BREAKING: Senate confirms DeVos as Education secretary Vice President Pence breaks 50-50 tie

a reply to: Xcalibur254

They've been throwing money at inner city schools for decades already.

How is more (corruptible) money going to solve the problems ?

originally posted by: queenofswords

originally posted by: Pyle

originally posted by: Bluntone22
Public schools already sucks.
Can't see how she will change that for the better or worse.

Not all public schools are failing. We dont need school choice, we need to fix the schools we already have.

Too many crappy teachers that were themselves educated in a crappy system prevent that. It has become endemic.

I'm looking forward to the end results, but the transition and process will, I'm sure, be met with all kinds of obstruction tactics organized by people like this:www.abovetopsecret.com...

Good job failing to make a point.

What do we say to poor people that dont make enough to cover what the vouchers do not?

What do we say to families that cant drive children to school because the nearest private school is hours away?

School choice is nothing but funneling public money into private interests.

Betsy DeVos is not a political "outsider" like President Trump, but her credentials are impressive, as well as her potential to improve America's education system.

Full Bio: en.wikipedia.org...

What's funny is that my wife (school teacher) and all of her school teacher friends are adamantly against Ms. Devos, but they can't identify any significant achievements of Arnie Dunkin, President Obama's Secretary of Education.

Are the children/teens who've been in the Obama/Dunkin pipeline the past 7 years, smarter and better equipped to face the world, than those who preceded them? What is the measure used to gauge that?

a reply to: xuenchen

How is taking money away from inner city schools going to fix anything?

originally posted by: carewemust
Are the children/teens who've been in the Obama/Dunkin pipeline the past 7 years, smarter and better equipped to face the world, than those who preceded them? What is the measure used to gauge that?

In all honesty, the intended measure used to gauge that is which political ethos they choose to follow upon turning 18. America's public schools are no longer about reading, writing, and arithmetic, they're all about indoctrinating the next generation of young minds into thinking the way the establishment wants them to think.Private and charter schools aren't beholden to that establishment and, thus, pose a tremendous threat to the goal... even more of a threat when programs like school choice and vouchers open their doors to even more young minds.

a reply to: burdman30ott6

I find it extremely ironic that you're railing against public schools pushing a political agenda, while endorsing a Education Secretary that publicly stated that she wants education reform to "Advance god's kingdom."

originally posted by: burdman30ott6

originally posted by: carewemust
Are the children/teens who've been in the Obama/Dunkin pipeline the past 7 years, smarter and better equipped to face the world, than those who preceded them? What is the measure used to gauge that?

In all honesty, the intended measure used to gauge that is which political ethos they choose to follow upon turning 18. America's public schools are no longer about reading, writing, and arithmetic, they're all about indoctrinating the next generation of young minds into thinking the way the establishment wants them to think.Private and charter schools aren't beholden to that establishment and, thus, pose a tremendous threat to the goal... even more of a threat when programs like school choice and vouchers open their doors to even more young minds.

BULL#, they are not indoctrination facilities. Public schools unlike private cant do things like you claim. Why do you think GOP are pushing so hard to get students in to private schools?

originally posted by: Pyle
Not all public schools are failing. We dont need school choice, we need to fix the schools we already have.

We always need choice.

"We don't need [insert any noun here] choice" is the rally cry of the lovers of big government and heavy-handed regulations/rules all around the world. Oppression is not a good thing.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: xuenchen

How is taking money away from inner city schools going to fix anything?

Maybe it will cause an outbreak of efficiency.

Something they have been lacking in.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: FamCore

I've asked why people think she's qualified. Nobody has actually been able to point to anything tangible. Instead people say that we should trust Trump to make a good pick or that we need an outsider in charge of education.

She has been working with education reform for years. The main reason why people think she isn't qualified is because she has been working outside the purviewof the public education system.

It's the same type of thinking that says that parents cannot teacht their own children (anti-homeschool) and that schools outside the public system are automatically going to be bad unless you are filthy rich.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: xuenchen

How is taking money away from inner city schools going to fix anything?

With that rhetorical questions posed, it's worth noting that dumping money into schools--no matter their location--yields minimal, if any, effective results, either.

And that comment is focused on the standing and performance of our students and education system as a whole in relation to the rest of the world.

Think of the children.

originally posted by: SlapMonkey

originally posted by: Pyle
Not all public schools are failing. We dont need school choice, we need to fix the schools we already have.

We always need choice.

"We don't need [insert any noun here] choice" is the rally cry of the lovers of big government and heavy-handed regulations/rules all around the world. Oppression is not a good thing.

Then why is the GOP rallying cray "we dont need [insert any number of things EPA/DOE/Public Land]"?

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will be sworn in tonight.

Instead of opposition that continues to protest her appointment, why don't those that really care about our educational system, now try to find ways to work with her. That doesn't mean you have to agree with every single detail, but why the constant tantrums about her as an individual. Those tantrums are going to do nothing now.

She is in! Accept it whether you like it or not, and get with the program to improve America's educational system. She has enormous capability and visionary ideas, and real leadership qualities; and you opposers would be better served by civil discussion and participation.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

School choice doesn't work when you don't have a choice. All this talk about helping disadvantaged kids go to better schools ignores the fact that most disadvantaged kids just attend the closest school to where they live, and they live wherever their parents can find work. I've yet to hear any ideas on education reform that won't result in rich people getting a discount on their private school with money that could have gone to help schools in actual disadvantaged areas.

Also unknown, are these vouchers going to cover the entire cost of tuition? private schools cost, on average, about $8,000 to $15,000 a year (those are averages, some charter and private schools cost $50,000 a year) if the voucher only covers... say, 75% of the tuition and the rest needs to be covered by parents living paycheck-to-paycheck, they're going to have no choice than to attend whatever crappy defunded school is easiest on their work schedule.

a reply to: Pyle

You do understand that there are many schools that charge less in tuition and fees than most states spend per pupil for the public schools ... Right?

One example, the local inner city districts get between $10 and $15K per student to pretend to educate the inner city kids here. We have our son in a very fine private school that does a really solid job educating kids for no more in tuition than $9000/year for high school.

That is cheaper than what the failing inner city schools get for grade school to NOT educate those kids.

And this is hardly an isolated example.

Uber exclusive Sidwell Friends where all the DC pols send their kids is only about a few thousand more per year for tuition than what the DC public system gets per child, and DC public schools are a disaster. You cannot tell me there is only a few thousand difference between what Sidwell provides to the nation's political elite and what the average ghetto kid in that town receives in quality.

a reply to: queenofswords

I find it funny that whenever one of Trump's boneheaded decisions actually gets approved his supporters are all for cooperation. Anything that happens now is on your head. We tried to warn you that DeVos was unqualified and sent Michigan's education system into the #ter. Instead you guys decided to be blinded by the Cult of Trump. This is going to be your mess and it's up to you to fix it.

a reply to: Slanter

Sure, some parents won't care, but then, those are the kids who likely wouldn't take advantage of the opportunity anyhow because their home life isn't setting them up to.

Are you saying we are under some obligation to make a kid care where his own parents won't? A school cannot do that.

But what most press reports leave out is that the charter schools are so popular that they have huge waiting lists in many places where they get established because there are quite a few parents in the inner city who do care very, very much. And I see no reason why those kids should be sacrificed because some parents don't care.

She cannot dumb down America any further than Obama's people did.

Common Core = make all students learn at the level of the lowest IQ students.

The give everyone a trophy era is over.

originally posted by: Xcalibur254
a reply to: queenofswords

I find it funny that whenever one of Trump's boneheaded decisions actually gets approved his supporters are all for cooperation. Anything that happens now is on your head. We tried to warn you that DeVos was unqualified and sent Michigan's education system into the #ter. Instead you guys decided to be blinded by the Cult of Trump. This is going to be your mess and it's up to you to fix it.

And maybe if the teacher's unions cared more about educating and less about consolidating their own power and making money, we wouldn't be where they are, but their own head let it slip himself.

He is on record as saying that when kids matter politically then he'll care about them.