A collection of articles and information, sorted by date, about President-elect Trump's choice for US Secretary of Education. Check back frequently for additional articles.
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November 23, 2016
From PR Watch
5 Things to Know about Billionaire Betsy DeVos, Trump Education Choice
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From Exposed by CMD
5 Things to Know about Billionaire Betsy DeVos, Trump Education Choice
Instead of sending their children to public schools, for nearly three decades, Betsy and Dick have focused on pushing vouchers for private schools and bankrolling politicians to advance their agenda to redirect American tax dollars away from truly public schools.
From the Michigan ACLU
ACLU Raises Serious Concerns Over Nomination of DeVos for Secretary of Education
We strongly urge Congress to scrutinize the record of Betsy DeVos, who has been a staunch proponent of school vouchers, a misguided idea that diverts taxpayer dollars into private and parochial schools and perverts the bedrock American value of separation of church and state. She and her husband served as the primary fundraisers and engine for a Michigan ballot initiative --Kids First! Yes! Coalition that voters soundly rejected in 2000.
From AFT
AFT President Randi Weingarten on Nomination of Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education
The president-elect, in his selection of Betsy DeVos, has chosen the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of Education.
In nominating DeVos, Trump makes it loud and clear that his education policy will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America.
From Exceptional Delaware
America Is Getting Bamboozled With Betsy Devos! She Is All In On The True Agenda: Cradle To Grave Workforces Of Tomorrow
It’s real easy to play Monday morning quarterback after your team just took a huge hit. Donald Trump promised (and fooled) many citizens into thinking he could get rid of Common Core. So much so that his pick for Secretary of Education is now backtracking on her years of actions financially supporting Common Core. She sits on Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. This foundation LOVES Common Core and all that comes with it. DeVos, through the Betsy and Steve DeVos Foundation, poured millions of dollars into pro-Common Core candidates.
From 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.
From Diane Ravitch
A BATS Reading List to Learn About Betsy DeVos
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.
From Diane Ravitch
Betsy DeVos and Campbell Brown: Good Friends
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.
From M Live/Michigan
Betsy DeVos could 'destroy' public schools with vouchers, Michigan educators worry
"Her appointment is an affront to the children of America and educators of America. She is staunchly anti-public education," said David Hecker, president of American Federation of Teachers Michigan.
From The Times Picayune
Betsy DeVos has a loud voice in Louisiana politics
"It looks like oversight is one of the keys to successful school reform," Harris said. With "Betsy DeVos, the odds of that happening are not so great." For one, "she's the architect of the Detroit system," which he said has been plagued by under-regulation and for-profit companies.
From janresseger
Betsy DeVos Nominated as Secretary of Education
...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.
From Live Long and Prosper
Betsy DeVos on Live Long and Prosper
And the Winner is...Betsy DeVos. Billionaire President-elect chooses billionaire amateur to lead the US Education Department. The losers are the 50.4 million children attending America's K-12 public schools.
From The New Yorker
Betsy Devos, Trump's Big-Donor Education Secretary
Trump’s choice of DeVos delivers on his campaign promise to increase the role of charter schools, which she has long championed.
From The INDY Channel
Betsy DeVos, Trump's education secretary pick, has been major donor in Indiana school voucher push
"The Michigan billionaire and conservative activist who could be the next secretary of education has been a major funder of the school voucher movement in Indiana..."
From The New York Times
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s Education Pick, Has Steered Money From Public Schools
It is hard to find anyone more passionate about the idea of steering public dollars away from traditional public schools than Betsy DeVos, Donald J. Trump’s pick as the cabinet secretary overseeing the nation’s education system.
From The Washington Post
Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education pick, is a billionaire with deep ties to the Christian Reformed community
“Americans are always free to send their children to private schools and religious schools, but raiding the public treasury to subsidize private businesses and religious organizations runs against the public trust and the Constitution,” Moline said. “It suggests that he has little regard for our nation’s public schools or the constitutional principle of separation of church and state.”
From Academe Blog
Billionaire Picks Billionaire to Attack Public Schools, Destroy Teacher Unions
Before the election, I noted that Trump’s one-paragraph plan for education (which still contains the two spelling errors and the run-on sentence I noticed at the time) was to attack public education by federal funding of religious and charter schools and homeschooling, even paying parents not to send their children to school.
From Interfaith Alliance
DEVOS APPOINTMENT IS BAD NEWS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION
“Billionaire activist Betsy DeVos has dedicated years of her life and vast sums of money to undermining our nation’s public education system in favor of private, largely religious and politically conservative, institutions. She and her family have pursued these goals on parallel tracks: they directly fund conservative, private religious schools while promoting voucher schemes that would transfer vast sums of public funds into the coffers of these very institutions. That redistribution of public wealth would undermine the public school system on which the overwhelming majority of American children rely.
From Wall of Separation
DeVos Devoted Career To Dismantling Public Education
Today, president-elect Donald Trump tapped Betsy DeVos to serve as Secretary of Education in his administration.
DeVos, though, has all the wrong credentials to serve as Education Secretary. An Education Secretary should be devoted to promoting and improving public education, but she has devoted her career to dismantling it. Indeed, she’s the leader of the crusade to create private school vouchers, heading up American Federation for Children and giving huge sums of money to enact voucher programs across the country.
From The Detroit Free Press
DeVos family showers GOP with contributions after DPS vote
Editor's note: President-elect Donald Trump tapped charter-school advocate Betsy DeVos to join his cabinet as secretary of education. Below is an opinion column published in September about the DeVos family's donations to members of the Michigan Legislature on the heels of approving bills involving Detroit Public Schools.
From Education Week
Betsy DeVos: Five Things to Know About Trump's Pick for Education Secretary
President-elect Donald Trump has picked national school choice advocate Betsy DeVos to be his education secretary, according to the Associated Press, after meeting with DeVos on Nov. 19. DeVos must still be confirmed by the Senate, but here are five things to know about the potential next leader of the U.S. Department of Education under Trump.
From The Columbus Dispatch
Group once led by Trump education secretary nominee owes $5.3 million to Ohio
A pro-school-choice organization once directed by Besty DeVos, President-elect Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, owes a record $5.3 million in fines to the Ohio Elections Commission.
All Children Matter Inc. was directed by DeVos, whom Trump nominated Wednesday as the nation's top education official, when it ran afoul of Ohio campaign-finance laws in 2008.
From Slate
How Trump Could Gut Public Education
School-choice philanthropist Betsy DeVos is set to become Donald Trump’s secretary of education. The school choice movement that Trump has embraced is bipartisan; centrist Democrats and Republicans both tend to support public charter schools. But DeVos, a former chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party, represents the most conservative corner of the movement. She and her husband have funded a series of efforts to turn public school funding into vouchers for students to attend private schools. They have also fought to prevent charter schools, including for-profit charter schools, from being more tightly regulated.
From The Educator's Room
Meet Betty DeVos, Our New Secretary of Education
Today it was announced that President-Elect Donald Trump has chosen Betsy DeVos, a top Republican Donor, and School Choice Advocate to head the Department of Education. As teachers, we’ve already had a contentious relationship with the two predecessors to the job, but before we get into policy, it’s important to understand who Betsy DeVoe is and what she MAY bring to the national office.
From Lily Eskelsen Garcia, in KRWG TV/FM
NEA President Blasts Betsy DeVos Nomination For Education Secretary
“Betsy DeVos has consistently worked against these values, and her efforts over the years have done more to undermine public education than support students. 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. 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.
From 10th Period
Ohio's Largest Campaign Finance Violator named Trump's Education Secretary
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 larger than all fines put together.
From GFBrandenburg's Blog
The Only Worse Possible Candidate for U.S. EdSec than Michelle Rhee was Betsy Devos. So, Devos it is.
Betsy DeVos, a billionaire who pushes vouchers so that she can dismantle all public schools, has been named by His Orange Fraudulency to be the next US Secretary of Education. Because the only worse possible candidate for US EdSec would be Michelle Rhee, and apparently she was busy shining her coffin. The DeVos family got their billions by bilking thousands (millions?) of people who didn’t realize that Amway is really just a pyramid (or Ponzi) scheme. It makes perfect sense that a fraud like Trump would appoint someone like DeVos, who got her billions from fraud, as well. Teachers and public school students can look forward to very grim times.
From Friendly Atheist
Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation
DeVos’ appointment should frighten anyone who cares about church/state separation.
From Common Dreams
Trump Nominates 'True Enemy' of Public Schools for Education Secretary
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.
From Religion Clause
Trump Picks School Choice Advocate For Secretary of Education
DeVos is chair of the American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C.-based single-issue organization devoted to expanding school of choice options across the country....
From Answer Sheet
Trump terrifies public school advocates with education secretary pick
Advocates of public education in the United States have worried that President-elect Donald Trump would tap an education secretary who would speed up the privatization of public schools, a move that many fear could destroy America’s public education system, the country’s most important civic institution. Well, they were right about the appointment — and then some.
From deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's EduBlog
Trump Ed-Sec Pick Betsy DeVos: Poised to Promote Vouchers above All Else
DeVos will have three ways in which to push school choice: 1) Outside of ESSA as part of Trump’s “Voucher to the Top” (for want of whatever name under which he will choose to package it); 2) As part of ESSA Title I and the manner in which she could pressure states regarding state plans for the “turning around” of the bottom five percent of schools in each state, and 3) as part of ESSA Title IV, Part C, “Expanding Opportunity Through Quality Charter Schools.”
From If You Only News.Com
TRUMP HIRES CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST WHO DOESN’T BELIEVE IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS SECRETARY OF EDUCATION
In one of the most disturbing choices Trump has selected for his cabinet, the incoming administration announced that it had chosen Betsy Devos, a Christian fundamentalist who doesn’t believe in public schools to head the Department of Education, the agency that sets policy for America’s public schools. She will now have sweeping control over what the boys and girls of America learn and in what environment they do so.
From Eclecta Blog
Trump names Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education: It’s Game, Set, Match for public education
Game. Set. Match.
The news that Donald Trump has named Betsy DeVos as his choice for Secretary of Education is just another brick in the wall for Mr. Trump’s plan to turn the US into a giant flea market, selling off the bits and pieces of a once great nation for parts to the highest bidders.
From The Washington Post
Trump picks billionaire Betsy DeVos, school voucher advocate, as education secretary
Betsy DeVos is hardly a household name, but the Michigan billionaire and conservative activist has quietly helped change the education landscape in many states, spending millions of dollars in a successful push to expand voucher programs that give families taxpayer dollars to pay for private and religious schools.
From Diane Ravitch
Trump Picks DeVos for Secretary of Education
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, period.
From Alternet
Trump's Disastrous Education Pick: A Billionaire Heir of Right-Wing Dynasty and Champion of School Privatization Efforts
http://www.alternet.org/education/trumps-disastrous-education-pick-billionaire-heir-right-wing-dynasty-and-champion-school
From Bust•ED pencils
What you should know about Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary pick — and what her choice might tell us about his plans
Progressive advocates for public schools weren’t going to like anyone who Trump selected for Education Secretary. But now we know what his vision for public education is and who he thinks can stand against us.
Wrong.
The Revolution Begins.
From Right Wing Watch
With DeVos Pick, Trump Declares War on Public Education
Donald Trump announced that Betsy DeVos, a Michigan Republican operative who has been called “the four-star general of the voucher movement,” is his choice to be secretary of education, a fox-guarding-the-chicken-coop appointment if ever there were one. DeVos has been a major proponent of school vouchers and other tax schemes that divert dollars away from public education and into religious schools, private schools, and profitable but ineffective online charter schools.
From The New York Times
Why Trump’s Education Pick Won’t Be Able to Privatize U.S. Schools
Ms. Devos will also be hamstrung by the fact that her deregulated school choice philosophy has not been considered a resounding success. In her home state, Detroit’s laissez-faire choice policies have led to a wild west of cutthroat competition and poor academic results. While there is substantial academic literature on school vouchers and while debates continue between opposing camps of researchers, it’s safe to say that vouchers have not produced the kind of large improvements in academic achievement that market-oriented reformers originally promised.
November 22, 2016
From Live Long and Prosper
Amateur Hour in the Cabinet
Betsy DeVos, a right wing, anti-union, anti-public education, religious right zealot who has spent millions trying to kill public education. DeVos attended a parochial school in high school, followed by Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI where she graduated with a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Political Science.
September 8, 2016
From janresseger
DeVos Family Contributes Lavishly to Legislators Who Defeated Detroit Charter School Oversight
“Bought and paid for. Back in June, that’s how I described the Detroit school legislation that passed in Lansing—a filthy, moneyed kiss to the charter school industry at the expense of the kids who’ve been victimized by those schools’ unaccountable inconsistency… The DeVos family, owners of the largest charter lobbying organization, has showered Michigan Republican candidates and organizations with impressive and near-unprecedented amounts of money this campaign cycle: $1.45 million in June and July alone—over a seven-week period, an average of $25,000 a day.”
February 2, 2016
From Eclecta Blog
DeVos family responsible for HALF of campaign contributions to Michigan House Republicans in last quarter of 2015
In the fourth quarter of 2015, Michigan Republicans received a whopping 50% of their campaign contributions from members of the DeVos family. Four vulnerable Republican House members, Holly Hughes, Brandt Iden, Tom Barrett, and John Bizon all received $9,000 each for a total of $36,000 which is nearly the median income for Michigan residents according to analysis done by the Pew Charitable Trusts. In fact, these rich individuals, in their effort to purchase the best state legislature money can buy, gave 75% of the median Michigan family income in just a single quarter.
January/February 2014
From Mother Jones
Meet the New Kochs: The DeVos Clan's Plan to Defund the Left
Betsy, who is 56, is the political junkie in the relationship. She got her start in politics as a "scatter-blitzer" for Gerald Ford's 1976 presidential campaign, which bused eager young volunteers to various cities so they could blanket them with campaign flyers. In the '80s and '90s, Betsy climbed the party ranks to become a Republican National Committeewoman, chair numerous US House and Senate campaigns in Michigan, lead statewide party fundraising, and serve two terms as chair of the Michigan Republican Party. In 2003, she returned at the request of the Bush White House to dig the party out of $1.2 million in debt. A major proponent of education reform, Betsy serves on the boards of the American Federation for Children, a leading advocate of school vouchers, and Jeb Bush's Foundation for Excellence in Education, which supports online schools.
December 26, 2011
From Forbes
The Ultra-Rich, Ultra-Conservative DeVos Family
Other than possibly the Koch brothers, few billionaires have a more established place in conservative America than the DeVos clan.
May 6, 2011
From Alternet
The DeVos Family: Meet the Super-Wealthy Right-Wingers Working With the Religious Right to Kill Public Education
By now, you've surely heard of the Koch brothers, whose behind-the-scenes financing of right-wing causes has been widely documented in the past year. The DeVoses have remained largely under the radar, despite the fact that their stealth assault on America's schools has the potential to do away with public education as we know it.
September, 2010
From Americans United
Michigan Multi-Millionaire Betsy DeVos Is A Four-Star General In A Deceptive Behind-The-Scenes War On Public Schools And Church-State Separation
DeVos’ goal is nothing short of a radical re-creation of education in the United States, with tax-supported religious and other private schools replacing the traditional public school system.
DeVos rarely states it that bluntly. Instead, she crouches behind the euphemism of “school choice” and pretends to be a kindly advocate for downtrodden youngsters trapped in public schools described as “failing.”
For posts and articles from December 20 through December 24, 2016 Click HERE.
For posts and articles from December 11 through December 19, 2016 Click HERE
For posts and articles from December 4 through December 10, 2016 Click HERE
For posts and articles from November 30 through December 3, 2016 Click HERE
For posts and articles from November 27 through November 29, 2016 Click HERE
For posts and articles from November 24 through November 26, 2016 Click HERE
For posts and articles older than November 24, 2016 Click HERE
For an updated list by source (without quotes from articles, and continuing beyond December 24, 2016) Click HERE
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