DeVos Confirmation Hearing Confirms She is Unqualified (5 Videos)

If you read our earlier piece, Act Now to Oppose An Unqualified Public School Privatizer, you would be well informed about how unqualified Betsy DeVos is to lead the US department of Education. If you watched her confirmation hearing performance yesterday, you would realize we didn't go far enough.

Seldom have we ever seen someone so lacking in basic knowledge be put forward as an education leader. There are better qualified candidates on school boards in Ohio.

For those who didn't follow the hearings, let us document the myriad of examples of Betsy DeVos demonstrating her complete lack of understanding and knowledge of the department she is wishing to lead.

Example 1: Asked by Sen. Murphy if guns have any business in schools

Pressed on whether she could say "definitively" if guns shouldn't be in schools, she referred to an earlier remark by Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) who mentioned an elementary school in Wapiti, Wyoming, that had erected a fence to protect children from wildlife.

"I think probably there, I would imagine that there's probably a gun in the school to protect from potential grizzlies," DeVos said.

Example 2: DeVos did not Know what (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was

Example 3: Unable to state is all schools should meet the same accountability standards (this one gets awkward), and what IDEA means

Kaine: “If confirmed will you insist upon equal accountability in any K-12 school or educational program that receives taxpayer funding whether public, public charter or private?”

DeVos: “I support accountability.”

Kaine: “Equal accountability?”

DeVos: “I support accountability.”

Kaine: “Is that a yes or a no?”

DeVos: “I support accountability.”

Kaine: “Do you not want to answer my question?”

DeVos: “I support accountability.”

Kaine: “Let me ask you this. I think all schools that receive taxpayer funding should be equally accountable. Do you agree?”

DeVos: “Well they don’t, they are not today.”

Kaine: “Well, I think they should. Do you agree with me?

DeVos: “Well no . . . ”

And once again failed to understand the importance of IDEA

Kaine asked her if she believes that all schools that receive federal funding — whether public, public charter or private — should be required to meet the requirements of IDEA.

She responded: “I think they already are.”

Kaine: “But I’m asking you a should question. Whether they are or not, we’ll get into that later.” He then repeated his question.

DeVos said: “I think that is a matter that is best left to the states.”

Kaine responded: “So some states might be good to kids with disabilities and other states might not be so good and, what then, people can just move around the country if they don’t like how kids are being treated?”

Devos repeated: “I think that’s an issue that’s best left to the states.”

Example 4: DeVos did not understand the difference between Growth and proficiency

Understanding the difference between these 2 simple concepts is a prerequisite. Not knowing this is dangerously ignorant.

Example 5: Finally we get to the real reason DeVos was sitting in that chair, and about to be the least qualified Secretary of Education in the nations history.

Sanders: “Mrs. DeVos, there is a growing fear, I think, in this country that we are moving toward what some would call an oligarchic form of society, where a small number of very, very wealthy billionaires control, to a significant degree, our economic and political life. Would you be so kind as to tell us how much your family has contributed to the Republican Party over the years?”

DeVos: “Senator, first of all thank you for that question. I again was pleased to meet you in your office last week. I wish I could give you that number. I don’t know.”

Sanders: “I have heard the number was $200 million. Does that sound in the ballpark?”

DeVos: “Collectively? Between my entire family?”

Sanders: “Yeah, over the years.”

DeVos: “That’s possible.”

Sanders: “Okay. My question is, and I don’t mean to be rude. Do you think, if you were not a multi-billionaire, if your family had not made hundreds of millions of dollars of contributions to the Republican Party, that you would be sitting here today?”

DeVos: “Senator, as a matter of fact, I do think that there would be that possibility. I’ve worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years to be a voice for students and to empower parents to make decisions on behalf of their children, primarily low-income children.”

After listening to her testimony, it's pretty clear there is zero possibility she would be a nominee for this position without her political financial ties, and to go one step further, she has admitted this herself in the past

“My family is the biggest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Committee,” she wrote in the Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call. “I have decided to stop taking offense,” she wrote, “at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return. We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment.”

Ohio Graduation Crisis Countdown

Ohio has changed High School graduation requirements, which has many concerned that massive numbers of students will fail to graduate. Concern is so great that Ohio superintendents protested at the Statehouse late last year.

As one educator noted

The reality in Ohio is that we are preparing to refuse a diploma to 30% of our students statewide. In urban areas like the one in which I teach, the rate of non-graduates will be far higher, 40-70% depending on the city. We are punishing students to solve nonexistent problems, with an unproven assessment system that cannot measure the soft skills students need to be successful in college and on the job.

We've been told that the 3 paths to graduation will solve the graduation problem, but the viability of the multiple paths is a myth. The WorkKeys path reaches terribly few vocational students, and those who can earn a remediation free score on the ACT are the same students who are on pace to graduate through the state assessment path. Three paths are a misnomer if fewer students graduate.

Now in full blown crisis mode, a taskforce has been formed to figure out how to un-mess the mess. They don't have much time. The first meeting, according to an ODE press release is scheduled for January 18th.

Graduation Requirements Workgroup to Meet January 18
The Superintendent of Public Instruction will hold a Graduation Requirements Workgroup meeting on Wednesday, Jan. 18 at 4:00 p.m. at the Ohio Department of Education, 25 South Front Street, Columbus.

The State Board of Education’s Standards and Graduation Committee discussed Ohio’s graduation requirements during its December meeting. The committee, and ultimately the full board, passed a resolution to direct the Superintendent of Public Instruction to create a work group to review the graduation requirements and consider any alternative approaches as they relate to the class of 2018.

The superintendent will present a recommendation to the Standards and Graduation Committee by the April 2017 board meeting.

We need a lot fewer amateurs involved in public education in Ohio.

Ohio Governor's Budget, Like Previous Budgets, Headed for Trash Can?

The Ohio legislature has discarded the Governor's previous budgets, and specifically the portion related to K-12 funding. According to reports, of which this Gongwer report is representative, we're likely to see the same result.

Mr. Keen indicated the governor's forthcoming budget will seek to gradually reduce the percentage of money withheld from schools under what is termed a "gain cap," or a restriction on what districts receive over the biennium juxtaposed to what they would be due if the full formula was in place. The administration also differs somewhat on the application of "guarantees" of continued funding levels for schools.

As with some of his predecessors, the governor's last school funding proposal began to unravel once district-specific spreadsheets were produced and the full effects of the proposed transition to a true funding formula became evident. In short, despite adding more overall funds to the formula, more than half of all districts would have received less money than the year before and others were in line for substantial increases.

Those are the effects of overlaying a formula on years of spending patterns bolstered by lawmakers' desires to make sure schools in their districts are kept whole despite enrollment changes and other factors.

Eventually, Mr. Kasich's model, aimed at getting more districts on a new formula, was modified when lawmakers sought to "guarantee" they receive at least the same amount of funding received in the previous biennium - a policy that apparently still has strong support among legislative leadership.

Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) has said districts need certainty if they're going to improve, but it remains to be seen how that applies to caps and guarantees. 

Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina), meanwhile, said he'd like to extend previous funding promises to schools into the next biennium.

The goal of the changes to the last budget, he said, was to "raise up districts that perhaps needed more assistance without cutting down any other ones."

"I would hope we have the same kind of commitment going into this General Assembly as well," Sen. Obhof added.

But the desire to give additional dollars to some schools regardless of changing circumstances jeopardizes the hope of ever reducing the number of districts on the gain cap, Mr. Keen said.

Caps are set to make sure the state isn't paying more dollars than it has available in the school funding line item, he said. When the legislature starts guaranteeing transitional aid to districts above what was allotted in the administration's budget, the cap has to be adjusted unless more cash is put into the formula.

Nothing is more exasperating for public school supporters than the perpetual failure to figure out how to properly fund our schools, so that every student has an equal opportunity for success, regardless of where they live.

William Phillis, executive director of the group behind the DeRolph lawsuit, the Coalition for Equity and Adequacy of School Funding, said that process has continued.

He and others have long called on the legislature to determine how much money is needed to create a "thorough and efficient" public school system and work from that figure as opposed to the amount of tax dollars expected to be available in any given budget cycle.

"When you don't know what the cost of education is, and maybe don't care, and you just have a pool of money and use that pool to distribute a residual amount, then you're going to have winners and losers," Mr. Phillis said. "To mitigate against somebody that's going to be too much of a winner, you cap it, and to mitigate against losers, we'll put a guarantee in."

Exactly.

The Real Education Crisis in 2 Charts

The real education crisis can be seen brewing in the chart below.

Plain to see that the number of people choosing to become an educator continues to shrink, as the job becomes more stressful, and less rewarding.

The chart below is even more start, falling from 21% in 1970 to just 6% in 2011

No other profession has seen such a drastic collapse. If the trends were reversed schools would have a larger, and therefore higher quality pool of potential educators to choose from. This trend is not going to reverse unless corporate reformers begin to value front line educators and pursue policies that respectful the profession.

Act Now to Oppose An Unqualified Public School Privatizer

The Republican Controlled Senate have set January 11th as the date for the confirmation hearing of Betsy Devos to be Secretary of Education. They have scheduled multiple confirmation hearings for cabinet positions on this date in an effort to rush through confirmations with little public scrutiny.

We are asking our supporters to contact Senators Rob Portman (202-224-3353 and 614-469-6774) and Sherrod Brown (202-224-2315 and 216-522-7272) and politely ask that they oppose the nomination of Betsy Devos.

While you are on the phone, you could also ask that they demand she pays the $5.3 million fine she owes Ohio tax payers after the Ohio Elections Commission found that DeVos violated state law by contributing $870,000 to an unregistered political action committee (PAC) in Ohio in 2008 from a PAC in Virginia that she directed.

Here are some of the reasons why we oppose billionairess Betsy Devos to lead the US Department of Education.

1. Simply put, she is unqualified. she has never worked in public education, and holds no public education degrees. She has never held any public office.

2. She has no public school experience. She and her children have never attended public schools. Instead they attended private religious schools.

3. She has invested millions of dollars lobbying to privatize public education though her American Federation for Children organization. In 2000, Michigan voters rejected a massive effort led by Betsy and Dick DeVos to change the state’s constitution to allow private school voucher schemes that siphon money away from public schools. 

4. She believes Charter Schools should be unregulated.

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.

The giving began in earnest on June 13, just five days after Republican members of the state Senate reversed themselves on the question of whether Michigan charter schools need more oversight.

5. Over 90% of this country's students attend a traditional public school. The Secretary of Education needs to be a qualified individual who can handle a much broader agenda than privatization.

Call your Senators now.

  • Senators Rob Portman (202-224-3353 and 614-469-6774)
  • Sherrod Brown (202-224-2315 and 216-522-7272)