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Maybe it should be a prompt to look at DeVos with a fresh mind, instead? I've heard very little about her actual actions or policies beyond revoking the "Dear

Maybe it should be a prompt to look at DeVos with a fresh mind, instead? I've heard very little about her actual actions or policies beyond revoking the "Dear Colleague" letter.

aaronbrethorst 6y ago
Nah, pass. Before joining the Trump administration, [DeVos]...had a strong hand in the spread of for-profit charter schools in her home state of Michigan, which saw a dramatic drop in average school performances after her pet policies were enacted. As secretary of education, she's consistently sidelined student civil rights and worked to make debt relief harder than ever. https://www.gq.com/story/betsy-devos-is-the-worst https://www.gq.com/story/betsy-devos-is-the-worst Even Trump overruled her on plans to gut the Special Olympics https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/betsy-devos-trump-republicans-education-secretary https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/betsy-devos-... in response to a question about whether guns belonged in schools, she referred to a school in Wyoming and said, “I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.” DeVos was confirmed by the Senate — but only, for the first time in U.S. history, after a vice president had to vote to break a tie. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/25/betsy-devoss-truly-awful-week-by-headlines/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/25/betsy-de...
alasdair_ 6y ago
My initial concerns with DeVos were twofold: first, she had never spent a single day in an American public school and second, that the primary reason she was appointed was the millions of dollars she contributed to Trump’s campaign. It seemed very unlikely that out of roughly 150 million eligible Americans, the very best choice was someone who had zero experience with the public school system. After she began her work, the thing that I particularly disliked was her support of Indiana charter schools to both receive federal taxpayer funding while at the same time being allowed to ban a student for being gay (or their parents being gay).
zjs 6y ago
Her actions and policies aren't well-publicized, but they're not good. As a simple example: in 2017, DeVos and Trump proposed "cutting $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor, and $2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction" [1]. These cuts also affected efforts such as mentoring, recruitment, and retention [2]. In 2018, she proposed regulations that "require full hearings, cross examination of sexual assault victims, and raise the standard of evidence to hold a student accused of sexual assault accountable" [3], which experts have said "would allow schools and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to ignore much of the sexual harassment that occurs in schools" [3]. I don't even know how to summarize this whole mess, so I'm just going to use the subtitle of the article: "The administration wants to keep schools safe by ditching rules meant to prevent racial bias in school discipline" [4]. More recently, she "illegally delayed an Obama-era rule that required states to address racial disparities in special education programs" [5]. [1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-... [2]: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Funding-the-Wall-vs-ESEA-Title-II-A-with-State-Table.pdf http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Funding-the-Wall-vs-ESEA-Titl... [3]: https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/11/betsy-devos-education-upenn-sexual-misconduct-philadelphia https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/11/betsy-devos-education-... [4]: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/trumps-school-safety-commissions-strange-focus-on-discipline/578455/ https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/trumps... [5]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/betsy-devos-special-education.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/betsy-devos-s...
johnny99 6y ago
She tried to defund the Special Olympics. Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the security contractor repeatedly accused of murder and other crimes in Iraq. She had no experience in education prior to her appointment. Her stated goal is to defund public education, and her own department, in favor of using public money to support private "faith-based" schools. She's taking advantage of the pandemic to try and steer stimulus money intended for public schools into the hands of wealthy private schools. Even by the low low standards of the Trump administration, she a notably horrible public servant, defiling the department she's supposed to be leading. There is an endless supply of well-sourced stories trashing her, but here's one more or less at random: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-stimulus-private-schools/2020/05/21/d790b926-9b99-11ea-ad09-8da7ec214672_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-s...

Maybe it should be a prompt to look at DeVos with a fresh mind, instead? I've heard very little about her actual actions or policies beyond revoking the "Dear Colleague" letter.

aaronbrethorst 6y ago

Nah, pass. Before joining the Trump administration, [DeVos]...had a strong hand in the spread of for-profit charter schools in her home state of Michigan, which saw a dramatic drop in average school performances after her pet policies were enacted. As secretary of education, she's consistently sidelined student civil rights and worked to make debt relief harder than ever. https://www.gq.com/story/betsy-devos-is-the-worst https://www.gq.com/story/betsy-devos-is-the-worst Even Trump overruled her on plans to gut the Special Olympics https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/betsy-devos-trump-republicans-education-secretary https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/27/betsy-devos-... in response to a question about whether guns belonged in schools, she referred to a school in Wyoming and said, “I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.” DeVos was confirmed by the Senate — but only, for the first time in U.S. history, after a vice president had to vote to break a tie. https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/25/betsy-devoss-truly-awful-week-by-headlines/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/10/25/betsy-de...

alasdair_ 6y ago

My initial concerns with DeVos were twofold: first, she had never spent a single day in an American public school and second, that the primary reason she was appointed was the millions of dollars she contributed to Trump’s campaign. It seemed very unlikely that out of roughly 150 million eligible Americans, the very best choice was someone who had zero experience with the public school system. After she began her work, the thing that I particularly disliked was her support of Indiana charter schools to both receive federal taxpayer funding while at the same time being allowed to ban a student for being gay (or their parents being gay).

zjs 6y ago

Her actions and policies aren't well-publicized, but they're not good. As a simple example: in 2017, DeVos and Trump proposed "cutting $1.2 billion for after-school programs that serve 1.6 million children, most of whom are poor, and $2.1 billion for teacher training and class-size reduction" [1]. These cuts also affected efforts such as mentoring, recruitment, and retention [2]. In 2018, she proposed regulations that "require full hearings, cross examination of sexual assault victims, and raise the standard of evidence to hold a student accused of sexual assault accountable" [3], which experts have said "would allow schools and the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights to ignore much of the sexual harassment that occurs in schools" [3]. I don't even know how to summarize this whole mess, so I'm just going to use the subtitle of the article: "The administration wants to keep schools safe by ditching rules meant to prevent racial bias in school discipline" [4]. More recently, she "illegally delayed an Obama-era rule that required states to address racial disparities in special education programs" [5]. [1]: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-... [2]: http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Funding-the-Wall-vs-ESEA-Title-II-A-with-State-Table.pdf http://www.nea.org/assets/docs/Funding-the-Wall-vs-ESEA-Titl... [3]: https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/11/betsy-devos-education-upenn-sexual-misconduct-philadelphia https://www.thedp.com/article/2018/11/betsy-devos-education-... [4]: https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/trumps-school-safety-commissions-strange-focus-on-discipline/578455/ https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2018/12/trumps... [5]: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/betsy-devos-special-education.html https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/08/us/politics/betsy-devos-s...

johnny99 6y ago

She tried to defund the Special Olympics. Her brother, Erik Prince, founded Blackwater, the security contractor repeatedly accused of murder and other crimes in Iraq. She had no experience in education prior to her appointment. Her stated goal is to defund public education, and her own department, in favor of using public money to support private "faith-based" schools. She's taking advantage of the pandemic to try and steer stimulus money intended for public schools into the hands of wealthy private schools. Even by the low low standards of the Trump administration, she a notably horrible public servant, defiling the department she's supposed to be leading. There is an endless supply of well-sourced stories trashing her, but here's one more or less at random: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-stimulus-private-schools/2020/05/21/d790b926-9b99-11ea-ad09-8da7ec214672_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/betsy-devos-s...