Bad news for grizzly bears across America.
Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
21–29 of 29 posts
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#22So there was some press this morning on the democratic filibuster... It is not clear to me why it didn't last longer. Can anyone shed some light?
"Back in 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid changed the Senate’s filibuster rules so presidential Cabinet nominees only required 51 votes, rather than 60, to be confirmed." http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/1/17/14251600/tr...
Tragically, the Democrats believed that the Republicans would nominate people who were at least tangentially qualified for the position. Took 'em only one election to screw it up.
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#23Well, education as a public good had a nice run. Not that it has been in particularly good shape in this country, but we have blueprints from other countries on how to improve it. Instead we have a completely inexperienced person in control of $60bil+ because she paid off Congress. Seems par for the course these days.
Fortunately, most public school policy funding occurs at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level. DeVos is and remains exceedingly unqualified for the position. She's literally never been taught or been taught in a public school in the entirety of her life. Her B.S. is in poly sci. Her brother founded what was once known as Blackwater, the same Blackwater that murdered civilians in Iraq. Her husba…
> Fortunately, most public school policy is determined at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level.
Quite a lot of it is influenced by incentives and conditions attached to federal funds, both those explicit in law and those resulting from the Department of Education's particular choices in applying the law.
DeVos will control the latter and (presumably, via influence within the Administration and controlling the DoE's interactions with Congress) substantially influence the former.
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#24It's good to be rich. Donate to a whole bunch of Senators, win a job despite having no qualifications for that role.
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fortunately, most public school policy funding occurs at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level. DeVos is and remains exceedingly unqualified for the position. She's literally never been taught or been taught in a public school in the entirety of her life. Her B.S. is in poly sci. Her brother founded what was once known as Blackwater, the same Blackwater that murdered civilians in Iraq. Her husba…
> Fortunately, most public school policy is determined at the state and local levels as compared to the federal level. Quite a lot of it is influenced by incentives and conditions attached to federal funds, both those explicit in law and those resulting from the Department of Education's particular choices in applying the law. DeVos will control the latter and (presumably, via influence within the Administration and…
I apologize, I should have said funding mechanisms{[1]. Policy is heavily influenced at the federal level.
[1]https://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/fed/10facts/edlite-chart....
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#26I think the public school system in this country is terrible. Personally excited to see some radical changes and ready to give this a chance. Too much bureaucracy, institutionalization, unionization and inertia going on. Extremely strange and inconsistent funding/taxation patterns and complete lack of oversight or accountability has been the norm for 30+ years.
As with most events that have occurred since Trump took the presidency, I am concerned, but optimistic. She has my full support, I hope she makes great changes to a system that desperately needs it.
Is there anything that she has accomplished or done in her life that indicates that she will improve things? She had a lot of trouble answering absurdly basic questions during her confirmation hearing.
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#27Glad to see this happening. The federal government needs to completely get out of education. A good first step would be to dismantle the Department of Education.
Further inequality between states in the union will only continue to benefit the current ruling bodies, unless the states can come up with some way to shelter their populations (shrink the federal government someway/how). Unfortunately, not all the states see it yet.
Eventually it will come to the point where some of them will question the union at all—as an outsider I look forward to the independent states movements gaining stronger footholds.
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#28Well, education as a public good had a nice run. Not that it has been in particularly good shape in this country, but we have blueprints from other countries on how to improve it. Instead we have a completely inexperienced person in control of $60bil+ because she paid off Congress. Seems par for the course these days.
Source on paying off congress?
Re: Betsy DeVos Confirmed as Education Secretary
#29I've also noticed that most of my Facebook friends quickly forget that the guy their hero Obama appointed did a terrible job and the teachers unions demanded he resign, which he later did.
They won't even give DeVos a chance, and most of them, it's because Obama didn't pick her.