#betsy devoss

[maggie-pk]

Let’s not forget while the Senate is trying to repeal Healthcare that the absolute gem of a human being Betsy Devoss is speaking with men’s rights groups about repealing title 9 protection for things like sexual harassment.

Never forget that every facet of this administration is at fault, not a single one of them is here to protect the American people, they just want to destroy every brick of the Obama Administration

(As reported by The NY Times)

[zealotic]

Jeff Sessions Just Removed Transgender Students' Rights

I’m on Mobile right now so sorry for the complete mess but news just broke that trump and his attorney general Jeff sessions just was allowed to RESCIND THE RIGHTS OF TRANSGENDER STUDENTS. Supposedly Betsy Devoss was opposed to it at first but “sessions presses her to (sign it) because he could not go forward without her consent. The order must come from the justice and education departments”. I’m hearing this on the news but here’s an article: https://www.google.com/amp/s/mobile.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/us/politics/devos-sessions-transgender-students-rights.amp.html?client=safari . This is extremely sad and stupid and I’m beyond livid I’m so enraged. We cannot let this slide.

[flyingpurplepizzaeater]

If you cannot do phones and would like me to call your Senator and ask them to oppose the appointment of Betsy DeVos, please send me your full name and zip code. 

If you live in Tennessee, Georgia, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Wyoming, Indiana, Alaska, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maine, or Utah, you have a Republican senator who is on the Senate HELP committee, so it's especially important. We want to call anyone who is on the Senate HELP committee. There is a list of the bottom of this page, and I can help you figure out if you have a Senator on the committee if it is confusing. 

Script you can use from here (take out the line about party lines if talking to a Democrat): 

“My name is ___ and I am a resident of ____. I am calling to ask you to oppose Betsy DeVos for Secretary of Education. After her hearing it is clear our children's futures should not be left up to a top campaign contributor who has no experience in education, a complete lack of understanding of how public education or funding works, or would make teaching children with disabilities optional. This is not a moment to vote along party lines - ensure your legacy shows you stood up to party politics when children's futures were on the line. The children of your state deserve better - vote no on Betsy DeVos. I will be watching the vote and will remember this in the next election.”

[daveparts]

Ring Around the Rosie

Ring Around the Rosie

15th-century image by Jacopo Oddi from the La Franceschina codex depicting Franciscan monks treating victims of the plague in Italy — is about lep

By David Glenn Cox

There can be no other conclusion but that a Dark Age is upon us. The name Donald Trump defines that. The worlds always had stupid people we’ve just haven’t put them in charge recently. And it isn’t that they are just stupid,…

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[cnnnewsnetwork-blog]

Trump: Not Enough 'Political Support' To Raise Age For Gun Buys

Trump: Not Enough ‘Political Support’ To Raise Age For Gun Buys

CNN: President Trump on Monday suggested he still supports raising the minimum age for purchasing a gun despite the idea being left out of a White House proposal released over the weekend.

In two morning tweets, the president reiterated his support for strengthening background checks, arming school officials and banning bump stocks.

The president also said he supports raising the age for…

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[libertynewsnow-blog]

Trump's "Quiet Revolution"

Trump’s “Quiet Revolution”

Depending who you ask about the success or failure of President Donald Trump’s first year in office, you are likely to either get an earful about all the offensive things he has said as president, or hear about all the “winning,” delivered as promised. The reason for the dichotomy in responses certainly is related to one’s partisan beliefs; but, perhaps more important is whether the observer is…

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[guardingthewest-blog]

[dear-ilenas-friends-blog]

Alright Alright Alright

Let’s unpack some shit today, shall we? Once again, a reminder that I do not care about your feelings. 

Today we chat about Betsy DeVos. Oh yes, the idiot who was recently confirmed as our country’s Secretary of Education. You might be thinking to yourself, “What does the Secretary of Education do?” In layman’s terms, the S.of E. oversees the US Department of Education and also deals with education policies including discrimination in schools, loans for college (and their interest rates), Common core curriculum, testing, you kinda get the picture. Usually, the people put in charge of the Department of Education are...well...familiar with Education. 

Lauro Cavazos, who was the Secretary of Education under both Reagan and H.W. Bush, received his PhD in physiology before going on to being a professor at Tufts University and the Medical College of Virginia. He served as Dean of the Tufts University School of Medicine and as the President of Texas Tech University. Yeah. Experience in education. 

Moving on to the S. of E. under GW Bush, Rod Paige. HUGE SHOCKER! BIG NEWS! He was the first African American to become the Secretary of Education! He went from classroom teacher to school superintendent to college dean, all in Mississippi. He also served on the Board of Education for the Houston Independent School District, and led the district on to be the only one in the country that has ever earned accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies (read: it was super safe). Oh and while he was working at the White House, he proposed several amendments for Title IX, or, you know, the thing that lets you ladies play the same sports as men. No big deal or anything. So yeah, education. 

Margaret Spellings was GW Bush’s second Secretary of Education (two terms, to peeps). A lady! Astounding. Here we go. She worked on the Texas education reform commission and was the associate executive director for the Texas Association of School Boards. She oversaw the No Child Left Behind program (best name ever), and she created the Commission on the Future of Higher Education, which aimed to reform post-secondary (college) education. She wanted more technical and vocational training. The commission also focused on how well high schools were preparing teenagers for college. Once again, education. 

Obama’s first Secretary of Education was Arne Duncan, a product of Harvard University. He was the director of the Ariel Education Initiative, which was a program aimed at mentoring children in Chicago. He also began a charter school and later was named Deputy Chief of Staff for the Chicago Public School’s CEO. As Secretary of Education, he opposed the No Child Left Behind law and also he kinda sucked at his job. Like no joke, he had all the skill and none of the...implementation or ideas. But still, he had a background in education. 

The most recent Secretary of Education (before I talk about Ms. DeVos) was John King Jr. and Oh. My. God. was he cool. He originally taught Social Studies in Boston, and he was the co-director of Roxbury Preparatory Charter School. This school, under his watchful eye, attained the highest state exam scores of any urban middle school in Massachusetts, closed the racial achievement gap, and outperformed students from both middle- and upper-class schools and suburbs. Suck it. He has just about every teacher degree you can have from Yale and Columbia, and (no big deal) is also a Truman Scholar. He was the New York Commissioner for Education before being selected by Barry O as Secretary of State. He helped teachers get more funds utilizing Title II, which also trained them to lead. He worked to get more support for teachers of color. Basically he was an all-around awesome bro, and yeah, has a shit ton of educational expertise. 

And so, here we are. Three weeks into (gag) President Trump’s first term, and he has a new Secretary of Education. Betsey DeVos (Last name pronounced de-Voss - like the obnoxious water that costs you $5 in a CVS but the white people buy it anyway to look cool) ANYWAY, DeVos is a billionaire. Let’s start with that. She served as chair of the Michigan Republican Party from 1992-1997. She and her family have personally given more that $17 million to political candidates (that should ring a bell- it’s sort of bribery - but we’re getting there). She is the chairwoman of the Windquest Group, which privately invests in technology, manufacturing, and clean energy (that’s cool, I’ll give her that). She and her husband are also chief investors in and board members of Neurocore, which offers biofeedback therapy for mental disorders.Now all of this is fine and dandy. Makes Betsy sound wonderful - and maybe she is! But here’s the thing. She is currently our Secretary of Education, and we need to chat about that. 

 There are many issues facing our public school system. Common core, standardized testing, proficiency vs. growth, school shootings, discrimination based on sexual orientation/skin color/literally anything, bathroom rights, you know. Just the usual. So obviously the person who is going to tackle these problems needs to be experienced. 

Unfortunately for Ms. DeVos, she is not. During her confirmation hearing, she (amazingly) said schools need guns for grizzly bear attacks, revealed she had never attended (and her children hadn’t either) any sort of public school, told the senate that she had never had to take out a loan, and also appeared to want to take money away from public schools and give it to charter schools. Okay, what else? Oh, she wants states to decide what is discrimination towards their students (so that bathroom thing that Obama put out? Yeah she was not a fan of treating people decently) This is the woman who would be overseeing the student loan interest rates yet she has no financial background or...loan background...or any background really. Betsy DeVos has lived comfortably because of her money, and she is about to deal with the real world. 

And just to add insult to injury, today (February 10, 2017), she was physically barred from entering a public school by protesters. In the video you can clearly see how absolutely terrified she looks. Reality is setting in. 

So to wrap it up. Secretary of Education needs experience. We have had experienced peeps up until now, where our cheeto-in-chief has nominated and sworn in billionaire lady DeVos. 

Yep. We’re screwed.