DeVos criticized teachers at D.C. school she visited and they are not having it

[TomCADem]

Source: MSN/Washington Post

Newly minted Education Secretary Betsy DeVos had a hard time getting inside the District’s Jefferson Middle School Academy last week when protesters briefly blocked her from entering. But at the end of her visit — her first to a public school since taking office — she stood on Jefferson’s front steps and pronounced it “awesome.”

A few days later, she seemed less enamored. The teachers at Jefferson were sincere, genuine and dedicated, she said, they seemed to be in “receive mode.”

“They’re waiting to be told what they have to do, and that’s not going to bring success to an individual child,” DeVos told a columnist for the conservative online publication Townhall. “You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.”

DeVos, who has no professional experience in public education, is an avowed proponent of voucher schools, charter schools, online schools and other alternatives to traditional public schools. Teachers across the country have been galled by what they see as her lack of faith in — and understanding of — the public schools that educate nearly nine in 10 of the nation’s children.

Read more: http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/devos-criticized-teachers-at-dc-school-she-visited-%E2%80%94-and-they-are-not-having-it/ar-AAn5amh?li=BBnb7Kz

[WinkyDink]

1. Fox, Henhouse. Entire Trump Cabinet.

[cstanleytech]

2. Rather than dismantle the public schools and reduce their funding they need updating and more funds

to do things like setting up online study programs where the students can get help with things like homework from teachers and they need to pay the teachers more atleast a 20% increase in pay to compensate them for providing such work after school hours or give them a break on any student loans they owe on.
That certainly wont happen under DeVos but hopefully it will under whoever replaces her.

[Lotusflower70]

3. Can't say I blame them

Seriously, she just waltzes in like she knows it all without experience or qualifications. And she bought her job. So she has no right to tell them anything. She needs to listen. She needs to treat people with dignity and respect.

[50 Shades Of Blue]

4. FUCK. HER!!!!!!!!

[TomCADem]

5. USA Today - Teacher unions smarting after many members vote for Trump

Well, I am sure there is as segment of public teachers who are looking forward to getting schooled by Betsy Devos.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/11/23/election-unions-teachers-clinton-trump/94242722/

WASHINGTON — Two weeks after Republican Donald Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton in the Nov. 8 presidential election, the USA’s teachers unions are wondering what happened to their chosen candidate — and how so many of their members could have voted for her opponent.

Despite early and eager endorsements of Clinton by both unions, the nation’s school teachers and other school workers contributed substantially to Trump’s Nov. 8 win.

How substantially? About one in five American Federation of Teachers (AFT) members who cast a ballot voted for Trump, the union’s leader estimated. Among the larger National Education Association (NEA), which comprises more than 3 million members, more than one in three who voted did so for the billionaire developer, early data show.

AFT President Randi Weingarten, whose union represents about 1.6 million teachers and other workers, said some of the reason for Clinton's defeat was timing — and perhaps sexism.

[Sherman A1]

11. And the horse

She rode in on.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

6. False line for imposing dominionist curriculum. "They're waiting to be told what they have to do"

Nonsense.

It is a prelude to the imposition of christo-dominionist curricula on schools. DeVos will tell them what to do. Then if they don't, she'll cut off their federal funding.

One of several ways to strangle the public school system.

[YOHABLO]

16. Oh most definitely. No matter how covert they think they are, we're not fooled.

It's all part a parcel to their Dominionist goals of making this a Christian Nation under the Bible. Doe this woman even have a degree in education?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Nah. BA in bus. admin. & political sci. Born to a billionaire, married a billionaire.

DeVos was educated at the Holland Christian High School, a private school located in her home town of Holland, Michigan.[19] She graduated from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and political science, and was "involved with campus politics," according to Philanthropy magazine.[20]

DeVos grew up as a member of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.[21] She has been a member and elder of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids.[22][23] Former Fuller Seminary president Richard Mouw, with whom DeVos served on a committee, said she is influenced by neo-Calvinist theologian Abraham Kuyper, a founding figure in Christian Democracy political ideology.[2] -- Wikipedia

[DinahMoeHum]

7. Poor dearie. She's not liking the job she bought. . .

. . .serves her fucking well right.

Hope she gets run out of every school on a rail and makes her wish she stayed back home in Michigan counting the family $$$ from SCAmway.

[meadowlander]

8. You have to have teachers who are empowered to facilitate great teaching.

Yes, shame we've have 40 years of Republicans cramming core curriculum and standardized testing down our throats. Can't imagine that has anything to do with a generation of teachers that seem to be in "receive mode".

[TomCADem]

10. Trumps choice for education secretary vows to end Common Core

So, you support Trump and Betsy Devos's stand on common core?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2016/12/10/trumps-choice-for-education-secretary-vows-to-end-common-core/?utm_term=.6106947a5eaf

When Donald Trump was running for president, he said that should he win, he would “get rid” of the Common Core State Standards — as if the initiative had been mandated by the federal government. It actually was approved by state bodies, departments of education or legislatures. No president can simply order it gone.

Betsy DeVos, the Michigan billionaire whom the president-elect tapped to serve as education secretary, is now making the same pledge that Trump did. Appearing with Trump on Friday night at his “thank you to voters” rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., she said she will work to put “an end to the federal Common Core” and let states set their own standards. Apparently nobody told her that states already can.

* * *
The Core was strongly supported by the Obama administration, which offered federal funds to states that adopt the standards as part of the federal Race to the Top initiative, an effort that many say amounted to coercion. The Education Department also paid $360 million to create Common Core-aligned standardized tests.

But the fact remains that states did not have to accept federal money. Texas and Virginia were among those that refused.

[meadowlander]

12. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Common core is just another method of creating McTeachers, deprofessionalising educators and busting unions.

Teachers should have the discretion, with some assistance and supervision from more experienced teachers, to develop their own curriculum that best serves the needs of their own students. That is how you attract talented and passionate educators and retain them.

Obviously there would be some limits, particularly in public schools, which need to adhere to the separation of church and state.

[TomCADem]

13. Common Core bill sparks creationism debate in Ohio

I am not sure why there is so much opposition to uniform standards in certain subjects, so long as there is some flexibility built in with respect to implementation.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/08/23/common-core-bill-sparks-creationism-debate-in-ohio/14507351/

CINCINNATI — A bill to repeal the Common Core education standards in Ohio has ignited a new debate about an old issue: whether schools should be allowed to teach creationism.

The debate stems from a few sentences about science standards contained in the state House bill. The language is vague and, sponsors thought, fairly innocuous.

"The standards in science shall be based in core existing disciplines of biology, chemistry, and physics; incorporate grade-level mathematics and be referenced to the mathematics standards; focus on academic and scientific knowledge rather than scientific processes; and prohibit political or religious interpretation of scientific facts in favor of another."

Critics, however, say that language opens the door for school districts to teach creationism — sometimes called intelligent design — in science classes. The current science standards, adopted in July 2011, refer specifically to evolution.

[logosoco]

9. That is a pretty steep judgement coming from someone with her

educational background. And she has not even been on the job very long. How much time did she actually spend at this school? I would expect at least a months worth of solid visits before making any sort of statement.
I think this is a canned statement that she was going to say no matter what. Good for these teachers for speaking out.

[raccoon]

15. You got that right. Betsy Wetsy comes out with a judgemental snark after a brief visit.

I think this is a canned statement that she was going to say no matter what.

[not fooled]

14. Straight out of their playbook

No matter the aspect of the Federal government that they're targeting: criticize relentlessly, at the same time cutting funding and other resources, then say "see, government doesn't work". We see this but the 'Murican people need to get it, too.

[Honeycombe8]

17. This is infuriating. She doesn't know squat about schools & doesn't want to know.

She has her agenda.

[turbinetree]

19. Hey Devos, since no one else will say it, I will FU

I grew-up with public education, and moved around the world when I was with my parents in the Airforce. Did you know Devos, that most of the teachers that were on the military bases where public educated teachers, and they were and still are the best, they were supported by the taxpayers to give me and my fellow U.S. citizens the best education in the world, at the expense of the public paying taxes, to defend your ass sitting at home.

I learned about history of despots in Germany, while living in Germany, I learned about what the bomb did to the Japanese when I was there in the early 1950's. I also learned about what hate and what it can do when living out in South Dakota, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, while living in Rapid City, and I also learned through my teachers Math, English, Social Studies, History, Art, whats your experience in life?

Those public teachers empowered me to be the best, what did your "private teachers do......................it looks like they taught you to be condescending

[RealityChik]

20. The teachers waited for her to speak...

as a gesture of respect that she clearly doesn't deserve!

And how DO you respond to a pompous know-nothing rich prima donna who wants to shut your school down TOMORROW MORNING if she only could?

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. K&R