and destroying public education in America.’—Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers.

“‘She has lobbied for failed schemes, like vouchers—which take away funding and local control from our public schools—to fund private schools at taxpayers' expense,’ García continued. ‘These schemes do nothing to help our most-vulnerable students while they ignore or exacerbate glaring opportunity gaps. She has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education. By nominating Betsy DeVos, the Trump administration has demonstrated just how out of touch it is with what works best for students, parents, educators, and communities.’

“Similarly, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten called DeVos ‘the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education.’ ‘In nominating DeVos," Weingarten said, ‘Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding, and destroying public education in America.’

“Indeed, Chalkbeat earlier this week listed ‘a few things we could glen brown: “Billionaire Betsy DeVos 'has consistently pushed a corporate agenda to privatize, de-professionalize, and impose cookie-cutter solutions to public education’”—Deirdre Fulton:

Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation

Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation:

Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation

Donald Trump has selected Michigan Republican Betsy DeVos as his Secretary of Education. While that may sound like a relief when you consider the others who were in the running, DeVos’ appointment should frighten anyone who cares about church/state separation.

DeVos has been a longtime supporter of school voucher programs, which use the pleasant-sounding phrase “school choice” to take money away from public schools and leave them in the dust. (Trump elaborated on his vision of dismantling our public education system while on the campaign trail.)

More pressing on this website is the question of whether parents who want to send their kids to a private religious school would be given taxpayer dollars to do so.

There’s reason to believe she’ll want to make that an option, laws be damned. DeVos grew up in a Religious Right-loving home and gave money to organizations working to push Christian beliefs through the government. As Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s Rob Boston wrote in a 2010 profile of her:

Growing up in the strict Calvinist Christian Reformed Church, Betsy DeVos’ antipathy toward public education may run in her blood. She comes from a politically active, socially conservative family. Her parents are Elsa Prince Broekhuizen and the late Edgar Prince, a Michigan couple that has funded the Religious Right for years.

The Princes have provided huge sums to both Focus on the Family and its 

Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation: