"Over two decades, the family has spent millions of dollars funding pro-privatization organizations and buying legislators."
It was under President Obama that the most sweeping attacks on public education occurred. Despite the unions’ claims to the contrary, Obama and Duncan doubled down on NCLB. More than 300,000 teachers and other school jobs were permanently eliminated during Obama’s eight years.
How the Democrats paved
the way for Betsy DeVos
By Jerry White
10 February 2017
10 February 2017
The Senate’s
confirmation Tuesday of Betsy DeVos has placed a sworn enemy of public
education and a proponent of for-profit charter schools and religious schooling
at the helm of the US Department of Education. Like Trump’s other
cabinet
appointees, DeVos is committed to
dismantling the very department she heads
and
to lifting any restrictions on private
businesses seeking to cash in on
America’s
$1.3 trillion “education market.”
With the confirmation
of the Michigan billionaire, the American oligarchy has installed one of its
own. The beneficiary of the merger of two family fortunes in Michigan—the
former Prince auto parts empire and the Amway Corporation pyramid scheme—DeVos
and her husband have an estimated net worth of $5 billion. Over two decades,
the family has spent millions of dollars funding pro-privatization
organizations and buying legislators.
Michigan has the
country’s highest percentage of charter schools run by for-profit management
companies and among the weakest regulations on the publicly funded and
privately run schools. Under the state’s school “reform” law, nearly half of
Detroit’s public schools are currently targeted for closure and potential
transformation into private charters.
Trump has pledged to
promote anti-teacher “merit” pay and spend $20 billion on school “choice.” The
voucher policy in the state of Indiana is being suggested as a national model.
In 2013, then Indiana Governor and now Vice President Mike Pence expanded the
program, initiated by his Republican predecessor as a “social justice”
initiative for poor children, to provide vouchers for up to half of their
tuition to more affluent middle-class families with children already in private
schools. Almost all the private schools eligible for vouchers are religious.
Millions of school
teachers, parents and students are rightfully alarmed and realize that the
coming months and years will require the most serious fight to defend public
education. The prerequisite for developing a strategy for such a battle is a
political understanding of what produced Trump and DeVos.
As the World Socialist Web Site has explained,
the coming to power of a government of billionaires, ex-generals and
ultra-reactionaries marks a qualitative change. However, Trump is not a sudden
departure from the otherwise healthy development of US political and social
life. On the contrary, he is the outcome of the long decay of American
capitalism and the rise to the pinnacle of economic and political power of a
corporate and financial aristocracy, which has sought to defend its global
domination through endless wars overseas and a war against the social rights of
the working class.
Perhaps nowhere in
the realm of domestic policy is the continuity of Trump with previous
administrations, Democrat or Republican, seen than in the decades-long assault
on public education.
Before the 1980s, the
proponents of “free market” education policies were only to be found on the
most right-wing fringes of the Republican Party. In the mid-1950s, Chicago
economist Milton Friedman first put forward his proposal for school vouchers to
spend public money on private and religious schools, thereby creating
“competition” for the public-school system.
Efforts by Ronald
Reagan to introduce vouchers in the early 1980s failed due to popular support
for the democratic and egalitarian principles embodied in public education.
Friedman’s voucher
plan was, however, instituted by the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1981.
It took the
Democrats, under President Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s, to rebrand this
right-wing attack on public education as “school choice” for poor families. The
Democratic president sharply increased federal spending for so-called public
charter schools, whose numbers increased between 1992 and 2000 from 1 to more
than 1,700.
“We should reward the
best schools, and we should shut down or redesign those that fail,” Clinton
declared in 1996, the same year his wife, Hillary Clinton wrote in her memoir,
“I favor promoting choice among public schools.” Also in 1996, Milton Friedman and
his wife launched the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, an
organization Betsy DeVos would subsequently fund and promote.
Coming in the
aftermath of the 1990-91 dissolution of the USSR and the capitalist
triumphalism that followed, the Clintons spearheaded the Democratic Party’s
repudiation of the social reforms associated with the New Deal and Great
Society periods. Their free-market education policies coincided with the
destruction of welfare as a federal entitlement program, a law-and-order crackdown
on the poor, and Wall Street deregulation, which led to an explosion of
financial speculation, the bursting of the dot.com bubble in 2000 and the Crash
of 2008.
In 2002, George W.
Bush would sign into law the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), coauthored by
Democratic liberal icon Edward Kennedy. Under the scheme, schools that failed
to improve under test-based Annual Yearly Progress assessments could be closed,
turned into charter schools or “reorganized” by state officials. Various
punitive “accountability” schemes scapegoated teachers for educational problems
caused by poverty and decades of budget cutting.
In 2000, the DeVos
family spent $13 million
to push a referendum to amend Michigan’s
constitutional ban on vouchers. However, like
a similar measure in California
that year,
Michigan voters defeated the plan by a more
than 2-to-1 margin.
The Democrats for
Education Reform (DFER), a political action committee run by hedge fund
managers including Teach For America cofounder Whitney Tilson, was formed
between 2005-07 to promote their interests in the charter and edubusiness
sector. Democrats representing Anchorage Capital Partners ($8 billion under
management), Greenlight Capital ($6.8 billion), and other for-profit companies
signed up to promote the legislative assault on public education. Congressman
Barack Obama was a speaker at the inaugural meeting, and Arne Duncan was later
recommended by DFER for Education Secretary.
It was under
President Obama that the
most sweeping attacks on public
education occurred.
Despite the
unions’ claims to the contrary, Obama
and Duncan doubled down on
NCLB.
More than 300,000 teachers and other
school jobs were permanently
eliminated during Obama’s eight years.
Under the Race To The
Top (RTTT) program, cash-starved school districts were encouraged to compete
for “performance-based” grants based on their level of “innovation.” The
markers of such innovation were merit pay, the adoption of Common Core (highly
lucrative for testing companies and other edubusinesses) and the promotion of
charter schools.
Obama hailed the 2010
firing of teachers and other school employees at Central Falls High School in
Rhode Island after they rejected a “turnaround” plan authored by Duncan that
would have torn up their contracts and forced them to work longer hours without
additional pay.
During the eight
years of the Obama’s assault on public education, the teachers’ unions—the
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association
(NEA)—all but ended teacher strikes, which had long been a regular feature of
American life. When a strike was called, as in Chicago in 2012, the unions
quickly shut it down to prevent a confrontation with the Obama administration,
leading to mass school closings in Chicago, Philadelphia and other cities.
Far from opposing
corporate-driven school reform, the unions insisted that it could be
implemented more efficiently if state and local authorities used the services
of the AFT and the NEA to suppress resistance. In Detroit, the AFT, working
with local Democrats, shut down a series of sickouts, launched in defiance of
the union, and facilitated the restructuring of the public school district
under a Republican plan largely shaped by DeVos.
During DeVos’s
confirmation hearings, Democrats staged a publicity stunt on the floor of the
Senate before Vice President Pence cast his tie-breaking vote for DeVos.
Afterwards, AFT President Randi Weingarten hailed the “movement for children”
that would supposedly “serve as a check and balance” on the new education
secretary. Weingarten held open the AFT’s “invitation” to DeVos to “work with
educators,” but lamented that “it was more likely we’ll now hear the same
trashing of public schools that the disrupters, the privatizers and the
austerity hawks have used for the last two decades.”
There is no doubt
that major battles are on the horizon. As this brief summation makes clear,
however, the privatizers and austerity hawks have long included the Democratic
Party, with which the unions are aligned. The struggle to defend and vastly
improve public education therefore requires the building of a mass political
and socialist movement independent of both big-business parties. Such a
movement must be based on the working class, whose social interests are
inseparably bound up with the fight to end social equality and the economic and
political dictatorship of the oligarchy.
The author also recommends:
[03 June 2016]
AMERICA’S
YOUTH STARVE
FOR EIGHT
YEARS BARACK OBAMA AND HIS HAREM OF CORRUPT
DEM POLS
HAVE SABOTAGED OUR BORDERS TO EASE TENS
OF
MILLIONS
OF ILLEGALS INTO OUR JOBS, WELFARE OFFICES AND
VOTING BOOTHS.
What
is left for Legals is only the tax bills for La Raza's looting!
The
new reports show that in addition to “traditional” coping strategies of
skipping meals and
eating cheap food, these teens and pre-teens are increasingly
forced into shoplifting, stealing,
selling drugs, joining a gang, or selling their bodies for money
in a struggle to eat properly.
AMERICA STUDENTS STARVE:
Report on the impact of
OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS
THE GIG JOB – In America, No Legal Need Apply
"Possibly most affected by this shift in
the economy is the
Millennial generation, those
aged 18-30. The report notes that more
than half
of those under age 25 participate in independent
work, not
just in the United States but throughout
the European Union
as well."
Confirmation vote as farce: Senate approves billionaire enemy of public schools as secretary of education
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY and the final collapse of AMERICA:
WALL STREET LOOTERS’ PROPAGANDA MACHINE TO KEEP LEGALS’ MOUTHS SHUT
AND KEEP PAYING FOR THE BAILOUTS AND CORPORATE PLUNDERING OF AMERICA.
Confirmation vote as farce: Senate approves billionaire enemy of public schools as secretary of education
By Niles Niemuth
8 February 2017
8 February 2017
Billionaire Betsy DeVos was confirmed as secretary of education by vote of 51 to 50 in the Senate Tuesday with Vice
President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, marking the first time in US history that such a vote was necessary to confirm a cabinet secretary.
President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaking vote, marking the first time in US history that such a vote was necessary to confirm a cabinet secretary.
Tuesday’s vote was the culmination of four days
of stage-managed and increasingly farcical play-acting, in which Senate Democrats pretended to be putting up a ferocious battle against DeVos, while Senate Republicans pretended to be manning the barricades on her behalf.
of stage-managed and increasingly farcical play-acting, in which Senate Democrats pretended to be putting up a ferocious battle against DeVos, while Senate Republicans pretended to be manning the barricades on her behalf.
In reality, the outcome was determined well in advance. The two Republicans who “broke” with their party to oppose DeVos undoubtedly cleared their actions in advance with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who can afford exactly two defections given the 52-48 Republican
majority, and gave them permission.
majority, and gave them permission.
The Democrats seized on the prospective 50-50 tie to conduct a 24-hour, round-the-clock “debate” highlighted by liberal
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plea for “just one more Republican” to defeat the nomination. Throughout this exercise in empty demagogy, in which the Democrats
claimed to be the defenders of public education and oppose its destruction, every Democrat who spoke was aware that DeVos would be confirmed by virtue of Vice President Pence’s tie-breaking vote.
Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plea for “just one more Republican” to defeat the nomination. Throughout this exercise in empty demagogy, in which the Democrats
claimed to be the defenders of public education and oppose its destruction, every Democrat who spoke was aware that DeVos would be confirmed by virtue of Vice President Pence’s tie-breaking vote.
Moreover, the previous
Democratic administration, with Barack
Obama in the White House and his Chicago
crony Arne Duncan as head of the
Department of Education, was an
unmitigated disaster for public education.
More than 300,000 teachers and other school
workers lost their jobs under the Obama
administration, which through programs like
Race to the Top encouraged the growth of
charter schools and other efforts to
privatize and weaken public school systems.
Democratic administration, with Barack
Obama in the White House and his Chicago
crony Arne Duncan as head of the
Department of Education, was an
unmitigated disaster for public education.
More than 300,000 teachers and other school
workers lost their jobs under the Obama
administration, which through programs like
Race to the Top encouraged the growth of
charter schools and other efforts to
privatize and weaken public school systems.
For all the Democratic chest-thumping about opposing Donald Trump, DeVos is the first of Trump’s cabinet nominees to be confirmed without any Democratic support. Some Democrats have voted for every one of previous six cabinet nominees to be confirmed, and in many cases the
votes have been overwhelming. Fourteen of the 48 Democrats had voted for the first five Trump nominees, only defecting in the confirmation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and now DeVos.
votes have been overwhelming. Fourteen of the 48 Democrats had voted for the first five Trump nominees, only defecting in the confirmation of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and now DeVos.
Trump’s pick to head the Department of Defense, recently retired General James “Mad Dog” Mattis, was overwhelming approved last
month by a vote 98 to 1, receiving the support of nearly every Democrat in the Senate, including so-called “progressives” Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
month by a vote 98 to 1, receiving the support of nearly every Democrat in the Senate, including so-called “progressives” Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
An ideological opponent of public education, DeVos has donated millions of dollars to politicians and lobbying groups that support the funneling of tax dollars to private and religious schools through voucher programs and removing oversight of education spending through the establishment
of charter schools.
of charter schools.
DeVos is associated with some of the furthest right-wing conservative figures and groups in the US.
Her father-in-law Richard DeVos, founder of the Amway pyramid scheme, played leadership roles in a variety of right-wing groups including Focus on the Family, the American Enterprise Institute and the FreedomWorks Foundation. Her brother Erik Prince is the founder of the notorious military contractor and mercenary firm once known as Blackwater.
In 2000, DeVos and her husband, Richard DeVos,
former CEO and heir of the Amway corporation fortune, spent $5.6 million on a ballot initiative that would have amended the Michigan state constitution to create a voucher program. The initiative was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
former CEO and heir of the Amway corporation fortune, spent $5.6 million on a ballot initiative that would have amended the Michigan state constitution to create a voucher program. The initiative was overwhelmingly rejected by voters.
DeVos has also spent her money founding a variety of organizations that buy politicians’ support for the privatization of public education including All Children Matter, the Alliance for School Choice and the American Federation for Children. From 1995 to 2005, DeVos funded and sat on the Board of Directors of the Action Institute, a right-wing outfit that has advocated for the elimination of compulsory education and child labor laws.
After decades of pushing for the complete destruction of public education, DeVos will now direct the agency responsible for providing federal funding to public schools, collecting pertinent data, and enforcing privacy and civil rights laws regarding education.
During Senate committee confirmation hearings, DeVos exhibited her complete ignorance regarding federal education laws and made clear her fundamental conflicts of interest.
With no experience in public education, DeVos earned her nomination from President Donald Trump to head of the Department of Education as a result of her ideological hostility to public education; she joins a host of Trump appointees who have expressed opposition to the missions
of their respective departments.
of their respective departments.
Additionally, DeVos was able to attain her position through the massive amounts of money she and her family have funneled into the coffers of the Republican Party and the campaigns of a host of Republicans candidates. She admitted during Senate committee hearings that she and her family had donated $200 million to Republican candidates over the last few decades.
In the last election cycle, DeVos and her family donated $2.25 million to the Senate Leadership Fund and $900,000 to the
National Republican Senatorial Committee. She personally donated a total of $1 million to 21 of the Republican senators who voted for her confirmation.
National Republican Senatorial Committee. She personally donated a total of $1 million to 21 of the Republican senators who voted for her confirmation.
As a supplement to the backwardness represented
by DeVos, it was announced at the end of last month that Trump had appointed religious obscurantist Jerry Falwell, Jr., son of the televangelist huckster and founder of Moral Majority, to lead a special panel tasked with eliminating
and curbing federal regulations on education.
by DeVos, it was announced at the end of last month that Trump had appointed religious obscurantist Jerry Falwell, Jr., son of the televangelist huckster and founder of Moral Majority, to lead a special panel tasked with eliminating
and curbing federal regulations on education.
Falwell is the president of Liberty University, a private Christian university based in Lynchburg, Virginia, which teaches creationism and maintains a code of conduct that forbids pre-marital sex and homosexual relationships among its student population. Students can be fined for attending a dance, visiting alone with a member of the opposite sex off
campus, or engaging in “inappropriate personal contact.”
campus, or engaging in “inappropriate personal contact.”
The Christian fundamentalist was Trump’s first pick to lead the Department of Education but he turned down the position. He will now essentially join the Trump administration without facing a Senate confirmation vote.
Speaking to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Falwell made clear that he would use his task force to play a leading role in shaping federal education policy. “The task force will
be a big help to [DeVos]. It will do some of the work for her,” he said.
be a big help to [DeVos]. It will do some of the work for her,” he said.
THE GIG JOB – In America, No Legal Need Apply
"Possibly most affected by this shift in the economy is the
Millennial generation, those aged 18-30. The report notes that
more than half of those under age 25 participate in independent
work, not just in the United States but throughout the European
Union as well."
AMERICA’S YOUTH STARVE
…… ILLEGALS SUCK IN BILLIONS IN WELFARE… they also get our jobs!
The new reports show that in addition to “traditional” coping strategies of skipping meals and eating cheap food, these teens and pre-teens are increasingly forced into shoplifting, stealing, selling drugs, joining a gang, or selling their bodies for money in a struggle to eat properly.
AMERICA STUDENTS STARVE:
Report on the impact of OBAMA-CLINTONOMICS
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY and the final collapse of AMERICA:
WALL STREET LOOTERS’ PROPAGANDA MACHINE TO KEEP LEGALS’ MOUTHS SHUT
AND KEEP PAYING FOR THE BAILOUTS AND CORPORATE PLUNDERING OF AMERICA.
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2017/02/the-crony-bankster-democrat-party.html
Protesters try to block DeVos from visiting DC schools:
Protesters on Friday blocked Education Secretry Betsy DeVos from entering two schools in Washington, D.C., on Friday, the latest sign of opposition to President Trump's most controversial Cabinet nominee. DeVos first tried to enter a a school building when protesters physically blocked the stairwell. DeVos and her staff turned away and were followed by a chanting protester who ripped her for her political donations to Republicans. The protester chanted Shame! at DeVos as she got into her vehicle. Sec. DeVos physically blocked by protesters from entering DC school—turned away and left. Unclear if she attempted another door. @ABC7News pic.twitter.com/buNgmOJbya— Sam Sweeney (@SweeneyABC) February 10, 2017
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