Big Education Ape

Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Almost everyone in Trump’s cabinet has experience with public education—except the education secretary Betsy DeVos — Quartz

Almost everyone in Trump’s cabinet has experience with public education—except the education secretary Betsy DeVos — Quartz:

Almost everyone in Trump’s cabinet has experience with public education—except the education secretary

Among the myriad of objections leveled at Betsy DeVos, US president Donald Trump’s pick to lead American public education, the most stark is the fact that she’s never actually attended a public high school or university. Nor have her four children.

The criticism becomes all the sharper when looking at Trump’s overall cabinet, which at this point is almost completely assembled.

Position	Individual	Public high school and/or university attended
President	Donald Trump	—
Vice president	Mike Pence	Columbus North High School
Chief of staff	Reince Priebus	Trempler High School, University of Wisconsin
Homeland security	John Kelly	University of Massachusetts
Defense	James Mattis	Richland High School; Central Washington University
CIA	Mike Pompeo	US Military Academy
State	Rex Tillerson	University of Texas at Austin
Housing and urban development	Ben Carson	Detroit Public Schools
Transportation	Elaine Chao	Syosset High School
UN ambassador	Nikki Haley	Clemson University
Energy	Rick Perry	Paint Creek Independent School District; Texas A&M University
Commerce	Wilbur Ross	—
Interior	Ryan Zinke	Whitefish High School; University of Oregon
Education	Betsy DeVos	—
Attorney general	Jeff Sessions	Wilcox Central High School
Treasury	Steve Mnuchin	—
Environmental protection agency	Scott Pruitt	University of Kentucky
Small business administration	Linda McMahon	New Bern High School; East Carolina University
Budget director	Mick Mulvaney	—
Health and human services	Tom Price	Dearborn High School; University of Michigan
Labor	Andy Puzder	Kent State University
Director of national intelligence	Dan Coats	Jackson High School
US trade representative	Robert Lighthizer	—
Agriculture	Sonny Perdue	Warner Robins High School; University of Georgia
Veterans affairs	David Shulkin*	—

*Shulkin attended a private university. The details of his high school are not available.

With the exception of DeVos, Trump himself, and just a handful of others, most of Trump’s administration have had some form of experience with American public education, whether that’s graduating from public high schools or attending public universities. And that’s even given their absurd wealth (Trump’s cabinet picks have more money than a third of American households combined), and the fact that affluent people usually gravitate toward private schooling.

DeVos, a Michigan billionaire who favors the idea that federal money should go to independent schools as well as public ones, was called out as an ill-fitting choice to lead the US Education Department from the start—and now the awkwardness is all the more apparent. She attended a private Christian high school in Michigan, then a private liberal arts college.

She also failed at her own confirmation hearing to understand basic education terms or take a stance on issues such as student-performance accountability and campus sexual assault. If her appointment is Almost everyone in Trump’s cabinet has experience with public education—except the education secretary Betsy DeVos — Quartz:

FACT - Hunger is a major contributing factor to the Education Achievement Gap. - Wait What?

FACT - Hunger is a major contributing factor to the Education Achievement Gap. - Wait What?:

FACT – Hunger is a major contributing factor to the Education Achievement Gap.

Image result for Hunger is a major contributing factor to the Education Achievement Gap.

The corporate education reform movement is fond of claiming that poverty is no excuse for children failing to succeed in school.

Their level of ignorance is astounding.

Hunger is just one of the devastating outcomes related to the level of widespread poverty in the United States and these factors are keeping tens of millions of children from doing better in school.

Researchers recognize that “out of school factors” (OSF) have a significant and dramatic impact on a child’s level of academic success. Although there are a variety of important steps the nation must take to improve its schools, children actually spend less than 15% of their time in school, meaning non-school issues have an incredible impact on a child’s in-school success..

And while quality education programs make a difference, there are a series of socio-demographic factors that have a profound impact on how well children actually do with their time in school.

One of the most pronounced impediments to learning is hunger, often called, “food insecurity” in the parlance of public policy.

The evidence is overwhelming that the lack of sufficient food undermines an individual’s ability to function and it has an especially devastating impact on children.

And hunger is a very real problem in this country, especially when it FACT - Hunger is a major contributing factor to the Education Achievement Gap. - Wait What?:

Why People Who Know REALLY Oppose Confirmation of Betsy DeVos | janresseger

Why People Who Know REALLY Oppose Confirmation of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

Why People Who Know REALLY Oppose Confirmation of Betsy DeVos

You no doubt know that Betsy DeVos, President Donald Trump’s nominee for U.S. Education Secretary, has devoted her fortune and her advocacy to promoting school privatization through expansion of vouchers and unregulated charters. DeVos believes that if parents are given a choice and enough money to choose, they’ll improve the product by voting with their feet. Her theory, if not the reality, is that bad schools will then close and children will be better served. As the Senate considers her confirmation, people who know a lot about public education are warning Senators to oppose her. Here are highlights of four articles—all by experts—all from different points of view. Please do follow the links and read the articles themselves. They are all short.

***

Brett McNeil, whose The High School Where Our Kids Belong appeared on Monday in the Chicago Sun-Times, describes himself as someone who shifted careers, seeking teaching mid-career, working in a Chicago public high school and a Chicago charter high school. Although he has now left teaching for work in journalism, he brings the seldom-heard perspective of a teacher from inside two contrasting high schools, and he explains: “(W)ith charter school champion Betsy DeVos set to preside over federal education policy, I thought I might highlight some key differences between the public and charter school models.” He describes the two schools in which he taught: “Both schools have student populations that are predominantly minority—one African American, the other Latino. Both schools also have a large number of students receiving free or reduced lunches….” McNeil contrasts the facilities, programs, and extras at the two schools. The public school has a library with librarians, a large gym and gym classes and a performing arts center, while the charter lacks a library, librarians, gym classes and performing arts. The public high school offers a range of enrichments—a video production lab; a 25-yard swimming pool and swim team; a band room, band classes and marching band; art classes; drama classes and a drama club; National Honors Society; an Why People Who Know REALLY Oppose Confirmation of Betsy DeVos | janresseger:

Over 1,000 Students/Alumni from DeVos’ Alma Mater, Calvin College, Believe She Is Unqualified for US Ed Sec. | deutsch29

Over 1,000 Students/Alumni from DeVos’ Alma Mater, Calvin College, Believe She Is Unqualified for US Ed Sec. | deutsch29:

Over 1,000 Students/Alumni from DeVos’ Alma Mater, Calvin College, Believe She Is Unqualified for US Ed Sec.

An article protesting the nomination of Betsy DeVos was posted in the Calvin College newspaper, Chimes. (Note: I had to play with link to get it to work.)

DeVos is a Calvin College alumna.

I first read about the letter on January 24, 2017, in Valerie Strauss’ column, “The Answer Sheet,” in the Washington Post.

The goal of the letter is for Calvin College alumni to have a document to send to senators.

Since Strauss’ posting, Calvin College has apparently released an official statement:

UPDATE: Calvin College has released the following statement:

Our graduate Betsy DeVos is responding to her sense of call to public service, and more than 60,000 alumni from a variety of political perspectives are discerning the best ways to engage politics and culture in this moment. In all of this, our alumni are living out what we hope our students are learning during their time on campus: to think deeply, to act justly and to live wholeheartedly as Christ’s agents of renewal in the world.

Below are excerpts from what is apparently the original, January 23, 2017, article. The included letter is a strong one, and it indicates that those signing believe that DeVos does not have the background suited to serving as an overseer of public education:

Hundreds of Calvin alumni have signed a letter opposing their fellow alumna Betsy DeVos’s confirmation as United States Secretary of Education.

The letter was drafted and circulated by Sara Moslener, ’96, on Saturday, Jan. 21. As of 11 p.m. Monday night, it had over 700 signatures. …

[Schneider update: According to MLive, by January 24, 2017, the number of signers had exceeded 1,000.]

Alumni of multiple generations have signed the letter, from the class of 1953 to the expected class of 2018. …

The text of the letter is as follows:

As alumni and students of Calvin College we share an educational
Over 1,000 Students/Alumni from DeVos’ Alma Mater, Calvin College, Believe She Is Unqualified for US Ed Sec. | deutsch29:

CURMUDGUCATION: Reformster Jason Botel Added To USED

CURMUDGUCATION: Reformster Jason Botel Added To USED:

Reformster Jason Botel Added To USED

Jason Botel comes with the full reformy pedigree. He graduated from U of Penn in 1997 with a degree in English and went straight to work as a Teach for America recruit in Baltimore. He spent three whole years in the classroom, then went on to launch a Baltimore franchise of the KIPP school brand. He served as principal (on LinkedIN he calls it a "public school principal" job) while also serving as the KIPP Baltimore executive director.

In that capacity he went head-to-head with the teachers union, arguing that they shouldn't actually be paid for extra days and hours spent teaching. Presumably if you went to work for KIPP you just accepted that you would do more work for less pay than your professional peers in public schools.

From KIPP Botel moved on to become executive director of MarylandCAN, one of the network of fifty(ish) CANs that serve as lobbyists and financiers for the reformster movement, bolstered by all the big names like Gates and Walton. His job there was to be a soldier in the ongoing fight of CURMUDGUCATION: Reformster Jason Botel Added To USED:

Badass Teachers Association: How Defending Public Schools and the Environment Can Save the Democratic Party by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley

Badass Teachers Association: How Defending Public Schools and the Environment Can Save the Democratic Party by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley:

How Defending Public Schools and the Environment Can Save the Democratic Party

by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley

Originally posted at: http://3rdmillenniumteacher.blogspot.com/2017/01/how-defending-public-schools-and.html

There has been much speculation about the whys and wherefores of the recent election as to why the Dems lost and the Trumpers won, and there’s been much hand wringing behind the scenes (in between the can-you-believe-he-did-thats) about how the Democratic party will recover from the election. They are fragmented, they are mistrustful of one another, and they are scared.

Right now in Congress the Republicans are ignoring the Dems like they were mailroom boys, while there are 33 Republican Governors, and 25 completely Republican state capitals, with another 20 state legislatures partially controlled by Republicans. Let’s face it, ALEC is having a field day with state laws! If you wanna see pillaging, look to the states for rampant slash and burn politics from absolutely buzzark Koch legislators who now control our states.

Though there are some not so talked about ways we got to this disastrous place (hint: it’s by being more like the Republicans than like Democrats), I’d really like to present a clear option for getting out of the uncomfortably tight container where way more than half the country are crammed into a fraction of the legislative space.

All the people issues are good, and as soon as the Dems get back the state houses and Congress they can pay attention to all of them. But health care and immigration are going to be projects that are not easily solved, though we know we will have to fix them both. However, there are two other issues that can deliver the country on a plate to the party that realizes it.

Here’s the solution-- Take a firm and strongly progressive stand on Education and the Environment.

First Education-- Yes, Education, and not just free college and more preschools; though loan Badass Teachers Association: How Defending Public Schools and the Environment Can Save the Democratic Party by Cheryl Gibbs Binkley:

Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Hundreds of students, alumni from DeVos’s Christian college oppose her selection as education secretary - The Washington Post

Hundreds of students, alumni from DeVos’s Christian college oppose her selection as education secretary - The Washington Post:

Hundreds of students, alumni from DeVos’s Christian college oppose her selection as education secretary

Hundreds of students and alumni from Calvin College, the Christian school that is the alma mater of Michigan billionaire Betsy DeVos, have signed a letter saying they oppose her nomination by President Trump to be secretary of education, according to the school’s student newspaper, the Calvin Chimes.

Calvin College, founded in 1876, has an enrollment of about 4,000 students. According to its website, it is “a top-ranked college in Grand Rapids, Michigan that prepares students to be Christ’s agents of renewal in the world. Through rigorous academic study and intentional Christian community, you will learn to think deeply, act justly and live wholeheartedly in everything that you do.”

The letter, initiated by an alumnus of the college, has more than 700 signatures and was still accepting them before it was to be sent to members of the Senate education committee, who are scheduled to vote on DeVos’s nomination on Jan. 31, the Calvin Chimes said. A committee vote had been scheduled for this week but was postponed after DeVos stumbled at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, displaying a lack of understanding of basic education issues.

The letter was posted on the student newspaper’s Facebook page and received numerous comments, some of them supporting DeVos and others backing those who signed the letter.

The White House did not respond to a query about the letter. Matt Frendewey, national communications director for the American Federation for Children, a nonprofit organization DeVos founded and ran, said in an email:

Betsy DeVos is fully qualified, prepared and ready to serve as our nation’s next Secretary of Education. And, she has broad support across the country and locally, including Grand Rapids Public Schools Superintendent Weatherhall Neal. Betsy DeVos has been unequivocal in her support for public education,
Hundreds of students, alumni from DeVos’s Christian college oppose her selection as education secretary - The Washington Post:

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