This week my political interest has been focused on Betsy DeVos, the nominee for Secretary of Education. I have to say that she appears to me to be the least qualified candidate to date of all of the nominees. I am attaching several links to Washington Post articles about her nomination.
Her answers to questions about various issues showed how profoundly unqualified she is. Her worst answer seemed to me to be about a question regarding her views on guns in schools. She said something to the effect that she imagined that guns were needed in schools in Wyoming to protect against grizzly bears. WTF?
She has no personal experience with public schools. Never attended one, never sent her kids. No experience with financial aid. She has no experience running anything remotely like the massive Department of Education. She seems to be a proponent of vouchers but refused to say if she agreed that any school that took federal funds should have to play by the same rules as public schools. WTF? I for one believe that if we're going down the voucher road then all the players need to have the same playbook. How can we say that certain schools get federal money but they don't have to offer the same services or conform to the same federal regulations? She couldn't answer Elizabeth Warren about how she would prevent fraud and abuse. She seemed to be unable to answer questions regarding standardized testing issues. Many answers were vague and offered no specifics.
If you have any interest in education please take the time to read up on this nominee. Just because she has an interest in helping kids and has donated lots of money to the GOP does not mean that she is the best qualified person to run this vital department. Education of future generations of citizens is a vital interest for all of us.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2017/01/18/betsy-devos-said-theres-probably-a-gun-at-a-wyoming-school-to-ward-off-grizzlies-there-isnt/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.23f8a2f4e80f
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/senators-to-scrutinize-betsy-devos-trumps-pick-for-education-secretary/2017/01/17/3a0e6168-da8f-11e6-9a36-1d296534b31e_story.html?utm_term=.c2d541e3933f
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2017/01/18/what-we-learned-about-betsy-devoss-higher-education-positions-not-much/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.88f493b92a68
I saw just a few minutes of her questioning. Arizona is fighting both the Voucher issue and the Charter School issue. I need to become more informed. Our governor's sons attend Brophy Prep--a highly respected Jesuit school. Those who govern or oversee need to live in the world they are administering. Ms. DeVos does not.
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