No-way: Betsy DeVos faces a tough crowd
by Tom Sullivan
Newsweek sums up why Democrats are acutely suspicious of Betsy DeVos, daughter-in-law of billionaire Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway, and Donald Trump's nominee for education secretary:
Liberals have been acutely suspicious of DeVos. They view her and her husband, Amway heir Dick DeVos, as right-wing activists masquerading as education reformers and philanthropists. Indeed, members of the DeVos family have donated to conservative causes, including anti-LGBTQ initiatives, and have profited in investments in educational companies. She has also been portrayed as both a profiteer and religious zealot, with Lily Eskelsen García of the National Education Association, for example, calling her “dangerously unqualified.” That sentiment has been echoed by many of the nation’s largest teachers unions.At her confirmation hearing yesterday before the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, DeVos faced biting questions from Democrats about her qualifications. Crooks and Liars has a clip of Sen. Al Franken's questioning. "Stewart Smalley" was noticeably absent:
At one point, her answers showed she did not understand the difference between proficiency and growth when evaluating student's performance on standardized tests.Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts made it plain that DeVos had no personal experience with managing anything like a "trillion-dollar student loan bank." Nor had she nor any of her children ever applied for a federal student loan. DeVos would not commit to enforcing against private educational institutions rules in place for protect against waste, fraud and abuse.
Growth is the measure of how much a student learns year-to-year compared to his or her peers. Proficiency is the attainment of specific objective benchmarks, usually determined via standardized testing. There's a huge difference between the two, and the debate is one that heavily influences public education policy.
Franken let DeVos know he wasn't impressed, chiding, "It surprises me that you don't know this issue."
Warren later remarked:
“Tonight at her confirmation hearing, I asked Betsy DeVos a straight forward set of questions about her education experience and commitment to protecting students cheated by for-profit colleges,” Warren said in a message posted to her Facebook page. “If Betsy DeVos can’t commit to using the Department of Education’s many tools and resources to protect students from fraud, I don’t see how she can be the Secretary of Education.”Freshman Sen. Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire asked how DeVos would protect students with disabilities (like Hassan's) from being denied an adequate education as required by law if they attend a voucher school. Earlier, Sen. Tim Kaine asked whether all schools receiving taxpayer funding should have to meet have to meet the requirements of special education law. DeVos answered, " “I think that is a matter better left to the states.” So Hassan came back to that with regard to private and voucher schools. Would DeVos enforce the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) that protects children's rights?
“Were you unaware that it is federal law?” Hassan asked.
“I may have confused it,” DeVos said.
“I'm concerned that you seem so unfamiliar with it,” Hassan said, adding that some private school voucher programs supported by DeVos aren’t honoring students’ rights under IDEA.
DeVos said that if confirmed, she’ll be sensitive to the needs of students under the law.
“It is not about sensitivity,” Hassan said. “It is ensuring that every child has equal access to a high-quality education. The reality is the vouchers that you support do not always come out that way. That is why it is something we need to continue to explore.”
Dana Goldstein observed at Slate that while DeVos did a fair job of presenting herself as a moderate, "she revealed herself to be either underprepared for the job or stiffly wedded to an ideological, market-oriented vision of education policy."
Rachel Tabachnick's 2011 profile of DeVos'
“dominion theology” makes the ideology behind
“Biblical Capitalism” sound more like that of a cult.
Perhaps the weirdest exchange yesterday came in an exchange with Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut. Murphy asked, “Do you think guns have any place in or around schools?”
DeVos said that is decision “best left to locales and states to decide.”Lyins and tigers and bears.
When Murphy asked her again, DeVos said, “I will refer back to Senator Enzi and the school he was talking about in Wyoming … I would imagine that there is probably a gun in the schools to protect from potential grizzlies.”