Betsy Devos

Why Is Betsy Devos, Trump's Pick For Education Secretary, So Unpopular

... campaigned for education reform in the state. Her husband Dick De Vos was a CEO of the beauty and nutrition giant Amway and her brother is Erik Prince , the founder of the controversial private security company Blackwater. It is not clear how much the De Vos family support Mr Trump or his agenda - in 2015, they gave money towards the campaigns of Jeb Bush and Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. And, in an interview last March, she described Mr Trump as "an interloper" who did not represent the Republican Party. The people around Donald Trump. Image copyright AP. Image caption Mrs De Vos has faced plenty of opposition, including by Eric Heins, the California Teachers Association president. Much of the controversy around Mrs De Vos focuses on her support of charter schools, which are publicly funded and set up by teachers, parents, or community groups, outside the state school system. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said her work ...

2 Gop Senators Break With Party On Betsy Devos Confirmation

... to be entirely exempt from many forms of accountability. And as a result, many of them have not performed on the same level with ordinary public schools. CORNISH: Anya, before I let you go, one issue I don't hear very much about is, you know, how much of a say does the U. S. secretary of education actually have over issues like school choice. KAMENETZ: That's a really interesting question, Audie. You know, it's true. Charter school policy is really set very much at the state level and also in individual cities. However, you can't underestimate the power of the bully pulpit for the federal government with competitive grant programs, for example, to try to push one or another vision of school choice. And I think that's what De Vos represents to a lot of people. CORNISH: That's Anya Kamenetz of the NPR ...

Cobb Opinions On Betsy Devos Run The Gamut

... in the past who have done nothing to change or help poor children access quality education. Morgan believes a family’s finances should not determine the quality of a child’s education. He said affluent families are able to exercise school choice as they can afford to move into a higher-performing school district but low-income families cannot afford to move. “There’s no more ignoring the elephant in the room when it comes to the disparity of access for children in communities that are the most vulnerable,” he said. Marietta school board Chairman Randy Weiner opposes De Vos becoming education secretary. Weiner said he disagrees with her pro-school choice position because vouchers divert taxes from public schools to private schools that don’t have as much accountability. Instead of working to change the problems in public schools, Weiner said school choice programs convince parents to abandon them, which hurts public education. “They’re not focused on fixing the problems in public ...

Democrats Request Another Hearing For Devos, Trump’s Education Pick, Before Confirmation Vote

... of Education is too important a position for the country and for this Committee, to jam a nominee through without sufficient questioning and scrutiny,” they wrote to Alexander in a letter Monday. “This is not about politics, it should not be about partisanship — it should be about doing the work we were elected by our states to do to ask questions of nominees on behalf of the people we represent.”. Those signing the letter included 10 Democrats and Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. They are all members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), which is overseeing De Vos’s confirmation. [ De Vos lauded as bold reformer, called unfit for the job ]. Democrats complained when Alexander, chairman of the HELP committee, limited each member of the committee to one five-minute round of questioning during De Vos’s first hearing, on Jan. 17. Alexander was resolute at the time, and one of his aides said Monday that he will ...

Betsy Devos’ Code Words Raise Red Flag About ‘junk Science

... support to these organizations, it doesn’t necessarily mean that she agrees with all their views, Mc Neilly said. “She gives to all sorts of organizations that are involved in a variety of issues,” he said. “She doesn’t do a litmus test to make sure she’s in agreement with everything.”. Voucher programs, which De Vos has long championed, often provide taxpayer funding for low-income students to enroll in private and religious schools , which may legally teach creationism and intelligent design. The question of whether voucher program support of religious schools violates the separation of church and state has led to legal challenges in some states. Indeed, in 2015, Colorado’s Supreme Court struck down a school district’s voucher program because it was funneling public money to religious schools. The Great Lakes Education Project, a group founded by De Vos and her husband, has been one of the primary vehicles for De Vos’ school-choice advocacy. Before her federal nomination, she served as a chairwoman and board member of the group. While Great Lakes has largely avoided religious rhetoric in its push for school choice, a policy ...

Education Nominee Betsy Devos Having Her 15 Minutes Of Fame 'at The Wrong Time

... must follow the law. She later said she may have been confused about IDEA’s requirements. It was, in part, De Vos’ responses on IDEA that prompted Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), one of the two Republicans opposing her, to do so publicly. De Vos also produced a viral moment during her hearing when she told Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) that guns might belong in schools in rural areas as protection against “potential grizzlies.”. In the Feb. 4 Saturday Night Live (SNL) skit, actress Kate Mc Kinnon played a ditsy De Vos , who appears during a raucous news conference led by White House press secretary Sean Spicer, played in a loud, angry cameo by actress Melissa Mc Carthy. Education wonks throughout Washington got a little thrill when, during the skit, a reporter asked the ersatz De Vos to distinguish between academic growth and proficiency — a version of the question had actually been lobbed at De Vos during her Senate hearing by Minnesota Sen. Al Franken, an SNL veteran. Her reply: “I don’t know ...

She Had Something To Say About Betsy Devos. So She Sent Her Senator A Pizza

... for the job. Videos of De Vos at a confirmation hearing in January, in which she appeared confused about the federal Individuals With Disabilities Education Act , were widely shared. She has also declined to take a stand on whether guns belong in schools. The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday on De Vos's nomination. Two Republicans — Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) — have said they will join all 48 Democratic senators in opposing De Vos. However, Vice President Pence is expected to cast a tiebreaking vote  for De Vos. Silge said she knew Hatch was likely to vote for De Vos but that only fueled her desire to contact him. She said she has not been particularly politically engaged in the past but grew concerned after watching De Vos's confirmation hearing in January. “I wanted to ...

Senate Panel Votes In Favor Of Betsy Devos, Trump’s Education Secretary Pick

... at least three Republicans to break with the new president. Collins and Murkowski both said they believe that De Vos — a billionaire who has spent decades advocating for charter schools and taxpayer-funded vouchers — has the best interest of children at heart. But the two senators also said they are not yet persuaded that she is prepared to lead the Education Department, given her lack of experience in public education. “She may be unaware of what’s broken in our public schools and how to fix it,” said Murkowski, who said that her state includes many isolated rural communities where vouchers and charter schools are not reasonable solutions to what ails education. De Vos is a major donor to Republican causes who has become one of Trump’s most controversial Cabinet picks, drawing unprecedented opposition for a prospective education secretary. Debate over her nomination has been marked by a sharp partisanship unusual for the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, which has often managed to find bipartisan compromise on key issues, including sweeping education legislation in 2015. On Tuesday, the Republican-led committee voted 12 to 11 to advance De Vos’s ...

Snl Takes A Jab At Betsy Devos During A Mock Sean Spicer News Conference

... me that you don’t know this issue.” And then he said, “No, it doesn’t.”. [ Six astonishing things Betsy De Vos said — and refused to say — at her confirmation hearing ]. That was a reference to the nominee’s inability to speak knowledgeably about a number of important education issues. Her confirmation-hearing performance, not to mention the facts that she never attended a public school, never sent her children to one and has called the American public education system a “dead end,” has led critics to say she isn’t qualified for the job. At one point in the Jan. 17 hearing on Capitol Hill, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) asked her whether she would agree that guns don’t belong in schools. She responded: “I will refer back to Sen. [Mike] Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming. I think probably there, I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”. Betsy De Vos, Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary, appeared before senators at her confirmation hearing on Jan. 17, but some of ...

Breaking Down Betsy Devos

... helps students in her classroom at the San Diego Cooperative Charter Schools Mountain View campus. Partner Voices. Interested in Charter Schools narrative. February 3, 2017. Finding the right school for your children is one of the most difficult tasks parents face. The days of simply sending kids to the neighborhood school down the street are long gone. There are now choices – lots of them. Charter schools offer students an alternative form of public education, but they can be quite  controversial. In this week’s podcast, hosts Scott Lewis and Laura Kohn talk to Miles Durfee, a regional director of the California Charter School Association, about some of the hottest topics of the ongoing charter school debate. Support Independent Journalism Today. What benefits do VOSD members get. One pervasive myth about charters schools, Durfee said, is that they’re an attempt to privatize public education. People see big foundations, business owners and philanthropists donating money to charter schools and they assume that means the charters are influenced or even run ...

No Democrat Will Vote For Betsy Devos As Education Secretary

... Republicans to oppose her. The inside track on Washington politics. Be the first to know about new stories from Power Post. Sign up to follow, and we’ll e-mail you free updates as they’re published. You’ll receive free e-mail news updates each time a new story is published. You’re all set. By Valerie Strauss By Valerie Strauss January 27 Follow @valeriestrauss. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee member Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) shakes hands with Betsy De Vos, President Trump’s pick to be the next secretary of education, after her confirmation hearing Jan. 17, 2017, in Washington, D. C.  (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images). It’s clear that Betsy De Vos is not qualified for the job of @usedgov Sec., & I will not be supporting her nomination __link__/3 c Xbnz XCv D. — Sen. Al Franken (@Sen Franken) January ...