One of the most hopeful signs of the incoming Trump administration has been the nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education.
As many of you know, De Vos has spent much of her life — and her money — helping poor kids gain access to better schools. DeVos is a reformer and an unapologetic and effective advocate for school choice. . And, that’s exactly why the left is pulling out all the stops to derail her nomination. For more on why the Left wants to take out Betsy DeVos see Who’s Afraid of Betsy DeVos? from the Wall Street Journal (subscription may be required).
Over the next couple of days the Left will portray Betsy DeVos as evil and unqualified. Her crime? Helping poor kids get access to a better education.
It’s interesting; the confirmation hearing was moved back a week allegedly because Democratic senators wanted more time to review the millions in political contributions DeVos has made to sitting politicians and superPACs. The real reason? The Left wanted more time to assemble a hit squad.
The the time of the confirmation hearing is also noteworthy; 5 pm, today. That leads me to believe Republicans expect a bruising battle and want to do all they can to keep the circus off the evening news.
DeVos is a woman with convictions, a fighter and a tireless champion for vouchers and charter schools. Offenses that will never be tolerated by the teacher’s unions and radical public school advocates.
Wow… Civitas and Bob Luebke, staunch defenders of accountability and supporters of testing teachers through standardized student test scores….choose to defend DeVos who does not even know the difference between proficiency and growth! This is a new low for NCCivitas and their stream of education propaganda.
George – you made a claim, back it up with proof. Not hearsay.
Bob – Concerning proficiency v. growth, see: https://youtu.be/oF8wEH2ixak
Thanks for the link Charles, but really the “think tank” NCCivitas should be doing the research.
DeVos is also weak on math (I guess we can blame Common Core). 900% vs 120%. We can all play with numbers to make them look good or bad, but even NCCivitas would not be so bold.
It seems that NCCivitas believes wealth is a qualification for the cabinet positions. I need to play the lottery more often, win, and get a cozy cabinet position!
Betsey DeVos arrived to her hearing looking very polished, but soon revealed that she was unprepared and evasive in ways that would disqualify any candidate interviewing for a job.
When specific questions were posed to her by Senator Kaine ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoS9Z6p_EM8 ), she tried to argue that “it should be left to states” to decide whether or not schools should comply with the federal IDEA statute of equal access for disabled students.
When Senator Franken ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF8wEH2ixak ) asked her about standards for measuring progress, she was unable to answer his question.
On other points, she answered that she would defer to the will of the president, demonstrating a lack of appreciation that the president would depend on his/her Secretary of Education to provide input and guidance on education policy (and not vice versa).
As a registered Republican, even I am truly abhorred by her nomination. I’m even more disappointed in this article. Absolutely no evidence to back up these claims, merely propaganda fluff. This is akin to the fake news being peddled by sites on the left and the right. I will not be giving much credence to any future writings by this author, and I’m now unfortunately giving less to Civitas.
FAKE!!! Where is the actual *DATA* that shows “helping poor kids gain access to better schools” — ??? Where is the data??? Present some actual FACTS rather than rallying propaganda.
I think NCCivitas is trying to bury this article into their archives as quickly as possible!